Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Dr Andy Birtwistle Paper Abstract
TITLE: DISORGANISING ORGANISED SOUND: THE SILENT MODERNITY OF WALTER RUTTMAN’S 'WEEKEND'
“It is not a question of a new style or anything like that, but rather of producing a variety of possibilities of expression for all the known arts...” Walter Ruttmann, 1919.
“Since the appearance of the wireless, everyone has predicted... the rise of a truly radiophonic literature and dramatic art.” Paul Deharme, Proposition for a Radiophonic Art, 1928
In 1930, the filmmaker Walter Ruttmann produced a 12 minute sound composition documenting a weekend in the lives of his fellow Berliners. Broadcast by Berlin radio, and created using Triergon optical film sound technology, 'Weekend' has been described both as radiophonic art, and as 'cinema for the ears'. Ruttmann’s first and only piece for radio is celebrated as one of the first electroacoustic compositions, its ‘musical’ organisation of wordly sounds prefiguring the work of Edgard Varese and John Cage. However, what connects these artists together, beyond the electroacoustic dynamic of their praxis, was a shared interest in the potential of film sound technology to create a new art of organised sound.
This paper examines the ways in which Ruttmann’s deployment of filmic techniques within a radiophonic context radically challenges the differentiation of art forms and mediums that has been seen to define modernism - and which continues to inform the work of contemporary artists working in radio art, such as Gregory Whitehead. By situating 'Weekend' within the context of Ruttmann’s work in film, the paper aims to explore the composition’s radical intermediality, examining how the relationship it forges between cinema and radio might be understood within in a history of radical modernism.
Andy Birtwistle is an art historian, sound artist and filmmaker, and is currently Principal Lecturer in the Department of Media at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He originally trained as a filmmaker, but in recent years his research interest in film sound has resulted in the production of audio compositions that have been broadcast and exhibited internationally. His production work in this area draws on contemporary critical theory to explore art historical issues of modernism through creative production in sound and moving image. Recent work in this area includes sound installations, live performance and radio broadcasts. His video work has been screened in galleries and on television in the UK, and at international and domestic film festivals.
“It is not a question of a new style or anything like that, but rather of producing a variety of possibilities of expression for all the known arts...” Walter Ruttmann, 1919.
“Since the appearance of the wireless, everyone has predicted... the rise of a truly radiophonic literature and dramatic art.” Paul Deharme, Proposition for a Radiophonic Art, 1928
In 1930, the filmmaker Walter Ruttmann produced a 12 minute sound composition documenting a weekend in the lives of his fellow Berliners. Broadcast by Berlin radio, and created using Triergon optical film sound technology, 'Weekend' has been described both as radiophonic art, and as 'cinema for the ears'. Ruttmann’s first and only piece for radio is celebrated as one of the first electroacoustic compositions, its ‘musical’ organisation of wordly sounds prefiguring the work of Edgard Varese and John Cage. However, what connects these artists together, beyond the electroacoustic dynamic of their praxis, was a shared interest in the potential of film sound technology to create a new art of organised sound.
This paper examines the ways in which Ruttmann’s deployment of filmic techniques within a radiophonic context radically challenges the differentiation of art forms and mediums that has been seen to define modernism - and which continues to inform the work of contemporary artists working in radio art, such as Gregory Whitehead. By situating 'Weekend' within the context of Ruttmann’s work in film, the paper aims to explore the composition’s radical intermediality, examining how the relationship it forges between cinema and radio might be understood within in a history of radical modernism.
Andy Birtwistle is an art historian, sound artist and filmmaker, and is currently Principal Lecturer in the Department of Media at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He originally trained as a filmmaker, but in recent years his research interest in film sound has resulted in the production of audio compositions that have been broadcast and exhibited internationally. His production work in this area draws on contemporary critical theory to explore art historical issues of modernism through creative production in sound and moving image. Recent work in this area includes sound installations, live performance and radio broadcasts. His video work has been screened in galleries and on television in the UK, and at international and domestic film festivals.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Peter Cusack - Presentation Abstract
Recent travels have brought me into contact with some difficult and potentially dangerous places. Most are sites of major environmental/ecological damage, but others include nuclear sites or the edges of military zones. The danger is not necessarily to a short-term visitor, but to the people who live there or through the location's role in geopolitical power structures. Some are areas where extreme and hostile conditions have been created, in others the danger has been hidden or absorbed into the local economy. In yet others regeneration is underway.
Such places include the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine; the Caspian Oil Fields near Baku, Azerbaijan; the Munzur River (a Euphrates tributary) valley in Kurdish Turkey where 19 very controversial dams are planned; Thetford Forest beside USAF air bases in the UK; North Wales in the areas where Chernobyl fallout will effect farming practice for years to come.
Many sound recordings were made at these sites. Photographic and other visual images were taken. Interviews and background research provide textual documents. It is noticeable that dangerous places can be both sonically and visually compelling, even beautiful and atmospheric. There is, often, an extreme dichotomy between an aesthetic response and knowledge of the 'danger', whether it is pollution, social injustice, military or geopolitical. The project asks, "What can we learn by listening to the sounds of dangerous places?
This talk will concentrate on recordings made at sites in the UK
Peter Cusack, based in London, works as a sound artist, musician and environmental recordist with a special interest in acoustic ecology. Projects range from community arts to research into the role that sound plays in our sense of place. His project 'Sounds From Dangerous Places' examines the soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage.
He produced 'Vermilion Sounds' - the environmental sound program - for ResonanceFM Radio, London, lectures on 'Sound Arts & Design' at the London College of Communication and is a Research Fellow on the multidisciplinary multi-university 'Positive Soundscapes Project'. CDs include 'Your Favourite London Sounds' (Resonance), 'Baikal Ice' (ReR), 'Favourite Sounds of Beijing'
Such places include the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine; the Caspian Oil Fields near Baku, Azerbaijan; the Munzur River (a Euphrates tributary) valley in Kurdish Turkey where 19 very controversial dams are planned; Thetford Forest beside USAF air bases in the UK; North Wales in the areas where Chernobyl fallout will effect farming practice for years to come.
Many sound recordings were made at these sites. Photographic and other visual images were taken. Interviews and background research provide textual documents. It is noticeable that dangerous places can be both sonically and visually compelling, even beautiful and atmospheric. There is, often, an extreme dichotomy between an aesthetic response and knowledge of the 'danger', whether it is pollution, social injustice, military or geopolitical. The project asks, "What can we learn by listening to the sounds of dangerous places?
This talk will concentrate on recordings made at sites in the UK
Peter Cusack, based in London, works as a sound artist, musician and environmental recordist with a special interest in acoustic ecology. Projects range from community arts to research into the role that sound plays in our sense of place. His project 'Sounds From Dangerous Places' examines the soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage.
He produced 'Vermilion Sounds' - the environmental sound program - for ResonanceFM Radio, London, lectures on 'Sound Arts & Design' at the London College of Communication and is a Research Fellow on the multidisciplinary multi-university 'Positive Soundscapes Project'. CDs include 'Your Favourite London Sounds' (Resonance), 'Baikal Ice' (ReR), 'Favourite Sounds of Beijing'
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Dr Angus Carlyle Paper Abstract
From Afar
This speculative presentation will explore how notions of proximity and distance modulate our experiences of sound, including sound that is the result of artistic intervention. Layering ideas drawn from acoustics and perception over the top of themes emerging from anthropology, philosophy, literature and folklore, the intention is to animate the concept of distance as one that might make a different sense out of the experience of listening.
Distance – geographic distance, temporal distance and cultural distance – might find its mechanical corollary in the 'radio', a term I will understand as an abbreviation for any apparatus that can bring sound from far to near.
Angus Carlyle is a writer, artist and academic. In parallel to a long-standing engagement with contemporary photography, his writing has tackled subjects as diverse as the suicide of Guy Debord and the sense of place experienced by long-distance truck drivers. He edited Autumn Leaves: Sound and Environment in Artistic Practice for Double Entendre and compiled an award-winning album to accompany the book.
His explorations of sound in artistic contexts have involved exhibiting at various galleries, appearing on CDs and performing. He co-curated the Sound Escapes exhibition at Space in London and his first solo CD, Some Memories of Bamboo is released by Gruenrekorder in the Autumn.
This speculative presentation will explore how notions of proximity and distance modulate our experiences of sound, including sound that is the result of artistic intervention. Layering ideas drawn from acoustics and perception over the top of themes emerging from anthropology, philosophy, literature and folklore, the intention is to animate the concept of distance as one that might make a different sense out of the experience of listening.
Distance – geographic distance, temporal distance and cultural distance – might find its mechanical corollary in the 'radio', a term I will understand as an abbreviation for any apparatus that can bring sound from far to near.
Angus Carlyle is a writer, artist and academic. In parallel to a long-standing engagement with contemporary photography, his writing has tackled subjects as diverse as the suicide of Guy Debord and the sense of place experienced by long-distance truck drivers. He edited Autumn Leaves: Sound and Environment in Artistic Practice for Double Entendre and compiled an award-winning album to accompany the book.
His explorations of sound in artistic contexts have involved exhibiting at various galleries, appearing on CDs and performing. He co-curated the Sound Escapes exhibition at Space in London and his first solo CD, Some Memories of Bamboo is released by Gruenrekorder in the Autumn.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)