time: 5 hours per day (over 2-3 days)

size: 4-8 people

materials: large working table, quiet space with stereo sound system

This workshop is about the perception of sound and using observation to direct attention for understanding how sound affects the way we think about time and space. Space can be understood in many ways, but for our purposes we will focus on the “mapping” of space through experiences that range from cartography (map reading and making) to more personal impressions (drawings, notes, sketches). The workshop is based on making a series of listening, analysis and soundwalk exercises to highlight sensory awareness. The experiences of both public and mediated space form a base for use as material for creating different types of “maps”. The maps made help reflect both objective and subjective approaches and can be created using a range of means from drawing or photo collage to cartography and gps tracking. Through these exercises we will look at different ways of expressing the connections between sound, space and our presence that zooms from small details to the big picture, from the personal to the shared.

Participants from a diverse range of disciplines are encouraged to join (Art, Architecture, Music, Performance, Design, the Social Sciences etc.). No previous experience in working with sound is necessary. Please bring a pen, pencil and notebook. Digital recorders and/or cameras are optional accessories. Wear comfortable clothing.

Berlin workshop 9.2010

For 2 afternoons we worked in the Berlin district of Neuköln, exploring the urban cityscape, with its parks, street life and public interiors becoming a stage for active listening. Special thanks to the participants for dedicating their time and energy to this experimental field and to Mr Alebeek for coordination. The first day was spent analyzing several locations through a series of listening and observation exercises. We then paired up and made a blindfold soundwalk through the area.

going "blind" with a trusted guide

Numerous sketches and notes were generated during the exercises. What quickly becomes clear is the style and methods of expressing what one hears is as diverse and unique as the participants themselves. No clear pattern emerged other than the understanding that visual representations of sonic events and environments is not easy.

Jesse maps his memory of the blindfold soundwalk

my map of isolated sounds and typology fields relating to each other

The question of representation comes up again and again. It is humbling to take an intense listening experience and translate it into 2 dimension piece of paper. One even wonders what might be the point of such an exercise. In many ways, attempts to make visual documents may only be an excuse for opening your ears and taking in more than your average experience. The maps below are of a small area that we observed at the end of the final day. The bustling sunday afternoon activity was more than enough for our senses. Google’s satellite view hardly does justice to the space and our combined efforts only toughed the surface of the complexity of the soundscape, yet through the process several nice detailed “soundmarks” were revealed.

each map is a fragment but combing several together creates a more complete picture (Julia, Michaela, John)

the view of the area from outer space

…and a simple recording with 30 second takes from each corner of the bridge

4-perspectives-Berlin

]]> http://maaheli.ee/main/archives/1693/feed 3 http://maaheli.ee/main/archives/1626 http://maaheli.ee/main/archives/1626#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:11:49 +0000 john grzinich http://maaheli.ee/main/?p=1626 15.9 -film screening

“Sound Aspects of Material Elements”
21.00 Altes Finanzamt
http://altesfinanzamt.blogspot.com/

18.9 -sound performance ‘strings’

21.00 Roter Salon at Volkbühne
http://www.roter-salon-berlin.de/

17.9 and 19.9 -workshop

Sound Mapping
exploring perspectives in listening

This workshop is about the perception of sound and using observation to direct attention for understanding how sound affects the way we think about time and space. Participants from a diverse range of disciplines are encouraged to join (Art, Architecture, Music, Performance, Design, the Social Sciences etc.).

keywords: sonic cartography, psychogeography, subjectivity, mapping, gps, spatial perception, cognitive maps

It was a busy week in Berlin but one of the nice surprises was a visit to Teufelsberg, a former NSA ‘listening station’ that has been abandoned since the wall came down. This small complex of buildings sits on top of an artificial mountain of rubble left over from the second world war. A group of us went to listen to something else, the space itself. Actually there were multiple spaces that included some old concrete military buildings and a series of geodesic domes, which I imagine, must have housed the surveillance equipment. The highest dome, sits at least 7 stories up, has a fiberglass shell that offers many sonic possibilities with its unique acoustic properties. The video below is composed of a few clips I filmed (in very windy conditions) while the sound is excerpted from a straight recording of a 40 minute improvisation of 5 people. Special thanks to Natalia for suggesting this and for Dusan to drive us out there in the snow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

just a short report on the workshop at CTM which went very well considering the various weather conditions in Berlin this week. Udo Noll the creator and developer of Radio Aporee Maps has revived the possibility of integrating a GPS locating function that works with the main website. A small application loaded onto a GPS enabled mobile phone can track your movement when enabled. Your path is then recorded and when played back, is synchronized with the existing sounds on Radio Aporee Maps. The different data layers (sounds, GPS track) are then mixed to create something of a fictional “sound walk”. While the recorded paths may stay the same the mix of sounds will continually change as new sounds are added to the map. To hear some examples, visit the Radio Aporee Maps Mobile page. Click on any of the files with ‘ctm workshop’ in the title and see some paths. Also, a number of new sounds were added during the week, particularly around Alexanderplatz, Rathauspassage and Klosterstrasse by myself and other workshop participants.

My tentative event schedule for late winter 2010. Dates and times subject to change.

January 23 – 29
Sound workshop for Art Pedagogy students of Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Keil

January 31 – February 2
radio aporee ::: sound/tracks workshop, CTM Festival (assisting Udo Noll)

February 5, 19:00
Panel Talk: “Put Your Ear on the Wall – Tuned City: Platform for Examinations in the Field Between Architecture and Sound” CTM Festival, with Carsten Stabenow [DE] / Sam Auinger [AT/DE] Derek Holzer [US/DE]

February 6, starts 21.12 ends 23.30
Das Kleine Field Recordings Festival mid winter edition, performance with Paulo Raposo and murmer at K77

February 8 – March 8
X-OP Residency at Apartment Project in Istanbul. Conducting second edition of “New Maps of Time” workshop/project

April 2010
Portland, San Francisco, Calgary (details coming soon)

Here’s what I’ll be involved with the next week or so:

Monday, January 26, 21.00
*Electropera Act 1: Parahouse_12
self-evolving participatory environment
by Egon March Institute and partner productions
Studio Martina Schumacher & Joulia Strauss in Ullsteinhaus

the photo above is from my participatory installation “feed back”

Monday-Thursday, 26th – 29th of January
X-OP- Conference Berlin
„True Art / Truely Merchandise“
at ConcentArt

Friday, January 30th, 21:47
Das Kleine Field recordings Festival
with: Paulo Raposo, Baruch Gottlieb, Feedbacksociety, John Grzinich
loophole – boddinstrasse 61

coming up next, Bytom-Wroclaw Poland…

Next week I will be in Berlin for the Tuned City - Between sound and space speculation event which involves 5 solid days of conferences, exhibitions and performances. I will be exhibiting video material compiled from my ongoing Location Sound Films project. I have put together two short films, one based on recordings from Estonia and Portugal over the last 2 years and another from the Riga Sound Locations workshop we held last August. While this is just a small sample of the films I have made it should give people some insight into what I’ve been working on.

As for the rest of the event, there is too much for me to comprehend at the moment but Derek Holzer has just posted an interview where he gives a good rundown on the program highlights.

I just uploaded a bunch of sounds to radio aporee ::: maps, one of the many interesting projects by Berlin based artist Udo Noll. Udo has done what I thought google would have already done with its maps or earth projects (but has not), which is to construct an interface for allowing people to upload and share sounds based on where they were recorded (Freesound has a similar geo-tagging function which I use). Not only that, there is a phone number you can call that will automatically record and tag sounds from a live phone call. This is one of those projects that has real potential to develop because there is the possibility to create a large scale sound map, something akin to a visual map, where conversations can run together and build stories or where layers of sounds can build up creating non-linear compositions that cross space and time. I’m looking forward to see where this goes. If you are a sound recordist or just what to record a discussion, then give it a try. Its open and easy to use.

some of my points: mooste hydrophone recording, market in Istanbul, seashore in France, fields in Portugal