![]() It’s connected to telecommunications, phones, radio, TV. SA: I’m interested in the phenomenon of the “disembodied voice”. ![]() What is it specifically that interests you in this realm? You are interested in the relationship between the human element and new media. I mainly worked with the medium of sound, but I also did media performances and installations. It was a crossover between traditional film studies and new media art practice. You studied at the Art Academy in Prague, at its Film Faculty, which is a renowned educational institution with many famous personalities attached to it, including Věra Chytilová or Woody Vašulka. SA: Many open things on the internet have become closed or commercial. How has this changed over the ten years since then? SA: The streaming production became huge and it was hard to get people’s attention. The change was that all these previously niche media suddenly became mainstream? It was when Youtube changed from a community to mass medium, and these happenings were in the backdrop of the demise of Lemurie. We knew that we have no way how to be an alternative to the new, official internet streaming. When I came into the project, we soon realised that something was changing about the relationship of people and media (internet or streaming media). It was an internet streaming radio based in the then experimental space NoD/Roxy in Prague, an open arts space for artists and musicians. I joined the Radio Lemurie team in its last period. SA: I collaborated with Miloš Vojtěchovský, who was my teacher at the time, and who headed this project. My approach to music transformed due to the awareness about the concept in sound and music and the differences between playing and listening to music.Īround early 2000s, Prague had a quite lively seen revolving around Radio Lemurie, which placed its focus on electroacoustic performances, psychogeography, and the emergence of new media art scene of the city. I was influenced by the likes of John Cage, Maryanne Amacher, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Watson. SA: During my studies, many things in my mind changed because I met new people and gained new knowledge from the realm of the history of – especially 20 th century – music. What are the roots of your work in new media and sound art? It was a step away from a natural, intuitive style of playing to programming. I realised we need some electronic instruments and I bought my first sampler in 1998. We imitated world music with our band Funtasy Milk and I wanted to imitate it well. ![]() SA: Yes, it was the reason why I started to work with electronic instruments. Were you influenced by any of these elements as well? There is the concept of the dubplate, the soundsystem, the studio as an instrument. Reggae and dub has a specific technical and spiritual aspect tied to it. I have a totally different view of these things today. It was a traditional group with guitars, keyboards, vocals. SA: We were a live band, and tried to play electronic music live. How come that in spite of these influences, you embraced a more traditional, reggae dub sound? Back in the day, we felt they represented our underground, it was something different to what the generation of our parents listened to. Our influences were Leftfield, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, bands which I nowadays consider part of the establishment. It was a huge change, we were teenagers at the time, inspired by music we heard from DJs who played it from dubplates and this was mostly reggae or dub. Funtasy Milk was a reaction to the moment when turntables entered rock clubs. The band started in 1997 and disbanded in 2003, but we continued with Michal in another project, this time electronic, called Data Live. ![]() Stanislav Abrahám: I’m thinking a lot about it, how things changed. But that was a completely different musical direction – reggae dub. With Michal Šeba, who is also part of SHAPE, you had a project called Funtasy Milk back in the 90s. ![]() He was nominated for SHAPE by MeetFactory, where he will play next Thursday, 9th April, at a joint SHAPE event. He also does studio production, recording and sound post-production in audiovisual works. As a sound designer, he collaborates with many sound, visual, and performance artists on various interdisciplinary projects, such as theatre and dance performances. He has crossed over from music and pure sound art to more conceptual works. Stanislav Abrahám is an audiovisual performer, sound and new media artist based in Prague, Czech Republic. ![]()
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