About
Following CIRMMT Distinguished Lecture by Janet Cardiff, Research Axis 4 (Expanded Musical Performance) is organizing a workshop with our guest lecturer.
We're calling on our members to present aspects of their research that involve sound installations.
The presentations are limited in duration to 20 minutes, and should fall in one of two categories of subjects covered:
- Presentations showcasing technical aspects of a research project, such as: speaker integration with/in structures, interactive systems for visitors/audience, etc. ;
- Presentations showing a specific aesthetic and artistic path taken, such as presentation/analysis of a sound art piece, a showcase of methodology, etc.
Registration
Please note that the deadline for submissions is April 10 at 2:00pm (Eastern Time).
You will be notified at the email provided in the form on the status of your application.
Please submit your applications by filling out the form available at this link.
Schedules
Valérian Fraisse: Designing and evaluating public space sound installations through research-creation collaborations
When designing a sound installation in a public space, creators consider a wide range of factors related to the site where it will be deployed as part of the artistic statement. However, anticipating the impact of the sound installation on user experience is difficult in the absence of established methods to inform the design and evaluate the outcomes. Based on three case studies involving sound artists and soundscape researchers, this talk introduces a research-creation collaboration framework through four stages: 1) field recordings of pre-existing sound environments; 2) diagnosis of pre-existing sound environments and public space usage; 3) sound installation prototyping in laboratory settings; 4) evaluation after deployment. These stages, alone or in combination, can systematically inform – or eventually drive – the design and evaluation of new sound installations in public spaces.
Giuseppe Masia: Rip the Needle
Multi-sensory incursion into the groove: memory traces and imprints of altered vinyl records in a sound and sculptural installation practice
In today's digital age, music is consumed and listened to primarily through digital rather than material and sensory means. In this prevailing impression of dematerialization, my question will be how to make tangible and multi-sensory the vinyl record traces of our past, altered memories, through sound and sculptural installation. My aim is to make these memory traces physical, by creating sculptures in clay or glass with the impressions of the grooves, in order to create participatory sound installations where viewers can touch, feel, see and hear these memory traces. The intention is to reappropriate memories and culture, in a research-creation process rooted in sound studies. (The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies - Trevor Pinch, Karin Bijsterveld)
I want to place the public in a framework in which they can question the cultural links between my objects and what they feel.
I intend to work on the so-called multi-disciplinary dimension of my practice, organically combining sculpture, installation, digital art and sound. The various stages of the project involve : 1) collecting vinyl records that people are throwing away in Montreal; 2) altering the vinyl by laser cutting and gluing; 3) molding the grooves in silicone, then casting them in wax ; 4) creation of the clay/glass sculpture; 5) sound installation with the sculpture on a motorized or mechanical lathe (like an old gramophone); 6) a robotic arm will read the grooves, following the shapes of the sculpture with a needle; 7) reflection, writing and public presentation.
Estelle Schorpp: 'Écosystème(s)' and 'Anémochories' : technical, conceptual and aesthetical aspects of two interactive sonic environments
This text presents the conceptual, technical and aesthetic strategies used in the creation process
of two original works: Écosystème(s) (2019), a self-interactive sound installation, and Anémochories (2021), a series of wind-generated compositions. Both works are based on an ecosystemic approach to the creation of interactive and/or generative sound environments.This approach borrows from systems theory, environmental sciences, philosophy of the living and sound studies in order to identify avenues of reflection on the act of creation in the face of the current ecological crisis in a context of democratization and ubiquity of digital technologies in our mediascapes.
Amanda Gutierrez: Third Ear Radio
The project Third Ear Radio opened an experience of radio tuning, creating a third space for inter-subjective listening. The deep listening sessions initiated a space for feedback, dissonances and diverse ways of perceiving sound about the radio as an instrument of group synchrony. As a conclusion of these three sessions, this project concluded with the presentation of a radio walk that dialogue with the territory of Valparaíso.
Simon Chioini: Assemblages: sound art as a means of establishing connections to our environments
Drawing upon a conception of sound as medium of a presence, and on the perception of the landscape as the result of participation, I will provide practical examples of sound ecology, stemming from my doctoral research-creation project. The “Son + Lieu” workshops and a series of works at the intersection of installation, performance, and sound art will demonstrate a recursive methodology of exploration-collection-assembly, facilitated by the design of low-tech and portable sound systems. In the context of the climate crisis, this approach aims at deepening and sharing a connection to our surrounding environments. Sound creation is envisaged here as an act of mediation.
Françoise Isabelle Lessard: Bonification des lieux en ruines : Une interaction sensorielle entre le corps, l'architecture et les ondes
I will present the progress of my research project which aims to explore how to activate the body and space through sound,Lessard vit et travaille à Montréal et en Mauricie. Forte de ces études en architecture ainsi qu’en arts visuels et médiatiques, elle poursuit actuellement son parcours à la maîtrise en arts visuels et médiatiques de l’UQAM. Son travail a été exposé dans plusieurs galeries, au CDEx, Arprim, au Palais des congrès, à la salle d’exposition de La Place Des Arts, et plus récemment à la place Smith ainsi qu’à LESPACEMAKER. based on the concept of geographical perception of Maryanne Amacher, American composer and researcher. This concept consists of the organization of a three-dimensional choreography of sound phenomena and their experience, by exploring the architecture and acoustics of the place. The questions underlying my research are as follows: how can we stage the physicality of sound inherent to the place explored?; how to make the inaudible audible?; how to summon the hyperlistening body of the visitor in a sound art installation?
Philippe-Aubert Gauthier: Sound art and sound installation: applications and inspirations from principles of spatial audio and acoustics
Starting from research in spatial audio and acoustics, a series of sound art installations and apparatus by the author will be presented. With examples derived from wave field synthesis, beamforming, loudspeaker array, etc., we will explore how the science of sound, acoustic, signal processing and array processing can be used for sound installation.
Guillaume Boutard, Catherine Guastavino: Multiple Perspectives on Sound Art Documentation: an Empirical Study
During the project sound art documentation (sad-sask) we conducted a pilot study on the use of spatial audio recordings to question documentation practice from multiple expert perspectives.
Dominic Thibault: 5$ de gaz: ready-made system
A generator purchased after 1998's famous ice storm has been sitting in a garage purposelessly for over 25 years now. Could it be that its purpose finally be revealed by its use in an sonic art installation? The generator's output, its electricity, is used to power a sound amplification system which, in turn, serves to amplify the sound the generator produces. Five dollars of gasoline are poured into the generator tank and it is started so that a homeostasis relationship begins between the sound environment and the generator. A relationship with a duration pre-determined by the price of gasoline. A relationship fluctuating by its surrounding and our interaction with it through sound. The piece takes a look at time and its monetary value, a headlong rush that we are collectively experiencing with regard to climate change.