Bio
I was born in Birmingham, England but grew up in London, Ontario, Canada. There I achieved an Honours degree in Theoretical Physics from the University Of Western Ontario plus a diploma from the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART). Since 1993 I have been a member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the organisation which governs computer professionals.
My home since 2003 has been Limerick, Ireland. I live here with my wife and daughter, deeply committed to a plurality of local artistic endeavours. In 2009 I attained first class honours in a Masters in Music Technology from the University of Limerick. My thesis was "The Garden of Adumbrations": An Anecdotal Soundscape.
Sound Art & Composition
In 2010 the site-specific sound art installation "The Lights In Room 7" was commissioned for the international ev+a exhibition. This was only the most prominent of several installations / performances I have created over the past few years, many difficult to characterise as one art form or the other. I am spending a lot of time reading, writing and re-thinking sonic ecology, as part of a possible dissertation. Furthermore, I have been developing a multi-channel playback system and using this to explore cybernetic improvisation. My many sonic activities are documented at Remanence which provides a good number of pieces for your listening pleasure.
As escalation 746 (and other incarnations) I haved played live in Dublin, Galway and Limerick. These performances integrate drum beats, sine wave pulses, cut-ups and other content. In December 2007 the CD Marmaros, one continuously shifting texture of orchestral harmonics, was released on Studio Ubiquity. Check out the escalation 746 website for downloads, CD releases and further activities. (As of 2009 these projects were largely wound-up since I have been concentrating on works under my own name.)
Event Curatorship
With Jurgen Simpson, I curated Soundings, thirteen concerts over five years, highlighting fine electroacoustic composition and performance. I am also a partner in RICE, The Real Institute of Civic Engagement, a social arts project founded by Frankfurt dramaturge Steve Valk. In this role I integrate visual design, research, writing, audio and performance into projects including Seven Days Of Everything at the 2005 Dublin Fringe and the lecture-performance Quantum Physics And New Theories Of Social Relations.
Poetry
My most recent solo reading was at The White House in early 2010. Other readings have been performed at The Belltable, Flannery's Pub, the Cuisle International Poetry Festival, the Eigse Michael Hartnett (open mic) and other venues. In 2005 I was an invited guest of the Pulse Festival in Brighton, UK and previously represented Ireland at the Oxford International Slam. My most recent publications were in the Stony Thursday anthology (Ireland), launched October 2007 and TEXT Vol. 11 No. 2 (Australia). Poetry continues to inform my other activities, especially those in radiophonics. An example is "Snowblind and Falling", a composition for voice and verse included on the Out of Silence compilation CD. This homage to Samuel Beckett was released March 2011 on Modisti Records.
Writing & Editing
Theory informs my activities on a deep level. In June 2010 I delivered the paper "Forgetting Interactivity: Notes Towards A Typology" at the conference Interactivity and the Audio Arts, University of Kent, UK. The paper "Complementarity: An Archipelago" became a chapter in the book Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change, edited by Jeffrey Gormly (Daghdha 2009). In 2006 I presented the paper "Time And Reality Die In Spectacle: Doctor Who As The Perfect Crime" at the Engaging Baudrillard conference in Swansea, Wales. In 2005 I co-edited Microphone On, the most extensive book of new poetry ever published in Ireland.
Photography & Design
I share photos almost daily on Flickr and have licensed a number of these to various recording and dance artists. I am a member of the Pentax Photo Gallery and have had some few images published on websites, journals and so on. I have created many posters for local activities, including designing the entire run for the Soundings concert series. Besides copy editing and layout I designed the cover of Microphone On from an original photograph.
Website Development
Through my consultancy Parmar Development I offer web design and development services, built on two decades of programming experience. Projects range from robust corporate sites to cutting-edge art projects. In all cases technical aspects like search engine optimisation, usability and standards compliance go hand-in-hand with a flair for elegant design to deliver the desired message. I specialise in sites for small art groups.
Radio
In the past I was active in community radio, producing over 400 episodes of the arts/music programme Missing 15 Minutes. An excerpt was presented at the AMARC 4 International Festival of Radio Art in Dublin and included on the compilation tape Radio Art International. Additionally I was a producer for the arts programme Dreamscapes (London, Ontario, Canada) and a founding member of Radio Ethos, the first community internet radio station in Canada (Strathroy, Ontario, Canada, 1998). Activities in radiophonics continue to this day, for example "Twelve Minutes on Catherine Street", broadcast as part of the RadiaLx festival, Lisbon, in July 2010.
this site copyright © 2007-2011 Robin Parmar