Sound Seed Transmissions was a radio show I hosted as part of my residency at Nida Art Colony and was broadcast on the local radio station, Neringa FM: http://neringafm.lt/

The Sound Seed Transmissions show focused on sound and artists who work with unique and different contexts, drawing their inspiration from nature, natural materials, found objects, temporary installations and self-made instruments. The show was meant to be a type of “stories from the field”, presenting a mix of short interviews with artists and a selection of field recordings and/or compositions.

Below is the full archive, all 6 shows:

SST #1 – 16.11.2011 – Introductory show with Greek sound artist Yiorgis Sakellariou in dialogue with John Grzinich discussing their ideas and methods for field recording.

SST#1

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SST #2 – 23.11.2011 – The second radio show was entitled the “Secret Life of Wires” where I presented my long term fascination with resonant wires as instruments and objects in the landscape and played a number of recordings over the years.

SST#2

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SST #3 – 29.11.2011 – The third radio show we explored the idea of “Sonic Traces“, how physical processes not only leave marks but also reveal something in the sounds they make. The guest was visual artist Evelyn Müürsepp from Estonia. Evelyn and John talked about and played pieces from their collaborative sound and drawing project “Sonic Scratch Cycles”.

SST#3

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SST #4 – 7.12.2011 – The fourth radio show explored the idea of “Instruments of Place“, or making sound through the construction and manipulation of objects, materials and devices and other creative means. The guest was Maksims Shentelevs from Latvia. Max and John talked about and played pieces from their self-made instruments and sonic investigations of places.

SST#4

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SST #5 – 14.12.2011 – “The Sounds of Nida” was the title of the 5th show. My residency was coming to a close and this show reflected on my discoveries and experiences in Nida. Neringa FM host Linas Ramanauskas offered to interview me and we I played various recordings made during my residency.

SST#5

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SST #6 – 21.12.2011 – The 6th and final SST show was a special solstice edition entitled, “myths as public dreams, dreams as private myths“. The guest was Andrius Rugys from Vilnius. Andrius and John shared their recordings and discussed experiences from the field working with attentive ears.

SST#6

This entry contains a variety of material documenting my two month residency at the Nida Art Colony on the western shore of Lithuania. The colony was opened in spring of this year as a branch of the Vilnius Academy of Art, which purchased the original building in the early 1990s, but invested recently in a completely reconstructed facility. The new building houses five residency studios for visiting artists and an array of guest rooms, kitchens and conference rooms to accommodate a variety of events, workshops and symposia.

For the focus of my residency I have proposed the following:

sound – subject / object – site

This two month residency concentrates on sound and the signification resulting from the merging of material objects, affects the elements and positioning within the landscape. By listening in to this process we expand the connections to our environment by taking the role of wanderers, seekers, collectors and instigators. Daily field excursions around the Curonian Split involves phonographic studies, short sound actions and temporary installations that become the basic frames by which to listen and document. The collected materials will be edited and composed into an audio/visual film along with an exhibit containing the physical objects. Collaborations were welcome to open this working format into a continual creative dialogue between objects, spaces and the local environment.

gallery of objects and interventions

several colleagues came for short visits to collaborate, namely Yiorgis Sakellariou, Evelyn Müürsepp, Max Shentalevs, and Andrius Rugys.

From December 2-4 I gave a sound workshop for students from VMU in Kaunas. Thanks to Tautvydas and the Colony for coordinating this. The b&w photos are from Eglou Baltrušaičių.

Excerpts of 2 sound exercises:
exercise – open narrative exercise – open narrative

exercise – word association exercise – word association

This video is meant for the workshop students to illustrate how different type of microphones sound

Click here to view the embedded video.

changing seaside and lagoon of the Curonian Split

surrounding landscapes of the Curonian Split

In addition to all of this, I produced six episodes of a weekly radio show entitled the “Sound Seed Transmissions” on the local radio station Neringa FM. You can listen to all the shows here.

‘sonic scratch cycles’ is the working title for a collaborative sound and drawing project between myself and EKU (Evelyn Müürsepp). The project is based on an ongoing series of collaborative site-specific actions recorded in different locations. Each location has its own spatial and material properties which are ‘translated’ into sounds and drawings. Each action is timed and lasts as long as it takes me to make one rotation around Evelyn, who sits in the center and draws what she hears. She wears a binaural microphone setup and listens through headphones as I improvise with activating the surroundings.

Ahja river bridge
This track is the companion recording to the drawing above which was done at a bridge crossing a local river.

Silo take 02
This recording was made in an abandoned silo tower in Mooste. Notice the rain.

‘sonic scratch cycles’ was first presented as an installation as part of a group exhibition at Kibla in Maribor Slovenia. The drawings were presented in the circular hanging structure with two speakers providing the binaural soundtrack. The viewer/listener takes the role of of the ‘actors’ or ‘translators’ who preserved and presented the evidence of their actions.

Clinamen Tides – is a scored performance piece which combines amplified and acoustic sounds, recordings and objects, structure and improvisation. Multiple small speakers disperse the sound throughout the room and among the audience, with an emphasis on listening and movement. The artists will play recorded sounds, found materials and homemade instruments to create sound works of rich tonal and textural complexities.

A performance in 3 parts. Each artist is a conductor and performer. The piece, half scored – half improvised, offers a frame and direction, but allows space for small variations of spontaneous actions to shape the sound. The piece plays equally on visual as well as sonic elements.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Clinamen Tides performed at the Pispalan Nykytaiteen Keskus.
Tampere Finalnd, July 2006

photos by Patrick McGinley

“Clinamen” is the name ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus gave to the spontaneous microscopic swerving of atoms from a vertical path as they fall. According to Lucretius who was influenced by Epicurus, there would be no contact between atoms without the clinamen, and so, “No collision would take place and no impact of atom upon atom would be created. Thus nature would never have created anything.” (De Rerum Natura, lines 220-225)

Clinamen Tides performance at Gallery Saoh and Tomos, Tokyo (28.10.06)
as part of the ‘Marginal Art’ exhibition organized by Abiko Open Air Exhibition

photos by Shirakawa Masahiro

above: Clinamen Tides performance in Osaka and Kyoto Japan, November 2006

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John Grzinich (EST/US) is a mixed media artist who has been working mainly with sound since 1995. He has performed and worked extensively throughout Europe and the US and has published a number of CDs on such labels as Staalplaat (NL), CMR (NZ), erewhon (BE), Intransitive Recordings (US), Elevator Bath (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Cloud of Statics(CH), and SIRR(PT). These works consist of solo and and collaborative productions of experimental electro-acoustic sound pieces that result from studio and performance activity. Currently John is a project and media lab coordinator for MoKS – center for art and social practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in southeast Estonia.

EKU (Evelyn Müürsepp) is a visual artist residing in south- east estonia. her creation has taken different forms besides paintings, like poetry performances, installations and processes. here you can get acquainted with some of her works. if you would like to obtain some of her paintings or are somehow else interested what she does, do not hesitate to contact her. since 2001 she is also involved with moks – artist- in- residence program at Mooste, Põlva County, Estonia.

Hitoshi Kojo (JP/CH) has worked in various artistic areas such as music composition and painting in both traditional and contemporary methods, as well as installation, performance, etc… He diagonally crosses the center and the surrounding of those creative areas, as he does in life. He has grown with the influence of an ancient culture and the thought of Asia since his birth. Yet he also was influenced by his relatives, a quantum physicist, a psychoanalyst and buddhist monk. He currently lives in Europe, where he absorbs old myths and manners along with contemporary philosophy. These influences, he prefers to masticate and to digest, just like his favorite foods. He laughs in the metaphysical labyrinth, swims in the stridulation of the Milky Way, and indulges in eroding sunlight. His artistic trails exude and drip by the names OCTPIA, SPIRACLE, and KODAMA for now.

In Japan I took part in this years Abiko Open Air Exhibition. Each year a number of artists are invited to create site-specific works or performances in a nearby park located in the eastern part of Abiko city (1 hour from Tokyo towards the Chiba prefecture). The event is organized by a group of local artists and volunteers, some of whom took part in MoKS summer art symposium 2 years ago, Hiroshi Egami, Shirakawa Masahiro and Takashi Ikezawa.

Apart from the Abiko project, we took the opportunity to present a recent sound performance piece developed by Hitoshi Kojo, Evelyn Müürsepp and myself called Clinamen Tides. This piece was performed in Tokyo, Abiko, Osaka and Kyoto.

Here you can find 4 photo galleries from the Japan trip (under November).