One from the archives… Tower guide wires on a mountain top in central Portugal resonating in the wind. Recorded in 2008 with a pair of contact mics while in a residency at Binauralmedia in Nodar.

Here are several field recording made during a recent visit to Portugal. These recordings were made in several different spaces throughout the Convent of the Order of Christ, inside well preserved castle of the Knights Templar. When the castle opens at 9:00 there are few people in the off season. For the sake of discreetness I used the internal mics of the Sony PCM-D50.

Small chapel off the first cloister (sounds of cleaning women)

Convent small chapel

Main cloister (water fountain and bird sounds)

Convent main cloister

Third cloister (with circling sparrows)

Convent cloister with sparrows

B/W, 57 minutes
PAL HD, 16:9

filmed/recorded: 2006-2009
edited: 2009

concept, camera, editing: John Grzinich

additional sound: Patrick Mcginley

collaborative recordings made with: Patrick McGinley, Jim Haynes, Toomas Thetloff, Maksims Shentelevs, Kaspars Kalninsh, Eamon Sprod, Hitoshi Kojo, Evelyn Müürsepp

equipment and support: MoKS – Center for Art and Social Practice, Mooste Estonia.

Sound Aspects of Material Elements reveals how our sense of hearing can use non-linguistic signals to communicate, interpret and build relations to the world around us. Using sound as the primary signifier, the film shows a specific approach to the artistic use of sound, covering a 3 year period of the authors personal research and collaborations with a number of close colleagues. The film documents in-situ processes of exploration and sonification of the landscape along with the numerous objects and structures found there.

All the sound recordings emphasize how the combinations of certain materials (metal, wood, glass) with natural elements (water, wind fire), take on alchemical characteristics as we listen in. We experience aeolian metal wires in the wind, structures affected by fire, water, snow and the casual effects of human interventions in insect worlds. The sonic outcomes can be subtle and sometimes below our common perception so a variety of experimental recording techniques were employed. Contact microphones are placed on surfaces shifting our attention toward the internal resonances of the materials themselves while mini microphones reveal spaces normally inaccessible by our ears. What we hear is what we see, yet is sometimes translated through amplified means.

With its minimal editing style and durational shots, Sound Aspects of Material Elements shifts our attention toward and extended view of time and place, of the ever changing micro-processes that hint to eternal growth and decay inherent to cycles of nature itself. The possibilities to intercept, shape, disrupt, recombine and capture the elements through creative experiments is what this film attempts to illustrate in the interest that it may inspire the viewer to listen in new way.

premiere screening April 17th, 2010 : CUFF – Calgary Underground Film Festival

additional screenings: galeria entropia Poland, Pacific Northwest College of Art USA (5.10), Altes Finanzamt Berlin (9.10), Estonian National Museum (11.10), Haus Der Kulturen der Welt Berlin for the Über Lebenskunst Festival (8.11) Audio Kino by SoundFjord, London (10.11) Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Scotland (10.11)

DVD release info coming soon…

Over the past year I’ve been developing a workshop concept that involves a whole range of ideas. The workshop known as “Mutopia” started somewhat accidentally last year at MoKS summer symposium AVAMAA when I decided to collaborate with Tero Nauha, a researcher and performance artist from Finland. We both had our own workshop plans but combined them to form something new. The outcome was more than we expected and therein was one of the core ideas, to create something that is collaborative, all inclusive and provides conditions for open exchanges. What follows is a general frame for the efforts of the participants to be coordinated. As I describe on the new Vimeo page:

Mutopia is a process oriented workshop environment that explores collaboration, collective creativity and open forms of authorship. This is done through social and environmental research, exercises, games and the use of mixed artistic media such as sound, collage, text, performance etc…

The videos here are composted aspects of the process but should not necessarily be considered the only “results”. The outcome is more the subjective experiences of the individuals who participate and contribute.

The collaborative aspect is essential. I’m trying not to steer a particular direction for the group and avoid the format and product mentality. The videos came out because of the possibility to layer the different processes into some composite form but other outcomes are there. Some of the texts hold well on their own as well as the readings of the texts. This is the importance of understanding the strength of subjectivity, that each participant sees their own contribution in the whole, where collective authorship is the prime motivation once people open up and get inspired. the narratives come directly out of the process and in fact are multiple.

I’m interested in being much more of a guide for the processes and mediator of the ideas than an artist who shapes the world around me to “fit” certain ideas. With each step of the process we break to desire to determine goals allowing indeterminacy to take its course.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mutopia locations:

Mutopia 1 – AVAMAA MoKS Summer art symposium – 8.2008
Mutopia 2 – X-OP symposium, Macao Portual – 4.2009
Mutopia 3 – AVAMAA MoKS Summer art symposium – 8.2009
Mutopia 4 – Polymer Culture Factory, Tallinn – 12.2009
Mutopia 5 – Jelgava University, Latvia – 12.2009
Mutopia 6 – X-OP symposium, Tomar Portugal – 5.2010

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.

I produced a framework afield radio show based on some of my recordings in Nodar during my residency there. This show was broadcast live on Resonance FM in London on Sunday June 8th, 2008. I have now made the show will also be available to listen to:

Framework afield – field recordings from Nodar

/*framework*/ – phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity presented by patrick mcginley

/*framework*/ broadcasts sundays on *resonance104.4fm* in london (uk) or worldwide on http://www.resonancefm.com from 10-11pm gmt

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Also, my Location Sound Films project was recently mentioned on the Networked Music Review site.

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

(Lisbon) Mid-October, I’m traveling now, performing and working on projects.

I just spent two weeks in Portugal enjoying the chaos.

There was a one week sound/art symposium called Pushing the Medium ..2. It was in the town of Nodar where an international group of artists came to realize project in the place. There were a number of concert evenings as well.

After here I perform in Barcelona at La Sala Castello with Paulo Raposo.

After that we’re off to Italy