Ableton Forum

Robert Henke was in Portland for the last 2 days. Last night he performed through a 6-channel sound system, with audience seated on the floor between them. There were a few local performers before him. His set was superior, amazingly deep rich tonalities, very organic sounding and environmental in nature. I was completely impressed. Tonight he gave a three hour talk about his approach to instrument design, performance and installation. He showed a short video of an upcoming museum installation featuring (4) $80,000 lasers controlled by a Max patch with Live soundtrack. Incredible. He was very humble and extremely likeable - I am honored to be using his software. Two days spent in Henke's world - what a treat!

PS - both nights were free admission!

The installation in nantes 'le lieu unique' seems incredible ! saw a ling somewhere with a teaser... Edit / here : http://www.roberthenke.com/files_video/ ... dit_02.mp4
I've watched this two times and it bugged latest version of firefox. Laser ?

huh... I remember some comment about lasers I think a year ago..
go Henke ! go lasers !
I guess balloons can take you so far ...

CCRMA colloquium. May 8, 2013

CCRMA visiting artist Robert Henke provides detailed insights into the artistic and technical aspects of his recent audiovisual works.

Using his latest installation Fragile Territories as an example, he will talk about ideas, happy incidents, processes, compromises, logistics and collaboration.

Henke will discuss the role of technology for his art and his self defined state as artist-engineer. He will also provide an outlook on his future plans and elaborate on how they are influenced by his previous works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inQMcVcZiw

thanks !

Did he use the Bitwig beta? Sounds Like! Live 9 would crash for sure! Yes he got all the money from the paying users so he can live high!

oblique strategies wrote:CCRMA colloquium. May 8, 2013

CCRMA visiting artist Robert Henke provides detailed insights into the artistic and technical aspects of his recent audiovisual works.

Using his latest installation Fragile Territories as an example, he will talk about ideas, happy incidents, processes, compromises, logistics and collaboration.

Henke will discuss the role of technology for his art and his self defined state as artist-engineer. He will also provide an outlook on his future plans and elaborate on how they are influenced by his previous works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inQMcVcZiw

awesome video.

It is really annoying when people try to redefine their craft as an art.

why?

Because there is nothing wrong with being a craftsman. No need to be self-conscious about it. No need to "elevate" it to being called art.

SuburbanThug wrote:Because there is nothing wrong with being a craftsman. No need to be self-conscious about it. No need to "elevate" it to being called art.

OK then - what is the difference between craft and art? This could lead to one of those never ending discussions on the nature of art and what it is, but I'll stop you & everyone else who thinks they know right there.
Art is whatever someone proclaiming what they have created is art. The work of a craftsman is art. Art can be in the way a diver dives into the water, the way a Kabuki actor holds their arm 'just so', it can be a blob of paint on an otherwise empty canvas, in can be one note sustained for a period of time... It can be anything. What anyone else thinks of it is their business, or problem if they choose to object to it. It's all subjective.
Do you really want to proclaim you truly know what ART is? Because I don't!
Consider this:

Frank Zappa wrote: “The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?”

Slow down, old boy! Don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm being somewhat traditional here but what separates art from craft is often utilitarian purpose. Less traditional: Sure, someone might design a hammer that is beautiful to behold but when you submit it to ACE Hardware for display and purchase rather than the MOMA you have purposefully avoided submitting it to the world as art. There is also a fairly well-accepted difference between fine art and commercial art or mass art. There is arguably an element of artistic expression to everything we do in life but labeling your peanut butter sandwich art is useless to the world (at this point.) Theorization on art has become an art as you've exemplified in your remarks and in many ways art is like pornography in that it is in the eye of the beholder (or you "know it when you see it") but to say that anything is art and therefore that art is nothing is just a disservice to one of the oldest instincts of mankind.

Well, there is no utilitarian purpose in Henke's laser installations. By any definition, even a traditional one, his installations (curated, in a gallery) qualify as art. So I don't see why you say he is elevating craft to the status as art.

So I really don't see why there are grounds for irritation



From what I can see of the footage of the gallery, the fragile territories installation is beautiful and compelling. I can see why people would sit and absorb it for hours. I know I would.

In the video, his passion for what he is doing, his seriousness about creating beautiful and unusual things is evident.

He is clearly an enormously inventive and creative person.

And lucky, to have found this channel for his creativity. Strength to his arm, I say.

I would love to catch one of his shows and lectures. Little chance of him coming to Cape Town, unfortunately. (Though Brian Eno's 77 million paintings did come to Long Street )

The Finn wrote:Well, there is no utilitarian purpose in Henke's laser installations. By any definition, even a traditional one, his installations (curated, in a gallery) qualify as art.

I certainly wasn't referring to his installation art. I was referring to his remarks about software and hardware creation as art.

SuburbanThug wrote:Slow down, old boy! Don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm being somewhat traditional here but what separates art from craft is often utilitarian purpose. Less traditional: Sure, someone might design a hammer that is beautiful to behold but when you submit it to ACE Hardware for display and purchase rather than the MOMA you have purposefully avoided submitting it to the world as art. There is also a fairly well-accepted difference between fine art and commercial art or mass art. There is arguably an element of artistic expression to everything we do in life but labeling your peanut butter sandwich art is useless to the world (at this point.) Theorization on art has become an art as you've exemplified in your remarks and in many ways art is like pornography in that it is in the eye of the beholder (or you "know it when you see it") but to say that anything is art and therefore that art is nothing is just a disservice to one of the oldest instincts of mankind.

LOL. No knicker twisting here, I just like to question preconceived 'traditional' thinking. If you read the full excerpt of Zappa's quote http://researchblog.andremount.net/?p=141 it's pretty self-explanatory (you have to scroll down the page a bit to get to that particular quote). Almost 100 years ago Duchamp showed that anything can be art. Warhol pretty much blurred the lines between fine art & commercial or mass art as you put it. All this talk about a disservice to one of the oldest instincts of mankind? What exactly are you talking about? What instinct? The oldest instictints I know of are the 3 F's!