Tales of the Nexialist Organization

Urban Evolution site specific performance from Mark Kammerbauer on Vimeo . Cities are examples of how building, destroying, and rebuilding occur over and over again. Such processes that can be triggered by crisis, disaster and other societal, political or market phenomena or actors. However, how can such processes become an experience to be perceived by others? Urban Evolution intends to answer this question within a performance in public space on the Theaterplatz square in Weimar, Germany, developed in the context of a research project at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar. By doing so we reimagined a quasi-historic process of cycles of rebuilding, demolition and rebuilding again and again that remains invisible unless some sort of signs indicate this process. European cities may actually be a case in point, considering wartime destruction and postwar modernist planning schemes that drastically altered historic cityscapes. Yet, while physical or social traces may remain, ...

The Nexialist Operation “Mimesis” is an experiment in using architecture as a music instrument. The object used was a particularly suitable one, a studio building by Peter Haimerl in Munich with pneumatic facades that served as percussion instrument. The video features four parts (for those who want to scroll forward): 00:10 - 03:00 Soundcheck; 03:00 - 05:00 Session: sound of space; 05:00 - 08:00 Mirror Image: space of sound; 08:00 - 09:30 Triangulation: space/sound/instrument. The following is the original concept text of the project: “We conducted an operation in the studio building Mimesis, designed by architect Peter Haimerl. The building as such was used as a sound creation device in this operation. Located in Putzbrunn, Munich, Germany, the studio complex consists of two cube-shaped buildings ca. 6 x 6 x 6 m each, one of which, with two pneumatic transparent vinyl facades, was used for the operation. The resulting sounds were recorded by electro-acoustic, digital-acoustic and...

The Xenakis-Emulator is an audiovisual adaptation of two key works of architect/composer Iannis Xenakis - the composition “Metastasseis” and the facade for the monastery “La Tourette” by master architect Le Corbusier. We created a synergetic digital animation of an interpretation of the facade and the music composition. The facade strips, which reflect the “Glissando”-motif of “Metastasseis”, float in an abstract space, followed by a vertical strip that “plays” our music interpretation in realtime and synchronous with the vertical facade elements. Iannis Xenakis was born in Romania in 1922. His family returned to Greece in 1932. He studied architecture and math and became a resistance fighter, fleeing from Greece to France in 1947, where he worked in the office of Le Corbusier. He was a student of Olivier Messiaen, and as first composer within New Music, he used mathematical probability in composition, becoming the inventor of stochastic music. Xenakis composed pieces for orchestra...

“Hyperintimacy as ambience” - The Fleshsounds were created in 2002 for the Halforganic Series, the Fleshfilm was produced in 2005 as a live video for select Nexialist Operations. Both take the term “pink noise” literally and were intended as the audible and visual ambience for live installations exploring human proximity. The six compositions and the video were developed by use of source material that was cut up, treated with various effects and a significant amout of digital blur. The “Unschärfe” veils what is seen, disintegrating sound and image into near-obscurity: a visual encoding process similar to distortion. While nothing is recognizable, the undulating pink surfaces continuously refer to the echo of their origin. The grittiness of the effects betrays the age of the production. All things Burroughs were a significant influence, Vito Acconci as well, and the story that Rem Koolhaas had written porn film scripts.

On September 13, 2008, we joined experimental percussion legend z'ev on stage. The line-up featured Marcelo Aguirre (Evil Spirit, Spastic Dementia) on drums and Alexandra (von Bolz'n) on vocals as well as Mark Kammerbauer (a.k.a. Fragment King) on treated bass guitar. We played a single, throbbing, droning, half-hour piece at Gallery Wallywoods in berlin. The set was completely improvised, with superfast blasting grindcore drums contrasted by superslow detuned bass riffage, enlivened by percussion clang and bang and guttural growls and piercing screams. Hai no banda? Im gegenteil. “The Bänd” had arrived that evening, t'banned, not canned, but with powerful release of physical acoustic force.

Critical Void is an analytical audio work based on an urbanist study of the MaximiliansForum in Munich and its planning history. By employing interviews with key individuals and document research, Z‘EV, Alexandra von Bolz'n and Mark Kammerbauer developed a site-specific audio performance and work that was performed live on site on 24.07.2013. The project was curated by the Kulturreferat of the City of Munich. This is a step-by-step documentation of the project. The location that includes the MaximiliansForum art space can be found beneath the crossing of Maximilianstrasse and Altstadtring in Munich. It has escalators that are currently in disuse. It is denominated officially as pedestrian tunnel. It is by far the largest of its kind in the city. Rumor has that original planning intended a traffic tunnel. So, what happened here? On Wednesday, 24.07.2013 at 19:00 we performed CRITICAL VOID live after a very friendly introduction by Elisabeth Hartung of the Culture Offi...