Japan’s Atsuhiro Ito performs using his device the Optron, essentially fluorescent light tubes with integrated guitar pick-ups sent through a guitar amp stack.

When the voltage applied to the tubes is altered, the lights flicker and the pick-ups harvest the electromagnetic noise perfectly synchronized with the flickering light, the intense noise creating a visual hallucination in which the observer sees supposedly non-existent colors and patterns.

Ito also performs with the Optron in the duo Optrum, where he vies cacophonously with drummer Yoichiro Shin – they released the album Recorded on the Unknownmix label in 2006 – and he’s also previously collaborated with C. Spencer Yeh. You can find him in all three combinations on various riotous Youtube clips.

Atsuhiro Ito sets the theme for this event, with support from other artists using light as a noise source, including Newcastle’s own angular explorer Joe Murray aka Posset.

£10

You can buy advance tickets from here:

http://www.no-fi.org.uk/events

This event is part of the AV FESTIVAL (5-14 March 2010)

The AV Festival is the biennial international Festival of electronic arts, taking place from 5-14 March 2010.

This year the curatorial theme is energy: a universal force that connects, transforms and renews life. Exploring energy from scientific, technological, environmental and spiritual perspectives we present work that resonates across the Festival centres in NewcastleGateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, and beyond.

For a whole programme of the AV festival, you can have a look at their website here

The Star and Shadow Cinema will be the late night hub of the AV Festival, in the middle of a botanical garden...

Whole programme for the AV Fesival at the Star and Shadow Cinema here