Sound Artists & Video Artists Unite

While researching what unretirees and postgrads do in my new abode, St. Petersburg Florida, where flip flops are uniform and shirtless bronze beer bellied men are WAY too common, I stumbled on a couple of out of the ordinary organizations that made me feel RIGHT at home. The first is EMIT Series a St. Pete non profit arts organization that supports "adventurous music" and brings musicians to collaborate in the Tampa bay area. The second is Miami's Subtropic New Media Festival Biennial (that I just missed). Although I really appreciate the concept of EMIT Series and what they are doing, most of the sound hosted on their website is New Age Jazz. What really blew me away (also hosted on EMIT's website) was "Cars & Fish" a collaboration between video artist Charles Recher and Gustavo Matamoros, artistic director of Subtropic Festival, including EMIT musicians performed at Art Basel. Gustavo Matamoros is a sound artist that teaches Fluxus sensibilities and responsible for the Subtropic festival that began over 20yrs ago in Miami, FL. The clip below is interesting on many levels from how live sound combined with large scale projection can reanimate both artforms to witnessing public interaction with the work when its hosted outside. In addition this clip is an excellent example of how to document live performances. Gosh this should happen more and everywhere. Anyone...everyone?! Well thanks Mr. Recher and Mr. Matamoros.