Alter-Nation: From Tolerance to Togetherness

The idea of uniting a variety of artists from different genres puts forth a post modern representation of ‘new space’ and ‘new art’. When art becomes a hybrid identifying itself with, and being challenged by, live performance, one problem remains; the placement of foreground and background, front stage and back stage. This however, does not imply negative connotations; instead it challenges viewers to understand how different forms of art can work in unison.

Such was the case at Alter-Nation: From Tolerance to Togetherness. As the event was evoking the inscription of artistic integrity and cultural rejuvenation the trouble remained; how does one reinstate a variety of artistic endeavors to compliment one another at an equal transmission of energy? Is it at all possible to bring forth musicians, performers, art work and people in a social scene that is meant to merge a variety of talents into a solid and equal union? This is a question Altered (i) was willing to ask, and so brought forward its first event; Alter-Nation: From Tolerance to Togetherness.

The beauty of Alter-Nation was definitely in its success. The general public was given the opportunity to appreciate a variety of music from acoustic, to hip hop, to electro, with dance, tribal percussions and visual arts. Each performance was worked into the next, where the acoustic melodies of Annette Green and Bredrin Poetry Wise were built into KB's rhythmic hip hop, which later escalated into the experimental electro rock of Green Splat. In conclusion to these performances Pyrate Paradox roamed the floor with her creative and intuitive dancing, as a voluntary drum circle led by Vincent Reel encouraged both the rhythm of her dance and the introduction of the DJ’s – RC420, Ryan Smith, Jeff Breen and e.k.g.

As all performative aspects of the night were greeted by great applause and encouragement, what of the art work? The guests observed and commented, and many were awed by the variety of visual arts. The gallery section displayed a fusion of abstract expressionism, painting, photography, and life drawings. As a whole, the art remained a strong visual unit. The colours and movement of the works complimented one piece into the next and formed a dynamic display that brought together people and formed an amazing atmosphere for the performers to display their own talents in.

In total, Alter-Nation was an opportunity for artists and the crowds to experience a variety of expressions brought forth from performers and visual artists. Here, a number of very different forms of art created a solid event where everyone involved pondered the problems of balancing acts and art by effectively working their way from tolerance to togetherness.

Visual Artists:
Dan Anaka -http://www.dananaka.com
Amanda Bittar - http://www.amandabittar.com
Marius Budu - http://www.visions.mariusbudu.com
Mitchell F Chan - http://www.mitchellfchan.com
Steve Papadopoulos - http://www.spulos.net
Hanna Kunysz - http://hananska.deviantart.com
Jacob Senko - http://defkreationz.deviantart.com
Alicja Grabarczyk
Stephanie Nicolo
Donna Reel
Alina Urusov


Live Performances:
Annette Green - http://www.myspace.com/annettasings
Bredrin Poetry Wise - http://www.myspace.com/poetrywise
KB - http://www.myspace.com/kbthamc
Green Splat - http://www.myspace.com/greensplat
Pyrate Paradox - Dancing
Vincent Reel - Drumming

Spinning Techno/House:
e.k.g. - http://ekg.podomatic.com
RC420 - http://www.myspace.com/djrc420
Ryan Smith - http://www.myspace.com/ryansmitherines
Jeff Breen - http://www.myspace.com/jeffbreen

Contributing Writer: Hanna Kunysz

Beating to The Pulse of Techno

- Do you think music and the heart are connected?
- Of course just like the heart and the mind are connected.

An Artist Profile and Exclusive Interview

Artist: e.k.g. (electro-kardo-gram)
Name: Giordan Battaglin
Location: Toronto, Canada.
Birthday: November 30, 1983
Position: DJ/Producer/Audiophile
Genre: Experimental / Minimalist / Techno
Certification: AAS degree in music production + recording
Website: http://www.ekg.podomatic.com/

Introduction

We have interviewed an independent local DJ and techno producer in order to give insight and inspiration into the minds of other emerging artists in Toronto. e.k.g. describes himself as "a purveyor of dark yet pleasingly filthy music; a fabricator of genreless soundscaping." His style is complimented by a minimal techno mind trip, blended with a funky yet skanky electro that adds strange fitting rhythms to his delightfully dark melodies. His sporadic and subtle tempos can only be described as unrelenting pulses of the unknown, that takes the audacious listener into unfamiliar territory all together.

What is it about music that inspired you to produce it yourself?

Sound design: Its sounds that are being manufactured or sampled. It has a different control and affects people in a different way. If you’re working with the same sound, the sound can evolve and it can change. You can throw effects on a guitar, but to take a sound and have it morph and still be the same thing, thats sound design. I love playing with sound and getting ideas to tweak something or to get a sound to just keep evolving or changing. There is new ground to be broken all the time.

Artistic creation is being in the moment and questioning that moment.

I always question. For example... writers: Writers write most of the book and go back and they edit. When you go back and edit, you are basically questioning the state of mind that you’re in. Most of it is fine tuning and making it flow, or giving it continuity. Sometimes you edit out your true emotion right? So you’re kind of centering yourself that way. You’ve got to keep the balance. It’s always that state of mind that you’re in at that moment.

Cristina of Green Splat - When I’m really inspired, it’s a psychological thing. It could be a movie I saw. It could be a character. It could be somebody I encountered at work. It can be an idea and I just completely dominoe.

How would you describe your genre?

The best comment I ever got, was that someone told me my music was genreless. That was my proudest moment, because that’s how I try and come across.

Everything has its own artistic merit. Within each Genre, there is something good in that genre. The moment you start defining the genre is the moment you start creating limitations, and boundaries are set, because then it’s not commercially viable. Art should not have to fit within the commercial realm or the marketable realm. Like: It’s a good piece of art, but it’s not marketable? Whatever, its still a good piece of art!

When things come together, it’s all layers, art is always layers. I love music, I love art, and I love photography. There are so many different ways to express myself without words. When a piece of art can be perceived by anyone for whatever they want. Everyone has a different idea, and a different interpretation.

Does your music have a subject? What is it?

Subject is more like emotion in a way, it’s an individual experience.

How does your intellect stimulate your artistic spirit, or do you think they are one in the same?

Yes definitely. What’s connecting my conscious mind and my unconscious mind is the same thing. The body is just the physical. I like pretending I’m connected to the infinite.
"Everything is an illusion and life is just how you perceive it”

How does the evolution of your music – the greater experimentation, the fall into minimal, the expansion of music affect you psychologically?

In minimal there is definitely more subtly. There is a lot more focus on 'in-between' space. The slower, the more area there is to work in a song. The more space there is, the more absorption you can get from a song. Music affects me on such a deep level; I don’t want to just absorb it, I want to give it back. I get like mood swings, but it’s how I think, but it’s not really moods though, more like wavelengths. I’m tangents all over the place. A mix, a hyper mix, spastic.

Do you feel your music touches base with the intangible? And if so can you manage an explanation of how you reach that mysterious place?

e.k.g. - Yes. All sound is intangible, and feelings are intangible, and a state of mind is completely intangible. It’s everywhere, emotions, chemical reactions.

Hanna - It’s the intangible, it’s what’s there but what’s not.

Cristina - Everything I write, I just feel what I write. Everything I play isn’t by notes because I actually don’t even know notes, so I just memorize. So everything I see is a pattern, like a visual math. It’s inherent math in a sense. Every element within it can be defined, when it’s all combined its indefinable. I think the intangible is like air, you can’t touch it, and you can’t capture it. It’s just everywhere.

e.k.g. - When you say you make music it goes by what you’re feeling, that’s the intangible right there, it’s the emotion. It’s basically the chemical reaction of how you perceive everything. It’s like you can let loose and not have to worry. That’s what makes life living sometimes. It’s kind of a surreal experience. It’s not explainable. Its total physical, spiritual, psychological. It’s like a spiritual high. It’s connecting. It’s the power you can’t buy.

How do you think music has an influence on the individual or the collective? Do you think music provides a potential impact for social change?

There is not THE way but it's YOUR way and EVERYONES way. It’s all contextual. Everything is just energy condensed to a slow vibration, and matter is just all energy essentially. It’s all experienced on a subjective kind of level. I believe in the collective conscious, we are all connected in a sense.

Conclusion

Art thrives off influence and music is art in its pure form. Music is essentially a tool that can demonstrate not only how an art form and the individual can be connected, but how all individuals can be connected through that art form. Music has an enormous capacity for influence; it both grows and expands with time, and can become fixed in that time. It can influence a collective culture, evolving as a connection of our social and instinctual humanity. It involves a creative free flowing intuition where individual limitations and cultural restrictions are let go, allowing for all grounds to be broken. - Altered (i)

"Without music, human existence would be a mistake.”
- Frederich Nietzsche

Contributing Writer: Chris DeRubeis

Questions and Interview by: Hanna Kunysz
For e.k.g.'s bookings and sound samples
http://www.ekg.podomatic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ekgism