Santa Monica Feminism and electronic music

Too many things happened this day to follow all tracks on time, so more pictures later. We interviewed Genis Segarra (Austrohungaro), dj ux, dj +Nurse+, Terre Thaemlitz. We had a friendly discussion with Genis Segarra (Astrud), Alex Murray-Leslie (Chicks on Speed), Terre Thaemlitz, and different guests from the week, and an overcrowded party at Pigalle.
Remind that the audio archives are on radio paca

Intense day with interviews of Martha Millet (Las Dolores), Enric Palau (Sonar), and 3 online radios: Radio Paca of course, Radio 23cc -Riereta, Scanner Fm.
Finishing the day with Christiane Erharter and her archive Re-punk Electronic music, and Terre Thaemlitz in KBB for travel to his past records and new projects.

Back on line, on air, this morning with 2 very interesting interviews from 2 generations making computer music : Anna Bofill y La maquina de Turing
La Maquina de Turing working with free softwares and free licences, Anna Bofill very active in contemporary music, she worked with Nono and Xenakis.

We keep you posted with Sybil Vane, Las Fatales y Silvia Martinez

First day live on radio paca with Eva’s, Fernanda, y Marcella
First images of the first interview with Maria Rosa Ribas, pianista y compositora.
Go on the image gallery to have look on the pictures of Io Casino, Sonido Comadre y Laura Sales
We finish the day with Luis Cervero who is making video clips and ads, a lot of interesting video material.
Reports, archives and streaming on radio paca

A series of meetings, debates, interviews and a documentation room on the process of music production and its relationship with feminist practices

October 25-28, 2005 – Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona

Project by Laurence Rassel (www.constantvzw.com -Brussels) and Montse Romani (Barcelona)
Within the frame of AUDIO, a sound program curated by Oscar Abril Ascaso at the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona.

In collaboration with
Radio Paca – www.radiopaca.org
LadyfestSpain – www.ladyfestspain.org/
KBB Kültur Büro Barcelona –www.kbb.org.es
Muziclub Pigalle-LeSFATALes – www.lesfatales.com

As early as 1997, Terre Thaemlitz (transgender multimedia producer) questioned the subversive quality of electronic music and of transgender surgery, both of which use the latest technological tools as a means of representation and, consequently, often end up perverting them and reinforcing stereotypes. ( Couture Cosmetique) The same means, moreover, help to deconstruct the processes of creation and of representation and make it possible to explore their interstices, those of genre (whether of sex or music) (Interstices 2000). This deconstruction, and the consciousness or the occupation of these interstices, also allows the representation of tensions and contradictions which arise both from the desire and the resistance towards occupying the musical stage or gender, both defined up until now in subjugation to and perpetuation of dominant patriarchal socio-economic systems.

We accept that sexual/gendered bodies are historical sites of political, cultural, scientific and technological renegociation; the same applies to the electronic media, the musical stage. As Anna Friz (sound and pirate radio artist) wrote in 2004 (Heard but Unscene; women in electronic music), although one may be fed up with identity debates, the coming of new hardware and software does not erase questions of access, economics and representation. According to her, the very discourse on liberalization of the means of production and of creation, limits and stigmatises the discourse on representation and access to the stage.

If electronic music, and the raise of technology in general, could be thought up and used to call into question the structures at the time of the celebration of the rhizomes and other networked societies, the laptop gender, digital creation, alternative rock scene have become conventions unto themselves, the aesthetics of which are often normalised, enclosed by the very formats and aesthetics of the software or the performance itself. And yet technology allows transparency, transmission and highjacking of the code, of other forms of distribution, and of the relation to creation, to ownership, to the author, to the public …

Recently, various cultural spaces and music festivals in Barcelona and in Spain hosted debates and workshops on the meeting ground of digital, musical and feminist practices. In 2003, the Santa Monica Centre invited Christiane Erharter’s project “XX01/2003 Infotainment” on women’s representation and its place in the history of popular and punk music of the 20th century.

Today the Santa Monica Centre, continuing to feature a range of stories and experiences, has invited Constant, an art and media association run by artists active in gender issues, networks, open source, recycled technology, working conditions, etc, and which develops projects in different spaces such as the field of code and standards/norms of the digital medium, to make a presentation. The project QUÉ C*** ? will explore various strategies of production, of creation, of curating, of performances, of representation, by organising public, open and streamed interviews, debates, meetings, an information room and a party, on the following questions, among others:
-What is it about the theoretical undercurrents and the networking mechanisms in the music scene(s) that impede women artists from being seen and heard? Is this question still relevant?
-Has the alternative scene become a standard as a result of the formats of dominant technologies and the reproduction of stereotypes? Or does it remain a place of possible détournement / displacement, and a place of experimentation in technologies or gender stereotypes ?
-What are the economic strategies and practices built by indepent groups, labels, press to assure a visibility and practice to feminist or at least gender minded musical scene?
-How to produce a feminist song wihtout killing the ratings?
– Is there a connection to feminist history as a critique of the systems of representation, economy and access to technology of production and distribution?

25 – 28 Octubre de 2005
Centro de Arte Santa Mónica, Barcelona (CASM)
La Rambla, 7
08002 Barcelona

Every day from 11h. Auditorium. Free Entrance
Documentation room
From 12h to 14h and from17h to 19h.
Interviews with actors of the music scene (local and international)
Limited places, please register:
info_santamonica.cultura@gencat.net before October 20
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 19h. Auditorium. Free Entrance
(re)lectures on the economy, representation and music history from a feminist perspective.
25 Luis Cerveró
26 Maria Ruido
27 Christiane Erharther

Thursday October 27, 22:30h. KBB, Joaquim Costa, 24, 4º. 08001 Barcelona
Concert by Terre Thaemlitz

Friday October 28, 19h. Auditorium. Free Entrance
Round table with Terre Thaemlitz (www.comatonse.com), Genis Segarra (www.astrud.com), Alex Murray-Leslie (www.chicksonspeed.com)
From 24h to 3h. Muziclub Pigalle, Balmes, 90. Free Entrance
Performances and DJ’s Party with Fora de cobertura (dj ux + normal c-alas), Dj+nurse+ and Terre Thaemlitz

Thanks to
David Armengol, Casa Asia, Io Casino, Eva Cruells, Antuan Duanel, Harrisson, Roberta Miss, Maria Pérez, Servei de Comunicació i Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I/Castelló de la Plana, Pablo G. Polite, Roger Roca, Oriol Rossell, Virgínia Villaplana.