Our work Yokomono-pro is presented at Forte Piano in the Auditorium in Rome from  02/05 2012 to 10/07/2012

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Artisti invitati Prima Parte
Vito Acconci, Nanni Balestrini, Massimo Bartolini, Riccardo Benassi, Roberto Benigni, John Cage-Nam June Paik, canecapovolto, Gino De Dominicis, Maria Thereza Alves-Jimmie Durham, Jan Fabre, Emilio Fantin, William Furlong, Al Hansen-Jerry Mulligan, Douglas Henderson, Jacob Kirkegaard, Marc Kostabi-Ornette Coleman, La Monte Young, Donatella Landi, HH Lim, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Walter Marchetti, Martux_m, Marzia Migliora, Liliana Moro, Maurizio Nannucci, Alva Noto, Luca Patella, Steve Piccolo, Cesare Pietroiusti, Albert Pinya, Vettor Pisani, Roberto Pugliese, Steve Roden, Michael Schumacher, Peter Schuyff, Donatella Spaziani, Staalplaat Soundsystem, Alberto Tadiello, Cesare Viel, Martin Daske

Le opere di 80 artisti internazionali – forme sonore musicali, verbali, rumoreggianti, – disseminate in tutti gli spazi – interni ed esterni, pubblici e segreti, umili e nobili – del Parco della Musica

La mostra presenta l’originale ricerca di artisti internazionali di diverse generazioni che hanno lavorato e lavorano sulla smaterializzazione dell’opera, approdando a inedite forme di sonoro. La mostra si svolgerà in due tempi e le opere saranno disseminate negli spazi interni ed esterni dell’Auditorium: foyer, corridoi, bar, ristoranti, sale da concerto, sale di registrazione, toilette, scale, spazi di passaggio, biglietteria. In tal modo la fruizione della mostra avverrà attraverso la ricerca sonora dell’opera invisibile che a sua volta intercetterà l’attenzione anche imprevista dello spettatore. Da John Cage e dalle Neo-avanguardie fino a un panorama sugli artisti d’oggi, le opere sonore introducono un’attesa e una sospensione delle difese che colgono lo spettatore di sorpresa, circondandolo da ogni parte e aggirando così l’invalicabile frontalità delle cose. Attraverso la vaporizzazione di ogni forma visiva gli artisti coinvolti capovolgono l’affermazione di Paul Klee “L’arte rende visibile l’invisibile”. Il risultato di tale operazione sviluppa un nuovo tipo di contemplazione aperta ad esperienze polisensoriali e integrazione nell’architettura dei luoghi. Il catalogo- dvd, edito da Pier Francesco Aiello per la P.F.A. Film, è frutto di una soggettiva del critico curatore in esplorazione in tutti i possibili spazi dell’Auditorium, interni ed esterni. In tal modo diventa anche una descrizione visiva di tutti i luoghi architettonici dell’Auditorium progettato da Renzo Piano

It seems were mentioned in La Repubblica.

Yokomono-Pro is a car horn concert performed by vehicles moving through a city. Each city and each type of vehicle has its own tone and each combination results in a different concert. The project was developed and written as a commission by the International Sonic Residency 2008 for The KHOJ Artists’ Association in New Delhi and was presented one year later at the India Art Summit. In New Delhi we focused on the traffic and the amazing amount of noise it produces. One of the most prominent noisemakers is the three-wheel taxi, which uses its horn very frequently in situations where we would use our indicators, headlights or mirrors. Taxis are the most recognisable means of transport here, playing a dominant role in the city’s soundscape. We arranged for the collaboration of thirty so-called ‘tuck tuck’ taxis and operated their horns via remote by means of transmitters. By playing this ‘taxi horn choir’ in combination with spatial manoeuvres an urban sound choreography was created. Yokomono-pro has also been performed at the Transmediale in Berlin and at TodaysArt in The Hague.

More info at
timelab.org/residency/en/geert-jan-hobijn

Staalplaat Soundsystem : Architone-YokomonoPro-DenHaag, TA2010

Yokomono-Pro’ is an outdoor sound-performance-intervention using cars and traffic by Geert-Jan Hobijn / Staalplaat Soundsystem and sound artists Ilpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic) that engages with the connections between sound, transportation and the urban environment.
A choreographed sound performance with 24 Nissan Cube’s vehicles have their car horns remotely trigger as they drive along a programmed route.
Using the horns as a choir, we will have a combination of voice patterns and dynamic spatial movements creating sound choreography as if for a car ballet.
Staalplaat Soundsystem featuring compositions from Mika Vainio & Ilpo Väisänen (Pan Sonic). ‘ The Staalplaat Sound System is a sound art, installation and performance group; sound activists with a Dadaist motor who create installations from everyday electronic objects: from vacuum cleaners and washing machines to a fleet of trains.

Presented in Den Haag @ Today’s Art festival
Friday 24 and Saturday 25 september at the Spuiplein

one firts edit to listen

01. Track Yokomono-pro Den Haag

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weblink

YOKOMONO-PRO

New Compositions by: Ilpo Vaisanen, 
Mika Vainio
 and Staalplaat Soundsystem
Music program
First by: Ilpo Vaisanen
duration  15 minutes
Second by: Mika Vainio duration  14.50 minutes
Third by: staalplaat soundsystem
duration  9 minutes
Finale by: Mika Vanio
duration  1.30 minutes

‘Yokomono Pro’ at CTM.10
Staalplaat Soundsystem and sound artists Ilpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic) will precent  the outdoor sound-performance-action ‘Yokomono-Pro’.

For the performance we have the Berlin Mobile Carphonic orchestra, that consist of 30 volunteers, each with his/her own car, to be sound-drivers.

Yokomono-Pro features 3 groups of cars – 30 vehicles in total – playing synched sound-patterns and driving a carefully choreographed route around  the siegessäule for a period of approx. 30 minutes. Eachvehicle’s battery is hooked up to a specially designed car horn that is triggered by low-frequency transmitters linked to a central controlling unit. After dividing the vehicles/drivers three groups and assigning each a specific route, Staalplaat Soundsystem, Ilpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio are able to ‘play’ them like an instrument: the interaction of choreographed traffic and the horns’ sound patterns creates a composition tailored to the spatial dimensions of the action.
Downloade extra info document here!

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Berlin radio RBB on yokomono-pro !
during and after the show , with audience questions

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before the show, with interview

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A composition for 30 taxi’s in New Delhi.

“The sound experience witch I prefer to all others is the experience of silence
and this silence almost everywhere in the world now is traffic.
If you listen to Beethoven or Mozart you see its always the same but if you listen to traffic you see its always different“. John Cage

In 2008 Staalplaat Soundsystem was invited by the Indian “Khoj – International Artists Association” to come and work in New Delhi.  Our main interest in New Delhi was the incredible volume and size of traffic, and the sounds it produced. One prominent inhabitant of this mobile city is a small vehicle similar to the Tuktuk called the Auto. The Auto is a tiny 3 wheeled green and yellow taxi  (autorickshaws) that is only large enough for two passengers and a driver. The Auto inhabits the city by the thousands, at times swarming the street like insects. Their communication language is by car horn much, signaling with it, much the way we use car signal lights here in Europe. Applying the Architone practice we seek to intercept this phenomenon of car signaling and overlay it within a meaningful structure.
idea was to take 30 taxi’s  (autorickshaws) and remotely trigger their horns as they drive along a pre determined route. Using the taxis and their horns as a choir playing horn paterns in sync with each other mixing the intended sound of my composition with the non intended of the loud steeds of the Indian city..
The system to control the signal horns of the taxis are based on walkie-talkies used to communicate the signal over legal and open frequencies at a distance of up two kilometers.
Each taxi is equipped with a receiver that can translate the tone-signal into a switching signal. The receiver is self build to switch the signal that controls the horn of the car. In this way the car horns of the various Autos can be switched on and off independently or in groups.
In addition as we add this un accustomed layer of organized horn sounds to the cacophony of un organized ones, the sound of all the horns are called attention to- the listener liberated to hearing for the first time the true unexpected soundscape of the region. The International Sonic Art Residency period in New Delhi was not sufficient to solve the technical problems to realise this project, so we agreed with Khoj to build and develop the equipment and technology needed in Europe and return in 2009 to New Delhi at the India Art Summit, and so we did.

Realization
The system to control the signal horns of the taxis are based on simple off-the-shelf technology.  Reliable  German highend walkie-talkies are used to communicate the signal over legal and open frequencies at a distance of up two kilometers. Each taxi is equipped with a receiver that can translate the tone-signal into a switching signal. The switch signal controls the horn of the car. In this way the car horns of the various Autos can be switched on and off independently or in groups.

We will organize the cars/drivers in 3 groups of 10 each. A sound choreography will be developed for the topography of the location. The drivers need to drive routes and formations over the duration of the presentation. Their car horn is played by us via the central controlling unit. In this way we can control the flow of the different sound patterns and how the sound is divided (spread out or concentrated etc.) and mixed when the routes overlap, and cars approach/disappear.

Here’s the hd video documentation shot and edited by tj & raabiya (in India)

al photo’s are online at flickr

here is a simple nokia video

there is a sound bite up on our maypace (lookation see above)

The European Installations

We have realized that the equipment and technology developed for India project, (Transmitters, receivers and  car horn drivers) can be used for a parallel project in the European sphere once adapted to the local street tradition and urban structure. Several art institutions have responded enthusiastically to the idea of adapting this installation to their cities.  They include:
Berlin-CTM in January 2010
AV Festival 10 are 5-14 March
TodaysArt in September 2010. (the Todaysart festival will do the overall production)
Were talking with parties in Mexico, Poland and Egypt but the negotiation are still open.

1

A composition for 30 taxi’s in Berlin.

From our traffic culture and its sonic codes of reference, to the density and sound volume on the streets, and the history of urban planning, in Europe the city is a very different place. Here there are two main car processions; for a wedding or for a funeral, and Europe has a silent street language were using the horn is reserved for emergency situation (or expressing anger) but on the other side in Berlin it is used by the large Turkish minority to loudly celebrate a car marriage procession by touring a honking group of cars through the street.
For example in Berlin we have chosen the Sieges Saule with the Strasse des 17 juni as location, not only for its sound tradition (the location of the love parade) but more that it is quiet and empty even compared to other European capitals opening the possibility to work in a lager scale and much more detailed and delicate. So we want to combine our ancient musical funeral tradition of writing requiems with the modern car processions and create a sound choreograph for cars.