DIY Music / Poolloop Festival @ ROTE FABRIK, Zurich, Switzerland / Bit Tuner, Sonic War...

I was having a late dinner Friday evening. The location was a government subsidised, graffiti covered venue in greater Zurich. Called Rote Fabrik (Red Fabric), this alternative enclave was fitted with several function rooms, restaurant/bar and a lovely view of Lake Zurich.

It was early evening, I was feeling a little lonely, the night before became morning too soon and I was physically drained (a recovering sprained arm and a tense 10km late night bike ride). My usual social tendencies were fragile on this 2nd day, intimidated even. I thought about the nature of traveling alone, about making conversations with new people for need, for the feeling of being part of a whole; when in fact you were a stranger, strange to all around you. As I pondered the ups and down of attending a festival by myself (which I have done numerous times before) a smile arrived at my table. He was the physicist guy that caught my eye earlier among the late afternoon crowd already soldering despite hangovers and the humid summer heat. Hooded in bright green, he had meticulously twisted and turned the knobs of a DIY tupperware housed noisemaker.

The setting was the SGMK (Mechatronicart Society) workshop table that I have come to know quite well this past year. As he continued to make beautiful noise, calculated and seemingly comprehensive, I sidled beside him and opened my bag. In hand I had my homemade ring modulator, my recently gifted Gakken SX-150, and some homemade cables made for all required uses. We discussed for some time before I wandered through the event organisation as they prepared for another long festival night to come. Alone, I navigated to the table of where I sat now, a view of the lake and the many groups of which I did not belong. So, here he was again prepared to join me, a welcome sight and wonderful company for the downtime one has in making friends in a foreign city. We ate spaghetti, the popular reasonably priced dish of the day, and walked together to the opening subversive film screening afterwards. It began with two gay pixels in love.

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Poolloop was organised by the atelier anorg and curated in part by the Zurich based SGMK society (Swiss Mechatronic Art Society). They've hosted a couple of events in German speaking Switzerland that I have had the pleasure to attend, the DIY festival in Zurich last December and the Six Freaks Under robotics event in the capital Bern in May. Both times despite the language difficulties, I only speak French & English, I was welcomed by the simplicity of the events and the ingenuity of the entertainment, installations and open workshops. Never a moment passed where not speaking the language was a hindrance and to be honest, I am sure it is because of these fine geeky accommodating people that I have felt quite at home in Schweiz since last year.

Here are some highlights of my two evenings spent at this wonderful festival,

MORE PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

POOLLOOP 09 OFFICIAL SITE.

LegoLoop & The Beauty http://legoloop.anorg.net/
A school project that became the most constant interactive attraction. Placed infront of the main bar, the two turntable sound system was manipulated by spinning lego blocks and their formation.

A camera captured the shapes and colours and made the lobby area eclectically electronic, surprisingly making very decent sound. The creator was amongst the crowd so I talked to his girfriend instead, The Beauty. She told me a little about the project and was one of the first of many kind people that made this festival fun and very casually welcoming. A great simple and fun project that never was missing cooperative hands. You can find more LegoLoop information here.

NetAudio Ping Pong http://cenatus.org/

Speaking of simplicity, I fell into conversation with Matt & Andy from Cenatus. Due to rain I never got to see there their musical NetAudio Ping Pong until Friday evening. The premise is a bank of two controllers on either end of the ping pong table. To compete, you play for the count of 16 beats, not playing under or over the alotted time. Each player would circle the table in competition, each level was manipulated to create different beats and samples, the final round proving quite difficult as Matt viciously manipulated the programmed sounds, for example some buttons didn't play anything and some were off time. What I love about this project, as the one previous, is the direct contact the player has and that the gameply actually allowed for realtime music making, the better the players got, the better the music and each time, radically individual and enjoyably different. This was another project not made for profit (made for fun) and a total crowd pleaser. For more information click here.

Sonic Wargames http://www.sonic-wargame.net/

I stayed for rehearsal and set-up for the Sonic Wargame session that was to showcase Friday night. The idea is a mish mash of DJ-ing and console gaming. Four groups of teams would play against eachother with their own choice of gear, one being the DJ, the other the console operator. Although identified as a wargames type scenario, the actual voting system was collaborative as opposed to competitive. Each team voted for their peers and were not allowed to vote for themselves. The team/s that would accumulate more than 2 points would be heard on the main PA system, unfortunately for the spectators this was cause for mass sonic confusion ,each winning segment was played too quickly in rapid succession. Little bonuses and strikes were added to the game to give it a gaming feel. One example, The Bomb, allowed a team to play a full minute alone, the crowd would go nuts finally hearing a mini set in its' entirety. Other gamemodes could cancel out an opponent or even mistakenly cancel out their own team. The gaming aspect was in full force during these moments.

The idea of combining a console experience to music making and interactivity is very cool but after witnessing the long setup and then seeing it with the festival crowd, it was clear that it was too chaotic and unclear for the spectators. I was asked many times what was going on. Fortunately, by round three, the teams mastered the collective aspect of the game and succeeded in making some fun music that was audible amongst the crossplay. I admire ambition and this display of cameraderie was what ended up being most important.

Click here for more information.

Bit Tuner & The Girl http://www.myspace.com/bittuner

An English girl runs up to me during the Sonic Wargame and proceeds to tell me she'd just like to give me a compliment. I leaned over as she told me she wasn't feeling very comfortable and no one looked like they were having fun (could it have been the confusion of the ongoing wargame rather than discontent?). Being bummed by the vibe, she apparently turned and saw me really enjoying myself and it made her feel better. Aw thats nice :-)

She was a friend of the Bit Tuner, the DJ I wanted to catch that night. I caught up with her later, seeing her smiling and dancing. Bit Tuner was excellent and dirty, the lovely dancing girl was much better, the crowd were all smiles. More Bit Tuner here.

SGMK Workshop http://www.mechatronicart.ch/diymakeaway

Every afternoon and night of the festival, a soldering workshop table was running. It sat in the middle of all the events. I met many interesting and intelligent people, even found solace when in need of some air or a sober moment. There were many scientist guys, engineers, amateurs and hobbyists amongst us.

I was shown an incredible Starship Trooper like spiderbot contraption that gleefully freaked me out. I heard alot of great experimentation with electronic sound and was witness to many dedicated solderers who were later joined by curious passerbys and various people in music, electronics and art. The table stayed up till morning, as did I. More on the SGMK DIY workshops here.

PoolLoop
Didn't get to see this but a quick mention. The underwater disco proved to be the initiative for many attendees, except me ironically.

The People
Lastly, the people. I am so glad I went to this event alone, there were many like myself and it really gave me the opportunity to see how hard everyone worked. Everyone looked content and were very open to exchange. Intimate festivals like this exist all over the world but until you start seeing a few in different countries, you realise that there is something symbiotic about the electronics and the music world, about graffiti covered convents of free expression and adventurous loners. Alternative may sometimes get the bad rap of being anarchist or poser, and yes it can be like anything else can, but what I deem a success for an event is when a lone person can arrive and feel welcomed, feel at home in the relm of lego turntables, musical ping pong & DJ's playing wargames.

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The sun came up Saturday morning, my two nights of the Poolloop festival were officially over. Money spent, arm out of order and a very happily inebriated acquaintance I felt duty to help his way back home. I was the last one standing, the night's carcasses strewn amongst the remnants of the kind people who dispersed slowly at the first train back to civilisation. The older couple who manned the busy bar said goodbye, we smiled warmly. I grabbed my friend's hand and clumsily walked our way back to the train station.

MORE PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

POOLLOOP 09 OFFICIAL SITE.