My interview with Eva Aguila from Experimental Half Hour for the CHEAT SHEET newsletter coming out Sept. 5th! Experimental Half Hour was started by Brock Fansler and Eva Aguila. Purveyors of avant-garde music and performance should take note and support / get involved! EHH is nearing the possibility of starting a media lab in Los Angeles, if youd like to learn more, please click on the link below and vote for EHH via the LA2050 Grant (see link below to learn more). Also, if youd like to subscribe to the CHEAT SHEET newsletter, email me: Rhansen66@yahoo. INTERVIEW: ~~~~~~~~~~ (EHH) Experimental Half Hour + Robert Hansen from Vitamin Wig C. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ R: What can an artist get in a half hour from EHH? I know EHH is involved with production, as I’ve seen venues lined with wall-to-wall green screening, video cameras fixed at varying angles and the two of you tactfully operating it all. EHH: Artists collaborate together to create a unique art piece that reflects their project and allows them to widely distribute and broadcast their aesthetic to a much larger audience utilizing our resources. We have a lot of pieces that can be used, like you said, from green screen and camera work to post-computer graphics which add to the experience. R: I know you’ve been mobile, always going to the artist or event. You adapt to a space and give the gift of production. But now you want to have a fixed media lab, a fixed space for artists to come to? Will EHH still be somewhat mobile, once after youve started the media lab as well? EHH: Yes, of course! Having a mobile TV studio has been really awesome. It has allowed us to go into site-specific locations to create a real live taping experience. We will not stop with the one off events at galleries and venues. In fact we have 4 events scheduled this fall. Our hope with the media lab is to have a permanent studio for the local community and artist. We want to open it up to anyone that goes through the training. Similar to a cable access station. Our hope in the future is to get actual air time on over the air broadcast. R: Ever facilitate a really weird, uncommon area? Like a spooky tunnel below the city? Does EHH have a generator? EHH: We would love to work in unusual venues. We have taped pieces and made music videos far out in nature, but we have not yet trekked the entire mobile TV studio setup out on a hiking trail. We are open to all possibilities especially if an artist already has a project in mind with a specific venue or location. R: How can artists and musicians contribute to EHH without being on the show? Do artists need to be living in LA, or performing in LA to be on EHH? EHH: Musicians both approach us and we approach them. No city residency is necessary and we will sometimes have touring artists for special tapings. We sometimes also ask video artists to contribute to the show by giving us pre-recorded videos. We have also asked a few artists to guest curate episodes but none of them have come to fruition. If you want to curate one Robert we would love that! R: Id be honored to curate a show! Thank you! Wow! thats awesome! So how did EHH come to be? EHH: Brock had previously done a few tapings of friends in 2008 at the local cable access station in Portland. He had been talking about the great facilities at the station and in 2009, when we moved up to Portland, we resumed. Since the facility was in high demand, it pushed us into scheduling a twicemonthly series. And now we are in LA. R: Do you feel Los Angeles is the best location for EHH? Why? EHH: Yes, with it being a major city and a major hub of entertainment and art, it provides a wide array of local and touring artists to perform. Because LA is also a big city there is a lot of diversity which we strive to have on our show. The performance art and experimental music community is quite varied. R: I know EHH sometimes will seek out other artists to work and design backdrops for sessions, etc. It seems through (free) design that collaboration is a major component to EHH. I can tell you guys are keen on keeping it a support network, over any kind of “pay into” service. EHH: Yeah, we’ve always tried to keep it free, always. We’ve relied on volunteers and fundraising efforts to keep the show running. It’s been a labor of love. But we don’t exactly seek out “clients” to make people pay-to-play. In fact, weve always strive to pay the artist whenever funds are available. Our only goal is to become sustainable one day. Professional video and sound equipment is very expensive. When we lived in Portland we had a free resource that didnt require us to own any equipment through Portland Community Media. Unfortunately Los Angeles doesnt have a cable access station, so we had to purchase a studio to continue the show. We saw the value the cable access station had in the community, so our goal is to have an autonomous video production studio and lab for community consumption. We will run it similar to a cable access station, where anyone can use the facility as long as they are trained and pay the small yearly usage fee. R: Has collaboration between artists at EHH ever spawned into other projects, or bands even? EHH: A few of our performances have spawned side projects for a few artists. “Princess Dies” started as a one time performance that became a full project for Ashby Lee Collinson. Matt Carlson and Ilan Manouach collaborated for a performance in Belgrade, Serbia, at a festival which they later reconnected through on an episode we taped for our 3rd year anniversary in Portland, Oregon. Nick Bindeman created a character that also started as a one time thing for our XXX Valentine’s Day episode that later became the focus of his short film “Dream it Never Ends”. R: Do you guys make experimental music/ media? Has your background in experimentation shaped your vision for EHH, or the process you use to record/ capture artists? EHH: I’ve been making experimental music since 2005. It has definitely influenced how we curate the show. When we started EHH, it was just an excuse to have fun with our friends in a TV studio setting. As time went on, we started getting emails from people that we didn’t know. It was definitely flattering knowing that bands wanted to be on our show. EHH is favored towards Avant-garde music and performance art, which goes with our aesthetic. But what has gone down so far on Experimental Half Hour has influenced us as well. Brock and I have few side projects, together we perform as Sporay and I perform under my own name. Brock got into video synthesis through the show. He built an LZX modular synthesizer to use for EHH and when we do visuals for music shows. We also got into making video installations utilizing projection mapping and light sensitive audio oscillators. R: Excellent! Anything else you want to mention? EHH: Please vote for us for the LA2050 Grant to start a community media lab in Los Angeles! Bit.Do/Lamedialab
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:57:10 +0000
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