BEAMS/HHambiARTnight

The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society has announced it will match some of the city’s most eclectic visual artists with a variety of audio practitioners for an evening to be dubbed ambiARTnight. This event, co-presented with the Harcourt House Artist Run Centre takes place Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Harcourt Annex (10211-112 Street). Admission to the all-ages show is $10.

Works ranging from watercolours and acrylics to mixed media and photography will be projected in crossfade zoom animation, while musicians and audio artists will interpret the images through improvisation. Pairing of visual and audio artists is as follows:

• Mixed media artist Glenys Switzer, whose exhibition credits include the Harcourt Annex, Edmonton City Hall and the McMullen Gallery, will have her work interpreted by guitarist Bill Damur, whose performance background runs the gamut from the ESO to Moebius Flip.  
•  Communications Guru and acrylics painter Marliss Weber, recently having works put on permanent display at Studio J Urban Spa and the Derrick Club, will have her collection undergo an alternative electronic treatment by electronic artist Bong Sample.
• Photographer, journalist and social activist Paula E. Kirman’s photos will receive a unique sonic treatment by agaperaygunexperiment and Aphotic Numen bassist Shannon Land. 
• Emerging watercolours artist Stephen Sereda’s works will be accompanied by Gene Kosowan on an undisclosed processor.

Registered as a not-for-profit organization under the Alberta Societies Act and founded in 1989, the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society has been dedicated to the production and promotion of sound-oriented experimentation. BEAMS uses the broadest and most inclusive definition of electroacoustic music, welcoming creativity in any medium. Members perform several concerts a year in addition to occasional recordings, festivals and workshops.

Soundtracking with a handful of BEAMers!

Sound artists Trio Latitude (Gary James Joynes, Shawn Pinchbeck, Scott Smallwood) are slated to provide a unique electroacoustic treatment of a 1963 Czech science-fiction classic in this special, all-ages, one-night event. Admission is $10 at the door.

To allow for this presentation, the movie, shown in black and whi...te and clocking in at an hour and 22 minutes, will be shown in a silent format with English subtitles.

Ikarie XB-1 is a 1963 Czechoslovak science fiction film that was edited and dubbed into English for release in the USA, where it is known by its alternate title, Voyage to the End of the Universe.

While it shows some influence from earlier American ventures such as Forbidden Planet, the film was also influential in its own right—critics have noted a number of similarities between Ikarie XB-1 and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and it is believed to have been one of many films Kubrick screened while researching 2001.

As well, its concept of a mobile community in space paralleled TV producer Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a “wagon train to the stars,” which sowed the seeds for the landmark TV series Star Trek in 1966.