The sound works of four past resident artists of Binaural Media in Nodar will be exhibited at the
Teatro Viriato in the nearby city of Viseu, Portugal. The artistic projects include:

Aaron Ximm : As Paredes têm Ouvidos
John Grzinich : Nodar Flowlines
Maksims Shentelevs : Nodar Soundscape Mapping
Pali Meursault : Walk[s]

Each audio installation represents an individual exploration of the sonic environment around Nodar through field recordings and site-specific activity and resulted in a small project at the end of the residency. More information about the other works can be found on the artists websites and the Binaural Media website. These audio installations will be on display in of the foyer of the theater from now until December 14th. Special thanks to Luis and the others at Binaural for setting this up.

It has been a while since my last post, which was partly due to my being away in Portugal for most of April. Something of a sister project to MoKS has started up there known as the Binaural Media residency. It too is located in a rural village setting and aims to integrate the work of visiting artists into the local social and cultural climate. Also like MoKS, Binaural is committed to hosting a number of sound artists each year in an attempt to broaden the connections between sound, culture and the surrounding environment. Consequently the residency was in line with my own work and allowed me the freedom and the focused time to make a lot of great recordings.

An overview of my Nodar Flowlines project can be found here.

Before leaving Nodar, I had the chance to talk with Maile Colbert and Rui Costa about the role of sound in the mission of Binaural Media and how it plays into the work of visiting artists. Below is a 12 minute interview that I think covers a number of these topics in depth.

Sound art and Binaural Media discussion with Maile and Rui – interview (12:00): mp3 file

In April of 2008 I spent a month at the Binauralmedia residency in Nodar, Portugal. My interest was to carry out a sonic and visual survey of the landscape around the local village through a series of site-specific recording sessions. In particular I compared and contrasted the geographic lines caused by the natural water flows towards the river at the bottom of the valley versus the man-made aqueduct that transverses the vertical lines horizontally and brings water into the village. Both of these phenomenon actually rely on natural forces yet one was created for a specific purpose for the local inhabitants.

Using this theme of natural flow lines, I constructed two distinct audio-visual “narratives” based on the two types of landscapes shaped by water and humans. The surveys included recording methods that stem from the types of flows, drawing inspiration from the behavior patterns of how these flows shape the landscape.

The base sound material relied on the use of ambient sounds, found objects, (natural and man-made materials), and human intervention (installation and improvisation). The visual material focused on documenting the various aspects of this location based activity. The sound and video documents were edited afterwards into a two part video work that reflects and shows the “flowlines” locations and process.

below are a number of images and sounds from the original recording sessions which include other sites I discovered along the way.

wire installation interacting with the water flow: mp3 file

water harp installation in the sonzo river: water harp installation in the sonzo river

mountain tower wires recorded with contact microphones: mp3 file

wire fence installation with spring shims: wire fence installation with spring shims

tube at the source of the Nodar aqueduct: tube at the source of the Nodar aqueduct

spring shims in the aqueduct: spring shims in the aqueduct