Rod Summers - VEC Producing/ Publishing

VEC Producing/ Publishing

Summers began to experiment with recorded sound as early as 1961. By 1973, he became an active participant in the Mail art Network, and among the items of exchange were audio cassettes. In 1978 Summers decided, as he says to Ruud Janssen in TAM Mail-Interview #11 (see reference 2, below) "to inform myself ...who else was involved in the Audio Arts movement....In 1978 I travelled over to Warsaw to perform audio the invitation of Henryk Gajewski and Piotr Rypson. I performed two live works there and the performances were recorded. On my return to Maastricht I assembled the first VEC AUDIO EXCHANGE cassette from works received and my own works including the two made in Poland." A post card explaining the rules of the exchange was sent out on the Mail Art Network, and as Summers says, "...reaction was rapid and enthusiastic. A total of 16 exchange cassettes were made October, 1978 to the in 1983, and over 2000 copies were sent out in exchange for audio works." The complete AUDIO EXCHANGE is important because it documents international trends in Audio Art (and, almost as an after-thought, the beginnings of contemporary Noise music) in a transitional period, before the widespread adoption of digital technology and the rise of the World Wide Net. Lander and Lexier's Sound by Artists (Art Metropole, 1996) gives full details of the project. The AUDIO EXCHANGE is also referenced by Peter R. Meyer (in Swedish) in his study of Audio Art Ljodkunst (Stockholm, 1997).

In addition to the Audio Exchange, Summers began VEC Audio Editions, which he continues to produce in CD format. VEC Audio Editions includes an anthology of Polish Futurist Sound poetry, performed by Piotr Rypson, as well as other sound works by noted practitioners of Audio Art.

The VEC agenda also includes publishing Fluxus-like "multiples": limited edition magazines, artist books, artist stamps, broadsides, computer discs of art or text, stamp art, post cards, poem-objects, scores, and other ephemera. Many of these items have found their way into public and private collections.

Collaboration has been an important part of Rod Summers' VEC activities. Rod Summers has worked with, among others, Tom Winter, a Munich-based Audio Artist, Vittore Baroni, and Everarts.