BASEL.- British maverick musician Tim Exile explores the instrumental potential of everyday voices in his fascinating live acts while LA line-up Nite Jewel melds musical tapestries with the haunting vocals of Ramona Gonzales to create somnambulistic sound trips; Canadian artist Alexis O'Hara lures the public into an igloo made of 100 loudspeakers for experimental play with the power of voice and Jürg Lehni sets two computers talking via voice recognition and other language software to create a medley of misunderstanding: this is only a sample of the entertainment rolled out from 27–30th October 2011 on the Dreispitz site in Basel/Münchenstein, when the 5th Anniversary Edition of the Shift Festival of Electronic Arts turns the spotlight on musical and artistic experiments with electrified voices, in concerts, exhibitions, performances, film and video screenings, workshops and panel discussions.

2011 is a special year in several respects for Shift: on the last weekend in October the Festival of Electronic Arts celebrates its 5th anniversary edition as well as its debut appearance under the aegis of the House of Electronic Arts Basel (HeK). Besides the 3-day concert programme, the art on display in the Dreispitz Hall and HeK’s own new exhibition spaces, and a programme of performance and video and film screenings in the neighbouring venue Schaulager, the Festival once again provides art school students with a platform for work on the Festival theme under the title Shift in Progress. Newcomers on board this year are the Swiss Electronic Music network and Electron, our partner festival from Geneva, both of which have compiled a complementary concert programme; and V2 Rotterdam presents an exhibition especially conceived and produced for Shift 2011 in the framework of the 10th international conference on Mixed and Augmented Reality aka ISMAR, which takes place this year in Basel.

The Festival theme ‘Of Birds and Wires. Electrified Voices’ references changes in perception of the human voice when it is amplified, broadcast, recorded, modified or even simulated by technical means. This phenomenon is common not only in electronic music but also in media art, performance art and of course, in film and video.

Experimental approaches to the voice and vocals are therefore a major focus of the concert programme: Tim Exile (GB) for instance, who developed software specifically to transform vocal fragments into synthesized sounds and beats, has riveted public attention with his online jam sessions at www.timexile.tv and been hailed by the Press as a ‘bigtime’ live performer (‘De:Bug’). The heart of Nite Jewel (USA) is young singer-composer Ramona Gonzales, who performs with four musicians. Her poignant vocals have likewise caught the public and the professionals’ eye, as current co-productions with Dâm Funk and Prince attest. One of the ‘hottest names in British hip-hop’ is the ‘Sunday Times’’ accolade for music producer and DJ Hudson Mowhake from Glasgow while ‘The Guardian’ sees him as ‘the new J Dilla’. Mowhake frequently works with high-pitched voices in the style of the Chipmunk Souls to create sounds both dynamic and utterly surprising.

The Festival exhibition presents around 30 international positions – work you can play with, look at or listen to, on show in the Dreispitz Hall and the new exhibition spaces at the House of Electronic Arts Basel (HeK). Canadian artist Alexis O'Hara, for instance, builds an igloo from 100 loudspeakers, in which visitors can modify their voices to electrifying effect. Jürg Lehni uses voice recognition and other language software to launch a dialogue full of misunderstandings between two computers while the work of Atelier Hauert Reichmuth challenges a computerized voice to engage in conversation. Seth Price adds a soundtrack of chopped-up and modified voices to U.S. Army propaganda videos while Cuban artist José Toirac deconstructs speeches made on TV by Fidel Castro. Erik Bünger for his part had a band play and sing in the style of a scratched CD that got stuck, and will also perform personally at Schaulager. Artist and curator Michael Hiltbrunner presents a refreshing perspective on vocals in sound art over the last century in a special one-man show that references inter alia, the work of Henri Chopin, Laurie Spiegel, Wolfgang Müller and Anton Bruhin.

Schaulager once again hosts the Shift programme of film, video and lectures, co-curated in cooperation with Ute Holl, Professor of Media Science at the University of Basel. Jessica Manstetten of the renowned International Short Film Festival Oberhausen presents a 2-part programme of music videos and Philippe-Alain Michaud (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), Sandra Naumann (transmediale Berlin) and freelance curator Nadia Schneider serve up their personal celluloid selections. A further highlight is a lecture by American journalist Dave Tompkins, whose recently published book ‘How to Wreck a Nice Beach’ recounts the historical role of the Vocoder, from Cold War encryption device through to Hip Hop contraption. In addition to various screenings and guest speakers’ lectures, the potential of electrified voices will be explored also in artistic performances. The Festival theme also underlies the Schaulager presentation of a small number of works by British conceptual artist Mark Wallinger, held in the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation’s collection.

Under the title Shift in Progress the Festival once again offers art school students a platform for work on the Festival theme. Selected works derive this year from the Academy of Art and Design at the University of Northwestern Switzerland (HGK FHNW), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Zurich University of the Arts (ZhdK), Berne University of the Arts (HKB), University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) and Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), as well as from this year’s foreign partner, the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv (CCA). As a new departure, the opening night this year features several performance pieces by students.

Workshops for enthusiastic electro-tinkerers are another important and successful feature of Shift’s annual programme. You can build a twittering solar-powered bird, a micro-noise processor or other ingenious devices at the DIY Makeaway workshop hosted by the Swiss Society for Mechatronic Art while kids aged 6+ can create robots and other fantasy creatures from redundant electronic equipment under the guidance of the studio.