Ten x Ten In-Progress Update: MELINA AUSIKAITIS & AMBROSIA BARTOSEKULVA

Ten x Ten 2017: Dual Practices is a semi-annual artistic project that commissions and presents new audio and visual works. This year’s iteration is guest curated by Experimental Sound Studio, in partnership with Ten x Ten founding organizations Homeroom and Spudnik Press Cooperative.

The 2017 roster of artists all produce compelling work as both visual artists and musicians, and are interested in experimentation and collaboration. The participating artists are Melina Ausikaitis, Ambrosia Bartosekulva, Mark Booth, Cathy Hsaio, Deidre Huckabay, Damon Locks, Lou Mallozzi, Joseph Clayton Mills, Allen Moore, and Sadie Woods.

Over the next few months artists will work in pairs to produce new work utilizing the full-service recording, mixing, and mastering studio at ESS and the fine art editioning services at Spudnik Press Cooperative.

You don’t have to wait until September to see what’s going on though! Throughout the summer we’ll be documenting and sharing each pair’s process. First up: Ambrosia Bartosekulva and Melina Ausikaitis tell us a little bit about their collaboration and process for their track recorded in ESS’s Studio A at the end of April.  

“The theme of location was only vaguely addressed by Ambrosia and I from the start. After we started talking, what we found common ground on was a place in time. We traded stories about growing up and our parents. It turned out that we had quite a bit in common. The stories that we tell in the recording were retold and fleshed out after this first meeting. I think the link between the two stories is sensory experiences; smells and materials, etc. 

Our two stories and a loose framework of three stages were all we walked into the studio with. I brought my fake guitar and pedals with me.”

–Melina Ausikaitis

“I was really inspired by a line in Melina's story to use a story I had with almost the same line as an opening. We both had these very similar experiences, yet our processes are on two very different layers. With sound I wanted to create a space that highlighted the contrast of Melina's very visceral tactility and physicality vs my kind of etheric non-locality. I wanted to integrate the two and have multiple layers in our sound as well, some up close and abrasive and some far away and hard to grasp.

I affected multiple channels of my voice and a drum machine through a series of analog effects, handmade electronics and loops. We practiced a few times and had a structure to our piece, but improvised within that framework.”

–Ambrosia Bartosekulva