American Composers Forum Philadelphia Chapter is pleased to present this multidisciplinary workshop from Deep Listening practitioner, composer and sound artist Michael McDermott. This workshop will cap off a week of working on Deep Listening and sound art practices with students during his ACF funded composer residency at Village of the Arts and Humanities. Mixes from the Field is a collaborative project dedicated to connecting and inspiring those who use ambient or environmental sound recordings in their sonic works.
This is a call to composers, producers, musicians as well as sonic, visual and movement artists in the Philadelphia region who would like to further develop field recording and Deep Listening as an integral part of their work with Mixes from the Field (Michael McDermott and Sharon Stewart) and other participants. This workshop will be based on Deep Listening praxis as practiced by Pauline Oliveros and will involve a preliminary meeting at Art Church to discuss listening themes and listening/recording practice, individual field recording work, and a concluding meeting at Art Church to edit, share & manipulate works in your DAW of choice.
Themes:
Listening to identify sonic patterns and rhythmical structures both on a micro (temporal or spatial) and macro levels. What does “rhythm” mean in the context of field recording? Can I discover rhythms within rhythms in my sonic environment? Do we think in terms of big and small, zooming-in and zooming-out, close or distant?
Exploring sonic boundaries or transitional spaces. What does that say about city design, architectural boundaries, and socio-political spheres of influence?
Developing a recording choreography of movement that breaks up or morphs usual ways of moving or listening to the city. Changing speed, “ear” level or stereo arrays. Becoming-atypically-human in our recording techniques.
Listening for alternate time structures in the city. Generating an alternate time structure through recording practice.
Exploring post-processing techniques to treat, alter and change the way we recall sound events.
Overview of the Day:
- 10am: Meet at the Art Church of West Philadelphia to discuss themes and become acquainted with seminal Deep Listening attentional strategies
- 11am-2pm: Explore the city individually to record
- 2pm-5pm: Meet back at the Art Church to:
- Review your recordings
- Make a selection
- Optimize recordings
- Listen to each other's recordings/sonic sharing/feedback
- Experiment with processing effects
We’re open to heading out for an informal café chat afterward with anyone interested.
What to bring:
Laptop or whatever device houses your DAW and all desired recording equipment (field recorders, smartphones or tape recorders), headphones & lunch for on the go (we don’t provide lunch, but tea will be available at Art Church).
Gear:
The instructors will bring an array of recording devices for demonstration purposes. For sonic editing we’ll be demoing in the free Application Audacity, but other DAW’s and Apps will be used as well.
Cost:
- $30
- $15 / Students
- $10 / ACF Members
We’ve got one Telinga parabolic dish that can be attached through XLR cable to let you try out. If you are really nice you can borrow a DPA (omni) or Sennheiser (cardioid) mic to mount in the Telinga. As far as DAW’s go, we are using Logic Pro 9 and Ableton. Also we’ll touch on sound design techniques using the iPad Apps Samplr, Borderlands, Soundbow and STROM.
Bios:
Sharon Stewart studied piano at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty of Music, and later completed a Masters in Music Pedagogy at the Royal Conservatoire, the Hague. She has a private piano practice in Arnhem, creates (electroacoustic) sound works and installations, collaborates with various dancers (performances in the Netherlands, France and Denmark), and serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Sonic Studies. In July 2016 she took part in the 3-day field recording field trip on Orford Ness with recordists Chris Watson and Jez riley French. Sharon became certified in Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros, IONE and Heloise Gold in 2011 and is currently one of the core teachers for the online Deep Listening certificate program for the Center for Deep Listening, RPI.
Michael Reiley McDermott is a composer, soundscape architect. He has created works for video, dance, stage, installation, smart phones, multi-speaker arrays, wind sculptures, wishing wells and deep sleep. His practice explores the relationship between present moment awareness, deep time and humanity's personal connection through listening. His work integrates a daily practice of meditation, Deep Listening and textured sound worlds through a process he calls “sonic photography”. This process involves site-specific recordings of physical spaces re-imagined using photographic development and collage techniques. His aim is to reframe the everyday world as both a grand statement that stretches out in both directions of time and as an ephemeral instant of precious connection. Michael was recently Artist in Residence at <fidget>, Composer in Residence for Temple University’s BEEP Ensemble and is Composer in Residence at Village of the Arts and Humanities. He recently completed a certification program in Deep Listening studying with Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros.
