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Blog archive for November 2015

Workshop on everyday sound

November 1, 2015

Soundwalk-1200px

This past week I have been giving a workshop to a group of master students in arts at the University of Agder in Kristiansand. The workshop was an introduction to working with sound in cross-disciplinary contexts.

I have given some lessons with listening examples on the history of sound, sound art and experimental music, with an emphasis on noise as musical material (Luigi Russolo and John Cage), ideas of the French acousmatic music (musique concrete, acousmatic music, reduced listening and the sonorous object), the anecdotal sound and music of Luc Ferrari, acoustic ecology and soundscape thinking (R. Murray Schafer and Hildegard Westerkamp) and some current Norwegian artists working with field recordings (Jana Winderen and Elin Øyen Vister). On a techbnical level the students have been introduced to basic sound editing using Reaper.

One of the days we went for a sound walk and did some field recordings, and the students have used the recordings to develop small projects of their own, alone or in groups, that were presented at the end of the workshop.

The above photo is from a listening exercise done one of the days. Inspired by earlier exercises by Murray Schaefer and Brandon LaBelle, we made notes of all that we heard.

Concert at Galleri RAM, Oslo

November 2, 2015

Spaces_speak

Wednesday this week I’ll do a gig at Galleri RAM in Oslo as part o the Spaces Speak concert series, curated by Joakim Blattman Moldestad and Ricardo del Pozo.

More info here   .   Facebook event

Concert at RAM Galleri

November 4, 2015

Concert at RAM Gallery in Oslo, featuring Trond Lossius and Ricardo del Pozo & Kjetil Austvoll-Dahlgren. I presented an eight channel ambisonic surround composition mostly based on material from a number of installations done in recent years.

Ambisonic Toolkit for Reaper 1.0.b6

November 14, 2015

Figure_4

A new beta version of Ambisonic Toolkit for Reaper is now available. This version makes the names of the plugins more informative in REAPER 5, making the plugins easier to find.

In the big scheme of things and considering the sad news from Paris last night, this does not amount to much, but as a friend of mine just said:

The best thing to do is to keep on working and going.
I learned this from previous wars and as a child.

Max workshop at BEK

November 23, 2015

Max_workshop

Last week I gave a Max workshop at BEK. The patchers that I made along the way can be downloaded from the comment field at this page at the BEK web site. We’ve also set up a Facebook group for the workshop.

Photo: Jeremy Welsh

IRCAM forum

November 27, 2015

This week I have been visiting the IRCAM forum. I gave two presentations, one on Ambisonic Toolkit for Reaper, and one on Jamoma, in collaboration with Theo de la Hogue and Julien Rabin from GMEA. Below are some of the highlights from other presentations.

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Theo de la Hogue, Jean-Michaël Celerier and Pierre Cochard presented i-score. It has come a long way over the past few moths, since my residency in Bordeaux.

 

Ircam-forum

Screen saver the OpenMusic way. Jean Bresson presented several very promising improvements to the OpenMusic interface.

 

Ircam-forum_1_

This research topic certainly tickles the artistic imagination.

 

Ircam-forum_2_

Norbert Schenll et. al. gave an introduction to audio for web and the wavesjs framework. Very useful!

Atmospherics goes Luftskipet

November 30, 2015

Søkjer_-_heim_1_web

Me and Jeremy Welsh participate in the exhibition “Søkjar : heim”. The exhibition takes place at Luftskipet, located at Straume nearby the Sartor shopping center. The exhibition opens Tuesday December 1st at 19:00, and runs until December 13. It is curated by Håkon Holm-Olsen, Gro Lygre Petersen and Linda Soh Trengereid, and features artists with an affiliation to Sotra. One of the particularities of this exhibition is that all the works have been donated. The audience can apply to get one of the works, and the applications will be reviewed by the curators. So, our video piece is up for grabs!

Søkjar_heim

Installation view – video and slick speakers.

Me and Jeremy present a single-channel video originating from the ongoing Atmospherics project. This version was first presented at an Avgarde concert last spring, and is dedicated to the late Morten Eide Pedersen, former composition teacher at the Grieg Academy.

Download the program for the exhibition

 

Søkjer : Heim
1. – 13. desember 2015 i Luftskipet på Straume

Vernissasje: Tirsdag 1. desember kl 19.00
Adresse: Tyttebærbrekko 4 5353 Straume

Tre kunstnere fra Sotra ville gi hjemstedet sitt en litt annerledes kunstutstilling. Se for deg dette: du kommer inn på en utstilling. Rundt deg kan du se malerier, tegninger, skulpturer, grafikk og du kan høre lyd fra en installasjon og mennesker som prater, skåler og hilser på kjente. Du går en runde i rommet. Alle de 8 verkene i utstillingen er laget av profesjonelle kunstnere med tilknytning til Sotra, stedet du selv bor, eller har reist til for å se denne utstillingen. Ved inngangen i rommet står det en postkasse. Ved siden av postkassen ligger det en bunke med papir. Ordene på papiret forteller deg at det er et søknadsskjema. Nå, se for deg dette: du har like stor sjanse som alle de andre feststemte menneskene rundt deg til å eie hvilke som helst av kunstverkene i rommet. Arbeidene som er utstilt koster ikke penger, men tiden din. Skjemaet ved postkassen vil vite hvorfor akkurat du fortjener arbeidet til en av de deltakende kunstnerne. Du går en runde til i rommet.

Sammen med 5 andre kunstnere inviterer vi, Gro Lygre Petersen, Håkon Holm-Olsen og Linda Soh Trengereid til en kunstutstilling i Luftskipet på Straume. Vi ville gjøre et kunstprosjekt på vårt hjemsted som tar for seg kjøpepresset som preger vår tid. Et prosjekt i periferien der kunst får være kunst på sine egne premisser uten å bli styrt av krefter som vanligvis trekker i økonomiske tråder. Ved å gi bort alle kunstverkene i utstillingen gir vi alle i publikum en lik sjanse til å bli eier av et verk, uavhengig av bakgrunn, alder eller økonomisk situasjon. For å ha muligheten til å få et arbeid må man levere en søknad som argumenterer for hvorfor vi skal gi verket til henne eller ham. En søknadssituasjon som gjenspeiler en del av hverdagen til mange av kunstnerne i ustillingen.

Når pengene er tatt bort, hva er da igjen i relasjonen mellom kunst og publikum?

Kunstnerne som viser arbeid er; Kari Bugge Gjerstad, Odd Gjerstad, Trond Lossius/J_eremy Welsh, Heidi Kårtveit, Geir Opdal, Håkon Holm­-Olsen, Linda Soh Trengereid og Gro Lygre Petersen. Det vises verk i mange uttrykk; skulptur, lydverk, maleri, tegning og grafikk og alderen på kunstnerne varierer fra 31 til 90 år.

Den lokale jury, som etter søknadsfristen vil avgjøre hvem som får hvilket verk, godtar søknader på nynorsk, bokmål og engelsk. Det er ingen øvre eller nedre aldersgrense for å søke.

Utstillingen er støttet av Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, BKK, Haltenbanken, Sotra Bruk, Fjell Kommune og Bodoni.

Fabulous SEAS AV-1 loudspeakers

November 30, 2015

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Back in May, when I was doing a project in the anechoic chamber at the SEAS loudspeaker factory in Moss, I was gifted a pair of AV-1 speakers as well as an AV-230 amplifier.

This weekend I finally had the time to test them thoroughly. Considering the small size of speakers and amplifier, I expected them to sound thin and without much volume, but I am utterly stunned by what I hear. They are of course not able to reproduce the deepest frequency, but in general the volume, frequency response and sound quality is nothing less than impressive.

Considering their sound reproduction quality, small size (12×12×12 cm), minimal weight (0.9 kg) and beautiful white finish these speakers are a secret waiting to be discovered by sound artists and gallery spaces around Norway. I’m certainly about to get some more!

Seas_speakers_1

Laptop, speakers and amplifier with power adapter.
The speakers can be on stands as here, or be mounted on a wall.