My underwater impressions from Den Haag have been awarded in the competition ‘Europa – Ein Klangpanorama’, an initiative by the Goethe Institute of Belgrade, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Radio Belgrade, the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Ars Acustica Group, the Institute for Music and Sound at the Centre for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe (ZKM) and Götz Naleppa.

The project brought me during one week (17-23 Oct) to ZKM´s Kubus in Karlsruhe, Germany, where together with other nine sound artists I participated in a workshop led by Thomas Köner, with the challenge of creating together an ‘European Sound Panorama’.

This intensive week culminated in a double concert at the Klangdom, a high tech spatialization system developed at ZKM. The event consisted in a first part featuring our individual pieces and a second with a group live performance.

This concert was part of the program of the festival AudioCulture which included a few other events celebrated during those days.

Participants: La Cosa Preziosa (Susanna Caprara), Katrinem (Katrin Emler), Francesco Giomi, Konrad Korabiewski, Stefan Maleševich, Etienne Noiseau, Tamer Fahri Özgönen, Softday (Mikael Fernstroem & Sean Taylor), and Ladislav Železný.

Preview podcast at Goethe-Institut.

Etienne Noiseau´s posts about the workshop on Beaubruit.net (in French): [1], [2] and [3].

Klangkunst Radio Show 28.10.11 – Ein Klangpanorama (1st part) [listen]

Klangkunst Radio Show 31.10.11 – Ein Klangpanorama (2nd part) [listen]

“Lange Nacht – 21.01.12″
A three-hour feature radio show by Götz Naleppa and Sandra Topan.

Shedding Light – Corrosia! as explorative sound space
Expo Corrosia! Ongehoord
18 Jun – 20 Aug @ Corrosia!, Markt 5, Almere Haven, Netherlands

The ArtScience interfaculty’s Spatial Interaction Lab has made an interactive sound environment in the gallery space of Corrosia! in Almere. The audience is challenged to explore the work that takes place in a completely dark space. Since it’s not possible to oversea the space as a whole it reveals itself primarily my means of sound. The audience gets torches in order to find their way in the space. In the mean time their light is being picked up by light sensors and used by the installation to react to the visitors. While the visitors are moving along, they play the space and are being challenged to explore the space further and further. Shedding Light is part of the exhibition Corrosia! Ongehoord.

Spatial Interaction Lab 2010/2011: Erfan Abdi, Joeri Bultheel, Pablo Castro, Juan Cantizzani, Bardo Frings, Ivan Henriques, Matteo Marangoni and Pablo Sanz. Supervisor / head of the lab: Edwin van der Heide.

Exquisite Corpse
International Group Show, 13-30 April 2011
SoundFjord, London, UK

In April 2010, before SoundFjord opened it’s doors to the public, we (the creative team at SoundFjord) devised a plan for an exhibition, populated by artists’ works created using the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ model as a point of departure.

The Exquisite Corpse is a method made popular by the Surrealists, and is similar to Consequences, the old parlour game. Words, images or sounds are collectively assembled in a specific way, using rules set in advance, for instance, one is only allowed to see/hear the last section/measure of what was previously contributed.

This exhibition documents the works produced, and finally, reveals the artists who worked on the project and whom have hitherto remained anonymous.

press release
http://www.soundfjord.org/

Hertz Birthday Celebration
Collaborative streaming event
Rádio Zero, 22 Feb 2011, from 20 to 21 GMT.

Radio Zero sets up a special and colaborative streaming event to comemorate Heinrich Hertz birthday on February 22. Hertz experiments with electromagnetic waves were in the very basis that led to the to the development of the radio. And his name became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies: hertz (Hz), as in kilohertz (kHz) or megahertz (MHz).

Participating artists: Antonio della Marina, Gintas K, Ben Owen, Rui Chaves, Gonçalo Alegria, Daniel Gomes, Pablo Sanz, Carlos Santos, Jorge Valente, Sarah Boothroyd, Noisy Ghost, Andrius Rugys, Daniel Martin-Borret.  Live Mixing by Paulo Raposo.

Each artist was asked to choose and to perform in a given frequency range:
80-200 hz – 200-500 – 500-800 – 800-2000 – 2000-20000.

So, achieving the maximum of 5 simultaneous streams where each plays for about 15 minutes.

10 min, study for Wave Field Synthesis.
Collaboration with Sara Pinheiro.
Presented on WFS Concert 9 Dec 2010, GOL Foundation / Institute of Sonology, Leiden, NL

A pool of sound fragments from three different urban contexts within the city of The Hague are sequenced, layered, overlapped, yuxtaposed and spatially arranged using the WFS system.

stereo reduction (excerpt)
[See post to listen to audio]

Metros cuadrados de sonido is a project initiated by the collective/netlabel AddSensor which proposes a collaborative sound mapping of Legazpi-Arganzuela, a neighborhood in the metropolitan area of Madrid. The project intends to generate awareness about the role of sound and listening in our everyday life, specially in urban contexts. It does so activating exploration and collaborative creative processes, firstly documenting the urban sounds and second, inviting to produce derived works which make use of the recordings posted in the online map of the project. All those materials are published under CC licenses. The activities of the project are hosted by Matadero Madrid and the initiative is supported by the contemporary creation program of Intermediae.

I participated on this project conducting a two-day intensive introductory workshop about phonography and field recording, which was oriented to work as a trigger for the sound mapping process. We were surprised of the huge amount of people interested as we got suddendly almost forty applications (!!!). However, space and resources were limited, so it is a pity that a lot of people could not attend this time.

The group was enthusiastic and rich in backgrounds: architecture, media, tv, radio, journalism, electronic music, philosophy, engineering, archaeology, literature… So we had all sorts of artists, tech people and scholars sharing interests and curiosity for sound and listening practices, which provided from the very first moment a positive atmosphere of creative exchanges and sharing.

On the first day we shared ideas and experiences about the importance of listening in everyday life, went through a few examples of arworks based on urban sound, audio technology and basic recording strategies. Day two was devoted to field work. Three teams explored different locations and at the end of the day we did some editing, discussion and listened back to a selection of the collected sounds.

more images here and here

A weekend felt such a short time for an endeavour of this nature but anyway I think it was a productive time and (I hope) everybody went back home resonating with refreshed ears, new ideas, inspiration, tips and for sure with some new comrades.

This was the first workshop I was giving and therefore actually a nice opportunity for me to reflect on my own practice and issues behind it, learning as well by the exchange with the participants. Thanks to all the participants: Iñigo, Andrea, Sila, Ana, Sergio, David, Daniel, Guillermo, Ana, Ángeles, Carmen, Carolina, Noèmie, Milos, Déborah, Sergio and to the AddSensor team (Ana, Miguel, Ángel and Tono) and the guys working at Matadero for making possible the experience.

The online sound map started already to get populated with those very first recordings made during the workshop. Now it is time for the project to continue developing. So far there are a few events already scheduled: a meeting and presentations on Dec 3 and a concert series in January, check the program for detailed info.

Dag in de Branding Festival: Alvin Lucier in Den Haag
Music for Solo Performer (1965), for enormously amplified brain waves and percussion
May 29, 2010 – Korzo 5HOOG/Theaterzaal, Den Haag, NL

Performed by Alvin Lucier with the assistance of Nicolas Collins and Anne Wellmer. Loudspeaker-percussion-instruments designed by Michael Schunior, Alberto Novello, Juan Cantizzani, Aurimas Bavarkis, Pablo Sanz and Matteo Marangoni.

Produced by TAG / Dag in the Branding. Curated by Anne Wellmer.

[See post to listen to audio]

Music for Solo Performer was first performed on May 5, 1965 at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, with the encouragement and participation of John Cage. I sat on a landing between the two floors of the Museum, electrodes attached to my scalp. The mono output of the alpha amplifiers was routed to the inputs of 8 home stereo amplifiers, the outputs of which were sent to 16 loudspeaker-percussion pairs deployed around the Museum. During the course of the 40-minute performance Cage randomly raised and lowered the stereo amplifiers’ volume controls channeling the alpha signal to various instruments around the room.

- Alvin Lucier, text reprinted in the book “Everything is Real”, edited by TAG publishing, The Hague 2010.

Periféricos. Arte Contemporáneo en la Provincia de Córdoba
Exhibition opening on 7 April, 2010, Sala Puerta Nueva, Córdoba, Spain.

Periféricos brings together contemporary artistic and cultural initiatives in the region of Córdoba. Sensxperiment participates bringing a Dreamachine and the screening of FlicKeR, a documentary about Brion Gysin and the history of this device. This is part of the programe of its triennial edition 2009-2011, under the theme ‘Sensory Immersion’, realized in collaboration with Mediateletipos.net.

Audio mix made to accompany the Dreamachine experience in the exhibition space.

[See post to listen to audio]

donwload (mp3)

Gysin / Burroughs / P-Orridge : “Interviews & Readings” // Cold Spring Tape (CS006, 1989) · Daniel Lercher : “Resonanzen” // Alg-a (alg046, 2008) · ZLB : “I Was Vaguely Aware of Something” // Friendly Virus (T4, 2008) · William Burroughs / Ian Sommerville : “Silver Smoke of Dreams” (early 1960s) · C.P. McDill : “Introspection”, Webbed Hand Records (wh104, 2008) · Kenneth Kirschner : “070905” // 05 compositions, Alg-a (alg018, 2005) · Adrián Juárez : “Cenit” // Split series # 3, Mirakelmusik (mir024, 2007) · Brion Gysin : “3 Permutations [Recalling All Active Agents]” (1960) · Pablo Reche: “Constelación D” // Constelación, Conv (cnv06, 2004) · Sustainer : “Vértice 2” // Vértice, Escala (escala 1:5, 2010)· Minimal States : “Stereopsis” // Like A Photograph, Test Tube (tube187, 2009) · _blank : EXT [procura interna] // Alg-a (alg043, 2008) · Gysin / Burroughs / P-Orridge : “Interviews & Readings” // Cold Spring Tape (CS006, 1989) · Bryon Gysin : “Pistol Poem” (1960) · Gregory Taylor : “Seismic Profile” // Two Maps of Danaraja, Stasisfield (SF-6005, 2008) · Night Drone : “Drift1” // Drifts 1-4, Petcord (pc1108-01, 2008) · Brion Gysin : “3 Permutations [No Poets Don´t Own Words]” (1960) · Shinkei : binaural frequency // Koyuki (koy000, 2007) · Out Level : “Water” // Water Recordings, bypass (bp012, 2008) · ZLB : “Neuronal Adequacy” (2010)

132 min – All the contents have been released under copyleft licenses.

Participants in Justin Bennett´s workshop at the Institute of Sonology recorded sounds from their personal environments during 24 hours. In Everyday Life they reconstruct and reinterpret these 24 hours, compressed into a 30 minute-long live performance. As support-act Justin Bennett will perform a new piece Raw Materials.

Participants: Gerben Kokmeijer, Tania Sikelianou, Yiannis Tsirkoglou, Pablo Sanz, Lucas Sancho, Matteo Marangoni, Miguel Negrao, Juan Cantizzani, Belinda Li, Bjarni Gunnarson, Baldur Bjronsson.

[See post to listen to audio]

Surround live recording of the performance on exhibition at Geluidpost, Lokaal01, Breda, NL. From May 31 to June 18, 2010.

http://www.mediateletipos.net/aural-networkssonar-07/
[english below]

“Dejad que los sonidos sean ellos mismos”, escribía Cage, el artista más citado por derecho. El antropólogo Jacques Maquet defiende que “existe una respuesta estética humana universal al sonido”. Llorenç Barber, otro visionario, asegura que “los sonidos no son sólo símbolos; son actos” y el filósofo Dilthey explicaba que esos objetos extraños, lo sonoro, son creaciones del propio espíritu, que “no podemos explicar, sino que sólo podemos comprender”. Para poner el dedo en la llaga, Michel Schneider, psicoanalista y musicólogo francés, comenta que lo sonoro, la música, es “una especie de lengua extranjera que no hablamos pero que nos habla. Sabe de nosotros lo que nosotros ignoramos”, y si a todo esto sumamos que la invención del fonógrafo dista de la de la imprenta casi ocho siglos -es decir, que existió mucho antes una tecnología que permitiría la conservación, reproducción y difusión de la imagen que la del sonido-, estamos ante un problema epistemológico; esto es, ante la necesidad de construir una nueva teoría del conocimiento que permita el estudio de las sociedades a través de su imaginario sonoro. En este supuesto nuevo escenario es donde la web semántica tiene un protagonismo esencial, allí se construye y no se representa: del plano figurativo al patrón, de la perspectiva a la inmersión, del objeto al proceso, del contenido al contexto, de la recepción a la negociación, de la observación a la acción y, cómo no, del automatismo cerebral a la mente distribuidora. Es aquí, en este nuevo contexto, donde posiblemente estén las claves para encontrar una solución al problema.

Mediateletipos.net, (satélite del portal artesonoro.org), ha seleccionado ocho proyectos que tienen en común el consenso social como vía de trabajo para construir esa tan ansiada vía de conocimiento a través de la “auralidad”.

*********************************
“Let sounds be themselves”, wrote John Cage, the artist who is deservedly quoted most often. The anthropologist Jacques Maquet said that “there is a universal aesthetic human response to sound”. Llorenç Barber, another visionary, declared that “sounds are not only symbols; they are acts,” and the philosopher Dilthey explained that these strange objects (sounds) are creations of the spirit itself, which “we cannot explain, but instead we can only comprehend”. Michel Schneider the French psychoanalyst and musicologist put his finger on it by saying that sound and music is “a type of foreign language which we cannot speak but which speaks to us. It knows what we don’t know about ourselves”, and if we add to all this the fact that the invention of the phonograph came almost eight centuries after the printing press (i.e. a technology enabling the conservation, reproduction and dissemination of images rather than sounds existed much earlier) we are faced with an epistemological problem, which is the need to construct a new theory of knowledge which enables the study of societies through their sound imagination. It is in this supposed new scenario that the semantic web plays a key role, where construction rather than representation takes place: from the figurative plane to the pattern, from the perspective to immersion, from the object to the process, from the contents to the context, from reception to negotiation, from observation to action and of course, from cerebral automatism to the distributing mind. It is here, in this new context, where the keys to finding a solution to the problem possibly lie.

Mediateletipos.net, (a satellite of the portal artesonoro.org) has selected eight projects, which have social consensus as a means to working towards constructing this much desired path to knowledge using aurality as their common feature.

“Ccmixter”
http://ccmixter.org
“Earlabs”
http://earlabs.org
“Escoitar”
www.escoitar.org
“The Freesound Project”
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu
“Jamendo”
www.jamendo.com
“Pandora”
www.pandora.com
“Ruccas”
http://ruccas.org
“Soundtransit”
http://soundtransit.nl

Digital á la Carte [English]
Digital a la Carta [Spanish]

Conferencia de presentación del proyecto en SÓNAR 2007 realizada por Pedro Jiménez y Pablo Sanz.

[redes_aurales_presentacion_pdf]