The Visual Music programme at Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2024 was curated by Trygve Signes Nielsen and featured presentations at the Fredrikstad Kino and performances by Will Bishops-Stephens, Derek Holzer, Eilif Hensvold, Birgitta Hosea and Trygve Signes Nielsen.
Birgitta Hosea orchestrated new performances of dotdot dash in the pedestrian underpass beside St Croix Kultur Huset. dotdot dash is a concert of visual music conducted by Birgitta Hosea, but made by the audience with laser pens and their own voices. This participatory, site-specific art work uses communal, collective action to reclaim the urban landscape at night. Coming together in a choral collaboration, participants are directed to explore the mark making possibilities of creating graffiti with light and to experience the power of their own voices. The performance is orchestrated by Hosea from a chance-based score made through walking with paint-covered feet over musical paper.
Her presentation at the Fredrikstad Kino explained all the ideas behind the work, including the influence of John Cage, experimental music notation, the research behind the Performance Drawing: New Practices Since 1945 book and the InspiralLondon collective.
Will Bishops-Stephens also talked about Thrum, his incredible series of animating and guitar playing machines. A live performance installation was exhibited in St Croix House. Thanks to the University for the Arts London for supporting the transportation of all his equipment from the UK. He got it all packed up to fit on the airplane!
Trygve Signes Nielsen talked about his research into drawn sound and oscilloscopes. He had an exhibition in the Kino of his oscilloscope drawings and his speculative design fiction speculations on visual music making systems. On the Friday evening he performed live with Eilif Hensvold to create oscilloscope images.
Expanded Animation 