Machine States: Ben Carey and Lottie Sebes

We welcome you to an evening of sonic exploration with solo performances by Ben Carey and Lottie Sebes. Both artists work through the construction of instruments and systems, placing the interaction between performer and machine at the centre of their practice. Through embodied interfaces and carefully crafted textural density, these performances negotiate human intention and material agency, with musical machines that reveal their own tendencies toward chaos, unpredictability and resistance.

Ben Carey

Ben Carey is an Australian composer, improviser and educator, based in Sydney/Eora. His research and practice are concerned with musical interactivity, generativity and the delicate dance between human and machine agencies in composition and performance. As a solo and collaborative performer, Ben is known primarily for his work with analogue modular systems, exploring the space between control and chaos in interactions with complex networks of electricity. Ben’s solo and collaborative work is released on Hospital Hill records, SUPERPANG, New Weird Australia, Not Applicable and Earshift Music. Alongside Dharawal vocalist Sonya Holowell, he is one half of voice and electronic duo Sumn Conduit.

https://bencarey.bandcamp.com/

Lottie Sebes

Sound artist and performer Lottie Sebes explores the sonic junction of music and machine, embracing the clunky aliveness of outmoded mechanisms. In her sonic performance Conduit, she uses an industrial sewing machine motor as the main sound source.  A self-built system of electromagnetic microphones, strings and modified sewing machine pedals allows Lottie to transform the motor’s electrical and physical movements into sound. Lottie’s work is an embodied negotiation of control and resistance — a techno-somatic dialogue between human and mechanical vitality. Sebes has developed her practice in Berlin over the last ten years, exhibiting and performing internationally, including at Elsewhere Living Museum (USA), Sonoscopia (PT), iMAL Art Center for digital cultures & technology (BE), Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (AU), Antre Peaux (FR) and Experimance Festival (DE).

www.lottiesebes.com