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This year Venn continues to expand and explore its work with artists, writers, practitioners and educationalists. Throughout the festival there will be artistic interventions, walkabout, classes, guides, workshops as well as gallery-based exhibits and the arrival of the N.I.P. Crew. Some of these are free to non-ticket holders.
The Rockest Link (Music Quiz and discussion)
Sunday 8th: Lunchtime aboard the Thekla / 1pm – 3pm / Free Entry
A very special and very Venn Music Quiz. Enter a team, play on your own, have Sunday lunch while doing so. The questions are set by a team of leading music writers, and an informal discussion afterwards could tackle all kinds of subject from Tom Waits to blogs through to 'What is a 'Steely Dan''?
The Rockest Link will be followed by a lively Q & A. In the chair: Richard King (Domino/Blank Tapes)
On the panel & setting the questions:
Barney Hoskyns – Co-founder and editor of online library Rock's Backpages, writer for NME and MOJO et al, and author of countless tomes including a forthcoming Tom Waits biography.
Frances May Morgan – newly installed publisher of Plan B magazine after
three
years as editor. Also contributes to Terrorizer, eMusic and The New Statesman
as well as playing in about four bands (at last count).
Dorian Lynskey – writes about music and film for the Guardian, Q, Empire, The Word, Blender and Spin. Author of The Guardian Book of Playlists and working on a book about music and politics.
Dirty Electronics Workshop
Saturday 7th: 2pm / Arnolfini Light Studio / Free to ticket holders / Live Performance on Sunday 8th
A workshop led by John Richards, who brings his dirty electronics aesthetic to Venn in the form of the Sudophone: a DIY electronic instrument made from a junk tin can, oscillator and grip bolt. Come join the ensemble. A unique opportunity to make your own instrument on Saturday, then return the following day for a public performance at Arnolfini.
Limited places available. Free to ticket holders.
Contact jrich@dmu.ac.uk to sign up. Bring an empty tin can and a 9V battery along to the workshop.
DRAWING EXCHANGE AT VENN
Saturday 7th: 3pm - 6pm / Meet at 3pm / Thekla Top Deck / Free to Venn Ticket holders
This is a social drawing event that will do a slow tour of the festival.
Kayle Brandon and Lady Lucy will set drawing exercises and make drawings about
music, sound, happenings, dancing, people, etc at the fesitval. Bring your
drawing kit, enthusiasts of any ability welcome. Drawing auction to occur
afterwards.
www.irational.org/drawing_exchange
Ergo Phizmiz 'Forest: Part One'
Friday 6th: 3pm - 9pm / Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th: 12pm - 9pm / Scout Hut / Free Entry
Open for three days and it is open to all. A grand, strange and rather amazing
bespoke installation by sound art's ingenious crown-freak. Ergo conjures an
enchanted Bavarian woodland made of twigs, cutlery, mechanical birds and constant,
ever-evolving sound – and puts it in a room for Venn to enjoy. A three-day
sonic fairytale installation at the Scout Hut.
www.ergophizmiz.com
Directed by Werner Herzog, with Klaus Kinski, 1982
Sunday 8th: 7.30pm / Arnolfini Auditorium
In keeping with the themes running through this 2008 Venn edition we have
selected this unbelievable adventure film as it captures a sense of what music,
passion and a sense of 'the mad' can drive you to do. It is about the many
and the few. Set in the early 20th Century, it is the story of an Irishman
in Peru whose dream of building an opera house in the Amazon leads him to
drag a steamship over a mountain with the help of a native American tribe.
A remarkable cinematic experience in every sense, with music by Popul Vuh.
N.I.P. is a distributed, mixed media research touring and network project,
involving artists from across the UK, The Netherlands and Portugal. Look out
for the N.I.P. throughout Venn 08 showing sound and visual-based pieces inspired
by movement, kinetics, environment and play.
http://newinterfaces.net
Explore Bristol, listen to the city in new ways and hear your body vibrate!
Tom Bugs's Solar Weevils
8pm - 9.30pm / Outside Arnolfini
Solar Weevils swarm among the trees outside Arnolfini and spend their days storing solar energy. As night falls, the Weevils awake to give an electronic dusk-chorus - using the power stored through the day, their sounds mutate through squeak'n'chirrup as the energy drains before they fall back asleep. Solar Weevils is presented as part of the N.I.P. programme at Venn
Duncan Speakman: 'Vicinity songs' SOUNDWALK
Saturday 7th: 2pm / meet at Venn reception desk, or see instructions online
Bristol based artist Duncan Speakman presents his latest project, an MP3
soundwalk for a crowd. Somewhere between a silent-disco and a flash-mob, but
formed from delicate layers of music and lost phonecalls; 'vicinity songs'
fills the streets with an invisible cinema of subtle vignettes and mass actions.
For instructions and MP3 visit http://duncanspeakman.net/vicinitysongs
Elbow
Orchestra
Saturday 7th: 1pm - 6pm
Cutting through the digital diaspora to viscerally engage people with vibration,the Orchestra comprises of four musicians with eight tuning forks. Slipping and weaving their way through Venn, the orchestra invites people to cover their ears and listen to the turning folk vibrations.
