Scatter! March 8, 2008

Marko Peljhan (Mx), Nullo, Delray, Brian Springer and guests

Telecoms wizard Marko Peljhan opens a window onto the unseen world in our skies.

The extraordinary closing event of AV Festival 08 will take place on the banks of the River Tyne. Marko Peljhan, a celebrated Slovenian artist, will conduct an audiovisual `mapping' of the radio landscape in the outdoor performance, SCATTER!

As solar radio interference recedes, he and his collaborators will scan the night sky at different frequencies, picking up chatter from passing planes, amateur radio conversations, satellites, digital data streams and natural radio sources. These will be used to create soundscapes and large video projections. Peljhan says SCATTER! is "like opening a large window on the sky."

An artist of unparalleled ambition, Peljhan has worked in the Yuri Gagarin Center for Cosmonaut Training in Star City, Russia and has plans to design and launch a micro-satellite constellation. He received the Prix Ars Electronica for the work Polar, which he co-authored with Carsten Nicolai and is perhaps best known for Makrolab.

SCATTER! is the latest in a series of outdoor events Peljhan has created which begin at dusk as the Sun sets, and often end as late as dawn as the Sun remerges as the ascendant in the radio sky.
SCATTER! can be experienced outside on Baltic Square, or from the shelter of BALTIC's café where you can buy hot and cold drinks whilst you experience the sights and sounds of the invisible spectrum.

Commissioned by AV Festival 08. Co-produced by PROJEKT ATOL.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia

Official Website: http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/events/scatter