Discover a limitless source of sonic ideas by listening to and responding to the sounds of the urban spaces that surround us. Using sounds from cities, streets, fields, markets, and the area around STEIM on the Amstel river, this course challenges participants to listen to the din of the city and reflect creatively on its unique sonic character.

With the workshop teachers you will be introduced to new ways of incorporating urban landscapes into performance and composition, and work to uncover the world of urban spaces as a soundtrack for life. Participants will be introduced to various strategies to use and experience urban sounds through a series of practical, collaborative listening and playing exercises.

By focusing on the everyday, this workshop offers the chance to dialogue with real-world sound with common objects, electronics, or instruments. Non-musicians are welcome to attend, as are musicians, artists and performers.

Schedule: 1 day, 2 sessions. 10h-13h, 14-17h

To Bring: small objects, electronics, or instrument as sound makers

This Drive-By workshop is led by composer Johnny Chang and sound artist Luke Munn. The workshop is part of Exchange: Berlin, a dialogue between local performers and sound materials in various cities. Supported by Initiative Neue Musik Berlin in cooperation with Q-O2 Werkplaats Brussels, Sonic Arts Research Centre Belfast, STEIM Amsterdam and Quiet Cue Berlin.

DETAILS //

Date: August 6, 2011

Time: 10:00 – 17:00 (lunch break at 13h)

Cost: Donation. Pay what you believe the experience was worth.

Location: STEIM, Achtergracht 19, Amsterdam

Maximum number of participants: 8

Reserve a spot online through this registration link: http://www.steim.org/steim/event_registration.php?event=413

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE //

10:00 – 11:00

Intro to “Public Sound”

11:00-11:15

Listening exercise #1

“not the sound, but the listening is the piece” – Peter Ablinger

11:15-11:30

Body playback

Activations: Body – Object – Sound (stationary)

PAUSE (MORNING TEA / SNACK)

11:45-12:15

“Sounds in Space”

12:15-12:30

Listening #2

Locations: Berlin

12:30-12:45

Whole Space exercise

Activations (Extended): Bodies – Objects – Sounds (space)

PAUSE (LUNCH)

2:00-2:45

Memory Walk

2:45-3:15

Memory Playback

PAUSE (AFTERNOON TEA / SNACK)

3:30-3:50

Site as Stimulant

Sonic topography: Transcription / Notation / Documentation

4:00-4:20

Sonic topography: Score Realisations (Sounding the Map)

Small group realisations

4:30-4:45

Collective performance

4:45-5:00

Notes / Documentation / Thanks

WHAT TO BRING / PREPARE //

All attendees must bring small objects, electronics, or instruments as sound makers.

TEACHERS //

Johnny Chang is a violinist and composer based in Berlin, Germany, he studied at California Institute of the Arts (Los Angeles) with Michael Pisaro and James Tenney. Johnny’s articulated performances have been featured in festivals and experimental music series around the world, from the Wandelweiser Summer Residency Series in Düsseldorf, Klang im Turm (Munich), Dog Star Orchestra (Los Angeles), LISTEN/SPACE (Brooklyn, New York) to experimental music series/venues in Berlin such as Miss Hecker, Exploratorium, Ausland, MaerzMusik and Labor Sonor. His compositions explore the relationship of noise, silence, tone and of connections between improvisation, composition, performance and listening.

Luke Munn is a Berlin based artist with a sound and socially focused practice. His work centres around re-activating, and re-presenting sound and our relationship to it: site-specific performances and projects that often use the architecture of a space, objects from the audience, field recordings of the area, or historically or socially derived audio. His work has featured in the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Q-O2 Brussels, Laborsonor Berlin, and others – with performances in Paris, Dublin, Chicago, Berlin, Auckland, and New York.
STEIM
(studio for electro instrumental music)
(studio voor elektro instrumentale muziek)

Achtergracht 19
1017 WL Amsterdam
Nederland

tel 00 31 (0) 20 6228690
fax 00 31 (0) 20 6264262
http://www.steim.nl