Carlos Sandoval Explained

Carlos Sandoval Mendoza (born 1956, Mexico City) is a Mexican/German multidiscipline artist mostly recognized for his work joining technology and a Gestalt approach to the art of music composition, multi channel video, time-lapsed performance, AI-assisted art and Ink-Pen Drawing. Michael Zwenzner describes him as a "Socio-critical magician of the extended-multimedia instrumental theater."[1] On more recent Sandoval's work, Davood wrote: "[...] Each piece, whether sound or video art, music composition or intricate drawings, reflects an artist who is as much a global citizen as he is a silent observer of the internal human odyssey".[2]

Life and Work

Sandoval was born in an archetypal barrio in downtown Mexico City. Since his childhood, he was exposed to harrowing social and cultural conditions which were later reflected in his work.[3] In 2009 he became a German citizen and now holds a dual Mexican-German passport/nationality. Having abandoned his music studies at Escuela Nacional de Música UNAM 1976-79, Sandoval went on to study composition, analysis and theory, privately, with Julio Estrada (1985–90). He also assisted and took part in private sessions with several other composers. In Europe he learned Piano tuning and building at the Bösendorfer Klavier Fabrik in Vienna (1980–82). This stint radically changed his outlook on sound in general. Later on, as a photographer and videographer he studied with Sirgo (Mexico), Fabri (Austria), and Fathi (Germany). Sandoval is internationally active. From 1999 until 2018, he was a fellow of the SNCA which is one of the highest recognitions awarded to Mexican artists by the Mexican Government. He also worked as an assistant to Conlon Nancarrow (1991–94).

Sandoval identifies himself with diverse Edmund Husserl's phenomenological concepts like Lifeworld ("In whatever way we may be conscious of the world as universal horizon, as coherent universe of existing objects, we, each "I-the-man" and all of us together, belong to the world as living with one another in the world; and the world is our world, valid for our consciousness as existing precisely through this 'living together.'),[4] "Empathy and Subjectivity" (the subjectivity of others, as well as our intersubjective engagement with them),[5] Evidence ("the successful presentation of something whose truth becomes manifest in the evidencing itself"), Intuition ("...having a cup of coffee in front of you, for instance, seeing it, feeling it, or even imagining it: these are all "filled intentions", and the object is then intuited") and Intentionality of consciousness ("the power of minds to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs"[6]). All these concepts are linked in Sandoval's work with an ethical use of technology, (or Technoethics: using technology not just without renouncing humanism but stressing and empowering Humanism). He has been invited to take part in numerous events and contemporary music festivals around Western countries. He is also the author of multiple articles and speculative essays about music. During (and after) the COVID-19 pandemic, he is focused mainly on ink-pen drawing.

Early Work – Estradian-Xenakian period (1987-1990)

His early work can be identified with Julio Estrada's Techniques and the Xenakian school and includes the use of Cartesian graphics representing sonic trajectories and its evolutions, multi parametrics (utilizing several simultaneous performance and compositional resources in a single line or stave) as well as internal sonic imagination analysis.[7] "Ginantria", for cello solo, 1990, is the best example of this period. A number of out-of-catalogue pieces also belong to this stage:

Postmodern-Synthesis Period (1993-04)

In 1991 Sandoval met Conlon Nancarrow and began work as his assistant (1991–94).[10] The influence of Nancarrow's music was strong at this time while some remains of Xenakian style were also present. Sandoval's musical thinking began to lose channelization.[11] This lack of "school", "channelized impulse" or "Style" ("Style is just a super thin ham slice between your "freedom" and your own limitations" (Sandoval, 2009)[12]) remained a characteristic of his work and can be easily identified with a radical postmodern approach. Besides this, it took Sandoval almost four years to assimilate and synthesize the influence of both Estrada and Nancarrow, apparently the polar opposites of one another but in fact both belonging to a Cartesian, rational, object-oriented way of thinking.[13] Sandoval's music from this period is described well by the list of 16 postmodern music characteristics defined by Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17).[14] Between 2002 and 2003, just prior to relocating to Germany, Sandoval published two of his "manifestos": "Imaginación, análisis y posmodernismo"[15] and "De la fenomenología al ejercicio estético, o una apología del cinismo".[16]

Still in Catalogue from the "Fellini Circus Series":

Still in catalogue transition pieces:

German Period 1 (2003-2007)

Carlos Sandoval moved to Berlin, Germany in September 2003. His first German project was "Mextoys", 2003–04, 80:00", commissioned by the Festival Eigenarten and the Culture Ministry in Hamburg and premiered at the city's prestigious Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. This piece constituted a breakthrough in Sandoval's work: it was his first true "phenomenological" work, his first full multimedia piece, and his first work joining video and music into a single conceptual and constructive layer. This point marked Sandoval's departure from traditional score writing and deterministic thinking, towards developing either an experience-oriented connection to music and a Piagetian approach to animism towards music and life in general. Jean Piaget's theories of language as an object and the cognitive inability to distinguish the external world from one's psyche, still have a strong influence on Sandoval's work.[21]

German Period 2 (2006-2012)

While living in Berlin, Sandoval met a number of computer-science specialists and began developing work incorporating the use of sensors. His third "manifesto", published in Germany in 2009[22] interjects cultural, artistic and political values to the pure act of sonification via the use of technology. His work incorporating living trees, accelerometers and hands equipped with tactile sensors is based on random-picking software, and adds a mystical quality to the otherwise objective process of transduction of physical phenomena.

German Period 3 (2014-19) and CoVid 19 pandemic Period (2020-21)

Indoor Pieces

Outdoor pieces/performances

The first two pieces are collaborative-works (with mariana Castillo deball) that show "[...] the shifting of the artistic focus from objects and installations, to the work with subjects and their creative participation, opening the same creative door for both, the artists and the performers."[24]

Pandemic Period

Video works

Discography

Writings

External links

Notes and References

  1. Zwenzner, Michael: "Ensemble Mosaik, diskrete Maschinen", Program catalogue, Klangspuren in Schwaz, p.63, Tirol, Austria, 2016.
  2. Khazaie, Davood: ", Curatorial text, group show at the Ging-Hongyl Jiuzhou International Cultural and Arts Center. Produced by Pashmin Art Concordia, Hongquin, China 2023.
  3. "(…)I lived as a child in between two extremes: the incredibly violent street life in the barrio and the most exuberant family friends, all painters, like David Alfaro Siqueiros, Leopoldo Méndez, Elena Huerta, Pablo O'Higgins, Elizabeth Catlett, Mariana Yampolsky and others. I cannot imagine this fact not having an influence later on in my artistic life." Ituarte Maru, "Interview with Carlos Sandoval (In Spanish, German subtitles), HD Video, 2010, 24:15", http://vimeo.com/17957124
  4. Husserl, Edmund. (1936/1970). The Crisis of the European Sciences, pp. 108-109
  5. E. Husserl, Cartesian Meditations, Klumer Academic Publishers. Translated by Dorion Cairns.
  6. Jacob, P. (31 Aug 2010). "Intentionality". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  7. Sandoval, Carlos: "Los Yuunohui: un acercamiento al continuo en la obra de Julio Estrada", 80pp, DGAPA/IIMAS/IIE, UNAM, 1992.
  8. Sandoval, Carlos: "Ginantria", in La Pasión según la gente, Quindecim, QDO 1153, PACMyC, Sireña, México.
  9. Sandoval, Carlos: "Homenaje", in De vez en Vez, Quindecim, SACM, 2002.
  10. Hocker, Jürgen, Begegnungen mit Conlon Nancarrow Schott Musik International, Mainz 2002. 294pp.
  11. Tosi, Michèle, "...une pièce mixte au titre très énigmatique – l’absence de notes de programme préserve tout le mystère ! – du compositeur mexicain présent dans la salle Carlos Sandoval Mendoza. PfMd-01 se nourrit des contrastes plus ou moins radicaux entre une partie de piano aux ambiances pastorales et légèrement «détempérées», diffusée en continu par les hauts parleurs, et les interventions du pianiste dont la brillance du jeu et la fulgurance du geste rehaussent l’intérêt d’une écriture parfois peu canalisée" in "Grands Prix « Piano d’Orléans » 2009" http://www.resmusica.com/2009/03/19/grands-prix-piano-dorleans/
  12. Woschnick, Thomas, "Carlos Sandoval: setting in Motion", interview in Cast your Art http://www.castyourart.com/en/2009/04/08/carlos-sandoval-setting-in-motion/
  13. Ibid, Ituarte, Maru.
  14. Kramer, Jonathan. 2002. "The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism." In Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, edited by Judy Lochhead and Joseph Aunder, 13–26. New York: Routledge. Reprinted from Current Musicology no. 66 (Spring 1999): 7–20. "1. Is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension 2. Is, on some level and in some way, ironic. 3. Does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present 4. Challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles. 5. Shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity. 6. Questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values. 7. Avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold). 8. Considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts. 9. Includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures. 10. Considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music. 11. Embraces contradictions. 12. Distrusts binary oppositions. 13. Includes fragmentations and discontinuities. 14. Encompasses pluralism and eclecticism. 15. Presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities. 16. Locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers."
  15. Sandoval, Carlos, "Imaginación, Análisis y Posmodernismo" Artelugio Magazine, Querétaro City, 2002. Revised version: Pauta Magazine. Mexico City, 2005.
  16. Sandoval, Carlos, "De la fenomenología al ejercicio estético, o una apología del cinismo", Artelugio Magazine, Querétaro City, 2002. (Revised edition in Pauta Magazine, Mexico City, 2005). Web site: Archived copy . 2011-12-09 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120415132018/http://www.carlos-sandoval.de/pdf/La_catastrofe_web.pdf . 15 April 2012 .
  17. Sandoval. Carlos, "Fast Piece", in Donaueschinger Musik Tage 1994 CD 1, Track 01, Col Legno, WWE 3CD 31882.
  18. "La Pasión Según la Gente" SACM, Quindecim Recordings QD01153, PACMYC, Mexico, Sireña, Track 01.
  19. Sandoval, Carlos: "Pf-01", in La Pasión según la gente, Quindecim, QDO 1153, PACMyC, Sireña, México.
  20. Sandoval, Carlos: "Pf-02", in La Pasión según la gente, Quindecim, QDO 1153, PACMyC, Sireña, México.
  21. Sandoval, Carlos, "Imaginacion, Análisis y Posmodernismo", Artelugio Magazine, Queretaro Citi, UAQ, 2002. Revised edition in Pauta Magazine, Mexico City, 2005)
  22. Sandoval, Carlos, "Heimat, Identität?", Neue zeitschrift für Musik, 1-2009, p. 40-45. Germany
  23. Saxer, Marion "Präsenz und ihre Reflexion" in "Positionen, Texte zur aktuelle Musik / 107, Live Liveness", Verlag Positionen, Mai 2016
  24. Landl, Bettina, "Das Licht des Goldes in der Dunkelheit" (on "Viertel nach Schatten") in "Jahrbuch der Steirichen Volkskultur, Verlag Volkskultur Steiermark,, 2017
  25. Woodruff, Jeremy: "Composing Sociality. Toward an Aesthetics of Transition Design" in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound Art Edited by Sanne Krogh Groth and Holger Schulze, edit., 2020

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