Hong Kong Arts Centre and Contemporary Musiking (CM) jointly present “Sonic Anchor” as a new performance series for artistic sound and music experimentation, bringing curious audience and adventurous artists together to discover an exciting realm of aural experience. The series will be kicked off by an exciting mixed media performance by US-based artists.
Sonic Anchor #1
“Sonic Anchor #1” presents sound art group Evidence and video artist Jonathan Lee Marcus. Evidence is made up of sound artists Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood, with activities ranging from studio compositions and live improvisations to sound installations, street performances, and numerous collaborations with other musicians, choreographers, and video artists. This time they will present Losperus, a performance of unstable sound sculptures, fashioned improvisationally from discarded household items, to be accompanied by multimedia performance and installation artist Jonathan Lee Marcus’s live visuals. Jonathan Lee Marcus has taught computer programming for audio/video performance and interactive installation at Parsons School of Design and Massachusetts College of Art and Design for several years. His work has been performed and exhibited at a variety of places in the United States, Canada, and France.
Sonic Anchor Series
“Sonic Anchor” is an experimental music and sound art concert series, which advocates, encourages, and cultivates experiments in sound and music. Taking full advantage of the intimate setting of Hong Kong Arts Centre’s McAulay Studio, “Sonic Anchor” brings curious audience and adventurous artists together, to enter into a conversation of mutual discovery and respect. As a regular monthly or bi-monthly event, “Sonic Anchor” provides a platform and a home base for the wider sound-making community in Hong Kong; gathering under one roof academically-trained composers and musicians, musicians of the popular culture and subcultures, sound artists, conceptual artists, and other folks working with sound.
With the visions for a new paradigm in concert presentation, “Sonic Anchor” distinguishes itself from other concert presentation models in the city in a number of important ways:
1. A Safe Haven for Experiments and Investigations
“Sonic Anchor” is, first and foremost, a playground for musical and sonic experiments. We encourage artists to challenge themselves, to venture out of their comfort zone, and to try new working methods. We facilitate artists’ investigations by shielding artists from the pressure of box office and audience turnout. We bear all costs of presentation and publicity of “Sonic Anchor” events. All box office proceeds go back to the artists. We measure the success of an event by its artistic impact, not by the number of audience attended.
2. A Forum for Meaningful Artist-Audience Dialogue
The presentation formats of “Sonic Anchor” concerts are carefully designed to activate conversations and meaningful exchanges between artists and the audience, and to create opportunities for artists to reflect upon their own practices. Each “Sonic Anchor” concert is followed by up to thirty minutes of curator-moderated dialogue. To extend this dialogue outside of the theatre, a concert review will be published on Artslink and on CM’s website.
3. A New Model for Community Participation
Both the Hong Kong Arts Centre and CM would like to create a new model for the art making community to directly support artists. The basic pricing point for “Sonic Anchor” concerts is deliberately low: $50 gets you into our events. We don't think of this as an “entrance fee”, but rather, a subsidy that goes entirely to the artist – we make absolutely no profit out of your monetary contribution. At the end of each event, we will provide opportunities for you to contribute more if you feel so inclined, or, if you were impressed by the artists and therefore willing to show more support. Again, all funds are directly credited to the artists, after deducting all necessary expenses that incurred from the proceeds. In this sense, we are not facilitating a commercial transaction, but rather, an exchange of mutual appreciation and respect between the artists and the community.
