Skálar | Sound Art | Experimental Music is an artist-run organization established in 2012 investigating new methods for sound art and experimental music practices. Based in eastern Iceland, it takes the name ‘Skálar’ in honour of the Icelandic pioneer of electronic music Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson. Skálar acts as both an artist collective and a mobile curatorial platform, and produces a nomadic ( Skálar Sound Art) festival, international exchanges, and limited edition releases of audio and audio-visual works. Skálar works with related international institutions to form a network of artist interchange and presentation possibilities in Iceland and abroad, with the objective of undertaking sound-based artistic experiments, collaborations, presentations, and studies with artists working across disciplines.
Curatorially, Skálar’s focus is on creating site-specific sonic-based interactions with landscapes, both geographical or built. Skálar is particularly interested to generate and support artistic practices which highlight unstable systems, open spaces to new interpretations and use, and which engage in perceptual feedback and affect between site and subject.
The organization’s activities also include radio with Skálar FM, which promotes both micro-radio and transmission art works as well as interventions into the broadcast domain through commissions and curation developed in concert with various national public radio and independent radio stations.
Current curatorial board:
Anna Friz (ca), sound and radio transmission artist. Assistant Professor, Sound, Film and Digital Media Department, University of California – Santa Cruz
Elvar Már Kjartansson – Auxpan (is), founder/artist
Konrad Korabiewski, (dk/pl/is), founder/artistic director, sound art and media artist
http://skalar.is https://www.facebook.com/SkalarCenterForSoundArtAndExperimentalMusic https://soundcloud.com/skalarsound
