SKILL SHARING WORKSHOPS
May 22 11:00-18:00 (EEST Helsinki Time Zone)
Online Skill-sharing sessions (2-3h each)
Jacob Remin
“To Soothe the Body Electric”
A sound meditation on loss of control and algorithmic agency.
Jacob Remin’s (DK) practice is a critical meditation over technology and the power structures it creates, with special focus on the meeting between late capitalism and the algorithmic potential of internet and computers everywhere. His works are often manifested as physical works in the meeting between light, space and composition.
Remin often works collaboratively and structurally, creating spaces for conversation.
Sound is an intangible medium, dispersed in time, which holds great potential for inducing movement in body and soul.
In this workshop participants will be introduced to the field of audio meditation and tactics of algorithmic self-care.
How can the act of listening inform our actions moving out of the contemporary crisis we are in?
Through listening exercises and group meditation, workshop participants are invited to join a conversation on the relationships between body, sound and technology.
John Grzinich
“Sensing a Site: telematic sound”
On remoteness and telematic sharing possibilities
to raise awareness of ecology.
John Grzinich (USA/EE b. 1970) is a sound-video artst, project coordinator, workshop facilitator and photographer.
He has worked since the early 1990s as a freelance mixed-media artist and cultural coordinator combining sound, image, site, and collaborative social structures.
His primary interest is working with sound, combining such divergent methods as field recording, filmmaking, electro-acoustic composition, performance, acoustic perception and listening awareness. He’s the head of EMA New Media in Faculty of Fine Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
This workshop will be about combining investigations of sound in remote locations and telematic sharing possibilities.
Over the past 20+ years John Grzinich has witnessed the development and expansion both in the sound arts and internet cultures. This has been paralleled by ever increasing awareness of more ecological approaches to artistic practices (and life in general).
As a sound artist who works primarily ‘in the field’, he has been working with combining elements of environment based site-specific activity and the possibilities of networked experiences. This is of particular interest as a means of confronting (domestic) isolation due to Covid-19 pandemic. In late March 2020 John Grzinich made a series of live streaming ‘sound actions’ entitled ‘Primary Ground’ as a response to the lockdown , which will continue further in 2021. This workshop will focus on remoteness and telematic sharing possibilities to raise awareness of ecology.
Mantautas Krukauskas
“Artistic Diffusion of Sound in Space”
On innovations of spatialized sound.
Mantautas Krukauskas – composer and sound artist, Associated Professor at the Department of Composition of Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, co-founder and Head of Music Innovation Studies Centre. Professional profile also includes electronic music performance and work within creative industries sphere with music production and arrangement. Mantautas Krukauskas has been actively involved in diverse field of activities, including coordination and management of international artistic, research and educational programmes. His interests comprise interdisciplinarity, creativity, music and media technologies, and a synergy of different aesthetic and cultural approaches.
Mantautas Krukauskas (LT) will lead a workshop on innovations of spatialized sound. He will introduce the possibilities and creative approaches in creating virtual sound spaces and immersive sound experiences. With the rise of immersive formats like 360° video, VR, AR sound has a huge role in creating and deepening immersive experiences. Mantautas Krukauskas is also a co-founder and Head (since 2016) of Music Innovation Studies Centre of Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius – an academic lab for studies, art and research, with a focus on music technology, innovation in music and music education, interactive arts, immersive media, and interdisciplinarity.
Derek Holzer
“SOUNDS of FUTURES PAST: Media Archaeology, Design Fiction, and Electronic Sound”
On speculative design of historically informed electronic instruments.
Derek Holzer (USA b. 1972) is an audiovisual artist, researcher, lecturer, and electronic instrument creator based in Stockholm. He has performed live, taught workshops, and created scores of unique instruments and installations since 2002 across Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. He is currently a PhD researcher in Sound and Music Computing at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, focusing on historically informed sound synthesis design.
http://macumbista.net
This cooperative learning workshop invites composers, programmers, performers, engineers, artists, and designers to speculate on the future of electronic sound instruments informed by devices of the past. The object of our studies will be the DATATON SYSTEM 3000 modular synthesizer. This set of instruments was designed by Björn Sandlund in the early 1970’s as a pedagogical tool for music academies. It isextensively documented in his book The Early Synth Days [1], and in a series of YouTube videos by workshop facilitator Derek Holzer [2].
The Gemini-twinned theoretical practices of Media Archaeology [3] and Design Fiction [4] provide the methods of our investigation. Participants will be introduced to intellectually playful what-if scenarios from both discourses. Looking backwards into time through Media Archaeology, we may trace the hidden histories of objects to see how their in-built agencies continue to shape how we use them. And leaping forwards in time through Design Fiction, we enter into a sci-fi realm of limitless possibilities unbounded by material constraint. Using the DATATON as focus point for both methods, workshop participants will speculatively design new electronic instruments inspired by Sandlund’s creations.
No technical knowledge is required for participation in this workshop, however some familiarity with how electronic sounds are produced would be helpful. The workshop will be held entirely on Zoom, and a webcam is required. Participants should watch the YouTube videos [2] on the DATATON (total time: less than one hour) before the workshop.
This workshop is based on Holzer’s research [5] into the collected instrument archives [6] of Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Statens Musikverket, and the Scenkonstmuseet in Stockholm, with the goal of producing new, historically-informed sound synthesis instruments and interfaces. The project is hosted by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in cooperation with the Royal Academy of Music (KMH), and is supported by the Swedish Research Council/Vetenskapsrådet.
LINKS:
[1] https://www.dataton.com/shop/the-early-synth-days
[2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAz5IzRCksDJf9ENkU_qYhac3TlgE09Df
[3] https://mediaarchaeologyreconfigured.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/parikka-cartographies-media.pdf
[4] https://drbfw5wfjlxon.cloudfront.net/writing/DesignFiction_WebEdition.pdf
[5] https://www.kth.se/hct/mid/research/smc/projects/historically-informed-sound-synthesis-1.1048895
[6] https://tinyurl.com/scenkonstmuseetsynths