“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

Report from the New Maps of Time sound workshop Calgary Canada

‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping architectural structures and urban spaces using sound as a means to analyze and express actions within a space. read more…

Workshop organized by EMMEDIA, artist-run project space, from April 20th – 23rd, 2010. Special thanks to Tomas Jonsson and the helpful crew at EMMEDIA for coordinating this event and to Eesti Kultuurkapital for travel support.

Click the image to see the Calgary Sound Map on Radio Aporee

Some notes… Calgary is a modern city that sprawls out on the plains of western Canada just east of the Canadian rocky mountains. On the surface the usual urban soundscape of car traffic and construction noise blankets the subtleties of the larger environmental context that could potentially link the city’s relatively close proximity to nature (there are few industrial relics downtown). An abundance of paths along the river and an active public life offer more space to more diverse aspects of navigating the city. This where I found some of the more unique elements explored during the workshop. There were two pedestrian suspension bridges over the river that are highly dynamic structures rich with sonic qualities. The pedestrian network downtown known as the +15 walkway system is a feature of the city that blurs the boundary of public and commercial space. A study of the bridges of the +15 system gave a different sonic and visual perspective than the standard street level counterpart. This can be seen in the videos compiled below.

The Sound Locations channel on Vimeo has 3 videos made during the workshop. All sounds were left as they were recorded (no effects or processing done during post production):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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…

During the week of April 7th-15th 2010 I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin just north of San Francisco.

animate structures #4

Click here to view the embedded video.

this video features a set of specific locations where aspects of the land, abandoned structures and forces of wind come together.

just some of the materials and textures to be found in the areas around the headlands.

Travel support provided by Eesti Kultuurkapital.

New Maps of Time sound workshop/residency Istanbul Turkey

‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping architectural and urban spaces using sound as a means to express actions within a space. read more…

Workshop carried out in the frame of my X-OP residency at Apartment Project, artist-run project space, from February 8 – March 8, 2010

click the above Istanbul Sound Map to hear the recordings in Istanbul on Radio Aporee Maps

Some comments… It was both a pleasure and an adventure spending a month in Istanbul exploring the rich and often noisy environment of this great metropolis. The workshop went as well as could be expected especially considering how busy people are, making it a challenge to work continually as a group. Regardless, having a chance to collaborate with a diverse range of artists, musicians, architects and designers was always enjoyable and productive. I am thankful particularly to Muharrem Yıldırım, Onur Güngör, İdil Tunga, Natali Arslan, Nurgül Öztürk, Cansu Tolunay and Fulya Uçanok for taking time to share in our explorations of the city and work collaboratively in the process of sound making and recording. It’s also important to mention the generous efforts of the Apartment Project team for hosting and coordinating this workshop.

Some of the activities included in the workshop this month: building microphones (contact mics, hydrophones, binaurals), various city excursions to Maçka Park and Karaköy, trips to Burgazada and Heybeliada (islands), and a trip to Santralistanbul (Bilgi University campus). We concentrated on a wide range of activities as well, from passive analysis of soundscapes and acoustic architecture to active engagement with certain locations through objects and materials we found there. The gallery below is a small overview of these activities (photos by: Enise Gökbayrak, Onur Güngör, Muharrem Yıldırım and myself).

The Sound Locations channel on Vimeo has 6 videos of collaborative efforts made during the workshop. Here are a few highlights:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Islands’ a 14 minute film documenting trips to the Adalar (Prince’s Islands)

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

This work presents a cross-section of my sound interests and projects as a live performance. The performance includes an ever-shifting, juxtaposition of site-specific recordings (acoustic sounds, field recordings and video images), along with live movement and activation of physical objects and installations. As the composer moves from various locations throughout the year (in this case UK, Finland, Germany) so does he carry and transform his recorded materials. In this way, “Sound Locations – Transpositions” as a live event, becomes part of a continuous process, bridging personal experience, recorded documents with live presentation.

“Sound Locations – Transpositions” takes on various aspects of place and location in relation to sound and image. Three main components are present in the performance; live sound actions (via materials), mobile sound reproduction (via portable devices), recorded video (of sound recordings). These three elements are used as independent sources, but are combined in the end to create more of an environment than a performed piece. The outcome continuously develops and is never the same.

Photos by Serra Ozhan. Special thanks to Apartment Project for organizing this event and X-OP for support.

Sound Locations – Transpositions has been presented as the following events/venues:

(11.2009) Apartment Project (Istanbul, TR)
(10.2008) Sonikas Festival, (Madrid, ES)
(10.2007) Experimental Sound Gallery, (St Petersburg, RU), DOM, (Moscow, RU)
(5.2007) Observatori Festival, (Valencia, ES)
(12.2006) Cinema REX, (Belgrade, Serbia), Studentki Centar, (Zagreb, HR)
(11.2004) DEAF (Dutch Electronic Art Festival) (Rotterdam, NL)

New Maps of Time
sound workshop Praha / Kladno Czech Republic
‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping architectural and urban spaces using sound as a means to express actions within a space. read more…

Workshop Dates: 9-13th October 2009

Festival Dates: 10-16th October
in collaboration with FAMU, Skolska28, Open EYE project, Four Days in Motion festival, Biennial Vesitges of Industry

online: Radio Aporee Maps | Prague Favourite sounds

Site-specific sound actions:

Museum of former Sewage Plant – Piece for 10 underground channels: mp3 file

Passage way in central Prague – Komedie Pasaz action with multiple mics: mp3 file

Stromovka Park in Prague – Clapping action with multiple mics: mp3 file

Video gallery on Vimeo

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What you hear is a live sound mix made in my backyard using both live mics and contact mics, run simultaneously through a portable mixer. No post-processing or composing was done. The video was edited from hand held material recorded on a panasonic digital camera.More videos available on my Vimeo page.

New video up on YouTube that documents some of my latest recording activities. I’ve decided to call this series ‘animate structures’ rather than phenomenological. The audio recording is direct, no processing of layering was used.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Riga Sound Locations was a four day workshop that took place at various spaces around the city of Riga, Latvia. The project starts with the concept of site-specific artistic activity while integrating contemporary sound recording practices that cover areas of “performance”, “field recording”, “improvisation” and “documentation”. With the site being the prime focus, the artist as actor and instigator uses the means of sound to investigate the qualities of of the surrounding space and his or place in it. Riga Sound Locations (”Rīgas Skaņu Vietas“) was a workshop conducted from August 14-16th at various sites around Riga and was organized by Maksims Shentelevs and myself in cooperation with NOASS. The aim of the workshop was to visit 6 different locations around the city in order to investigate site-specific sound activity related to each place. These activities would be recorded and filmed to document each intervention. A group of about 6 people went out each day to see what could be found that was unique to each locations. The sites included an abandoned apartment, construction site, former power station, abandoned warehouse, old military airport and a backyard. Apart from the backyard all of these locations were temporary in the sense that they either being developed or destroyed at some point in the near future. So not only were we documenting our activities we attempted to capture the transitional feeling of the spaces.

day 1, at an abandoned flat across the Daugava river.

day 1, 25 stories up on the roof of a new skyscraper

day 1, Jekabs tries to contact mic a noisy construction elevator

day 2, playing found plates at an empty factory space

day 2, ringing hanging pipes at an empty factory space

day 2, exploring the steam turbine at the former Riga power station

day 3, rolling ceramic insulators at an abandoned military air hangar

day 3, improvising with found objects in an abandoned air hangar

day 3, an improv session in the backyard

day 4, returning to the former power station

day 4, Patrick McGinley joins in to play the steam turbine wheel

The video recordings were edited and presented as an installation at the SKAN sound art event in Riga from September 26th to October 13th.

Former Riga Power Station (2:02) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

Former Military Airplaine Hangar (2:08) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

Backyard Improvidation (2:20) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

participants included: John Grzinich, Toomas Thetloff, Maksims Šenteļevs, Jēkabs Nīmanis, Kaspars Kalniņš, Gints Birznieks, Ivars Šmits, Ivars Gravlējs, Mārtiņš Strautnieks (Martines Gonzales), Jānis Biķis, Kaspars Groševs, Patrick McGinley, Johanna Lonka

Check the Sound Locations channel on Vimeo for more documentation

Click here to view the embedded video.