I was quite glad to be put on volunteer duty at NoiseLab on the Sunday of the festival. The event was called Interface Amnesty and it was right up my street. Groups and individuals had been invited to exhibit their own technological creations. These ranged from touch-sensitive sculptures to noodle dispensers.

A workshop called UnRavel was running alongside the event, attempting to create the longest hand painted film in Britain. When finished it will be as long in frames as the UK's length in metres, from Lands End to John O' Groats. When complete it will be 16 hours long.

Many of the Amnesty exhibits were musical in nature. Members of Noise Club had brought along a big box of tricks. Effects pedals and circuit bending electronic devices. A cello with bike break levers attached to the strings used to bend the notes while playing.

Lewis Sykes brought home-made electronic musical instruments with circuit boards and midi keyboards. He plugs these into his laptop or a Nintendo Wii controller to create crazy experimental sounds. The powerhouse behind his creations is an Arduino circuit board, an open source bit-of-kit that has many programmable possibilities, not just for music.

I had been introduced to the the Arduino the day before when I'd been lucky enough to help at Daito Manabe's Body Hacking workshop at MadLab. On his first trip to the UK, the artist explained his methods for creating his experimental performance pieces. In these performances, he and his assistant attach electrodes to their faces and remotely-control their muscles using low-level electronic impulses.

The electrodes can also be used to pick-up electric signals generated by the body when a muscle moves. So it's possible, for example, to attach electrodes in the appropriate places and move someone else's cheek by flexing your arm. This two-way communication between body and computer is made possible by some very clever electronics, including The Ardurino board.

I got a chance to try out the technology at the workshop. It's an odd sensation when your muscles move on their own. A little bit painful at first but you soon get over the initial prickly feeling. Very weird to control my eyebrows by twisting my forearm.

Sundays NoiseLab events finished with a performance by Manabe, called The Face Visualiser. Using the electrodes, he and his assistant synchronised their facial expressions to a musical soundtrack in a gruelling 15 minute performance. Some of the sounds were generated by the muscle movements and fed back into the performance. The results were projected on two big screens behind the artists. For the grand finale the artists mouths lit up with LED's flashing in time to the music. Quite an impressive show to light up the darkened NoiseLab room.

Rob Birchall - words,photos and video
AND Digital Reporter

Dan Shannon - audio for VuVox
AND Digital Reporter

A 15 minute minibus ride took the 10 of us deep into the Livia Forest with Rob Ray, an electronic artist and founder of DEADTECH electronic arts centre in Chicago, on Thursday this week. The anticipation and feeling of adventure was in all of us, and the weather for the North West was actually quite good for October. Along the way Rob introduced us to the history of the forest, having previously been a site for houses and a water treatment plant. This forest would be an unusual urban forest (one of Europe's largest) with bits of history still lying around to find.

The Kazimier

St. Peters Church, Ancoats

The Kazimier have been setting up all week at a secret location revealed today as St. Peters church in Ancoats.  A neo-gothic wonderland, the perfect setting for the black and white halloween carnivale freak show that descended this evening.   Before we set foot inside the party, costumed bauhaus-inspired characters led the guests on a magical, curtained-off installation around the inside of the church.  A moustachioed bartender mixed absinthe cocktails as a stilt-walker poured magical potions from a barrel tower on wheels.  When I was a child, this is what I imagined parties were like when you grew up and somehow they never usually are until now. The Kazimier certainly know how to throw a party, the perfect end to an incredible week of extraordinary art, performances and installations.  

In case you missed it, here's a short video clip of the floorshow:

More photos from tonight's party are on the AND festival Flickr

Katia Porter
AND Digital Reporter
...signing off... 

Saturday started off as an ordinary day for me, a volunteer for the AND Festival. But by the end of it I was to become part of one of the most exciting and bizarre events of the week as an assistant to one of the volunteer performers for Shrink.

A workshop was held at the Capitol Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University. Here 11 volunteers and two journalists came together in front of three daunting plastic frames. There was a real buzz of excitement in the air. Artist Lawrence Malstaf started explaining the idea behind his exhibition and then before anyone had a chance to process it, they were encouraged to be sealed within the plastic to get a feel for themselves.

There were 6 performers and each performer had an assistant. As there was one assistant short, I stepped up and into the very important role. We had to help our partnered performer into the plastic and then seal it up. We were then taught how to turn the vacuum machine on and off all the while keeping eye contact with the performer so they could communicate if they were having any problems.

The volunteer performers got the opportunity to be shrink 'wrapped' three times, each time learning new skills with the final being how to suspend within the plastic. I had to support my performer's feet and help push her up whilst she was controlling the suction. They then could practice moving around and seeing what positions they could get into. This was all in preparation for the performances on 4^th and 5^th October (see video below).

The workshop ended with the assistants being given the opportunity to experience the shrink wrap themselves. I chose to opt out of this as it wasn't really suitable for people who had claustrophobia like me!

On the days of the performances themselves everything went really well. It was amazing to see how the audience reacted - there was a lively buzz before it started but as soon as the vacuums were switched on, there was an amazed silence as the crowd watched the performers slowly shrink.

After each 20 minute performance, the vacuums were turned off and the audience could then ask the performers questions. I overheard the odd 'How do you breathe in there?' and 'Is it comfortable?' to which the performer's replied saying it was really comfy. This seemed to surprise the audience as from the outside it did look really arkward. However one performer did describe it as 'being given a big hug'.

From the perspective of an assistant, it was great seeing the audiences' reactions whilst knowing the inside secret of how it all works. There was a great team spirit over the three days and everyone performed so well. It was nice seeing how each performer had naturally chosen different positions. The volunteers all came from different backgrounds, some were performers, some had no performance background at all but it just goes to show that anyone from any walk of life could be Shrink Wrapped.

And as for Lawrence Malstaf  - well he's a truly inspirational and warming man and it was an honour to be part of his exhibition.

So you've heard my side of things but what was it like behind the plastic? One of the performers, Tom told us...

Cheryl Satterthwaite - words
AND Digitial Reporter

Sarah Miles - videos
AND Digital Reporter

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go up in a rocket? Well now's your chance.

Yesterday I met artist Nelly Ben Hayoun at Cube Gallery where she was giving a performance of the Soyuz Chair. Now this chair isn't your bog standard armchair - it reproduces the three stages of the the 1966 Soyuz rocket launch. Take a look for youself and hear Nelly explain a little more...

Monique Jarrett
AND Digital Reporter

Monday 4th October

Upstairs at The Kings Arms is a wonderfully unexpected venue.  On my way up, I noticed a knitting circle in the bar downstairs and the clientele in this old fashioned pub look more northern quarter than old Salford; testament to how this area of the city has changed due to regeneration in recent years.

Gleaners Artists-in-residence at the North West Film Archive, Jenna Collins and Sam Meech have taken found footage from the archive and remixed it with live soundtracks provided by local musicians.  The beautiful composition from Seaming To accompanying the first film transformed the event for me; moving from the nostalgia inspired by the archive footage, heightening emotion and pulling me into an immersive live cinema experience.

The films shown in this event will be touring the North West region, showing in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. 

Katia Porter

Digital Reporter

AND Festival

AND festival has showcased not just one, but two of the most high profile female video artists, as they move into the genre of feature length filmmaking.

1997 Turner Prize winner Gillian Wearing came to Cornerhouse for the UK premiere of her film 'Self Made'. Her work with photography and video has continuously explored the redefinition of identity, taking advantage of the camera's ability to reveal aspects of human nature which are usually kept hidden.

In 2007 she placed an advert in newspapers, online and in job centres which read:

“Would you like to be in a film? You can play yourself or a fictional character. Call Gillian.”

Seven members of the public were chosen from the hundreds that replied. They worked with Sam Rumbelow, a Method acting teacher, who helped them learn how to use personal experiences and emotions in performance. The process delves deep into their memories, anxieties and fears making for mesmerising viewing. The film follows five of the seven as they work through an intense emotional journey which results in vignettes filled with sensitivity and feeling.

Reflecting it's conceptual underpinning, 'Self Made' also has no fixed identity, crossing the genres of documentary, artwork and social experiment. Always fascinating but with some shocks in store, it could be uncomfortable, touching and hilarious from moment to moment.

In contrast, but equally unusual, acclaimed artist Pipilotti Rist's feature debut 'Pepperminta' is a psychedelic assault on the senses. Pepperminta is an anarchist of the imagination who lives in a futuristic rainbow according to her own rules. The film flutters, floats and scrambles through her vibrant land.

Using stop motion animation, stunning cinematography and hallucinogenic production design, the film plunges the viewer into a whirlpool of colour, texture, taste and sound. A deceptively simple narrative has political undertones. Pepperminta entices friends into her universe where they fight for a more humane world and stage peaceful protests against black, white and grey, facing their fears and claiming powers of femininity in the process.

Both these films brilliantly question handed-down truths, playing with the way we view the world and perceive ourselves. These fantastic films are at the forefront of contemporary art and give the opportunity for viewers to engage in extraordinary visual experiences.

'Peppaminta' is being screened a second time at Cornerhouse on Wednesday night at 20:40. Contact the box office for tickets on 0161 200 500 or book online.

To find out more about Gillian Wearing's work go to http://www.maureenpaley.com/artists/gillian-wearing

Mary Stark
AND Digital Reporter

Cube Gallery is currently home to 'Designed Disorder,' featuring artists who have 'proposed absurd and practical solutions' to future implications and changes that may occur from a future defined by engineering and science.  The exhibition invites you to question the design's potential role in our society, asking if they are probable, potential or preferable.

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Click here to download:

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Click here to download:

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Click here to download:

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MadLab, Edge Street, Manchester

Daito Manabe, Japanese artist and sound designer led this workshop on using your own body as an input/ output device.  Participants in the one day workshop attached tiny electrode patches to their arms and faces and using an interface connected to their laptop computers and administered small electrical charges to stimulate their muscles. 

As an onlooker, it was a very strange sight.  The group sat facing each other around a table covered with hundreds of tiny wires all connected up to Manabe’s hub computer.  At the end of the day the group collaborated in a musical performance piece for which Manabe asked the group to attach four electrodes to their faces. His computer converted his inputted musical compositions into electrical impulses which were in turn transferred onto the faces of the connected participants, causing their muscles to twitch in rhythm.

One participant told me afterwards that he’d become acclimatised to the electric shocks throughout the day and was actually starting to enjoy the sensations although when this reporter tried it, even at the lowest strength, I shamefully yowled like a baby!

In case you missed the workshop and need visual proof, I captured this video of the performance:

And here's an interview with one of the workshop participants:

Daito Manabe also performed The Face Visualiser at Noiselab on Monday October 3^rd.

Katia Porter
AND Digital Reporter

"Before I begin this presentation I'd like to remind everyone in the audience to TURN ON their mobile phones" - one of the opening lines from todays #Media2012 at Cornerhouse.

The day-long event was the first public presentation of Professor Andy Miah’s Media Blueprint for London 2012, an independent proposal to create a UK wide Underground Media Zone during the London 2012 Games.

With a great line up of speakers - social media expert Kris Krug, founder of SochiReporter.ru Alexander Zolotarev and London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Director Ruth Mackenzie to name but a few, discussions focused on opportunities to create a publicly owned new media legacy for the Olympic Games and encourage UK independent media networks to discuss prospects within the context of an increasingly Digital Britain.

From interesting social media tools to inspiring citizen media projects from around the world the audience had plenty to think about.

But fear not if you missed it - AND Digital Reporter Laura Swift was live blogging from the event so you can catch up with the conversation here...