University of Guelph (Canada)
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GUELPH SOUNDSCAPES Listen to the experiments by some of the participants in the University of Guelph project below. These soundscapes are made with sounds collected by students, staff and local Guelph residents at workshops and on location, as well as using sounds in the library recorded during the other projects.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
GALLERY OF PICTURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH SOUND WORKSHOPS 2010 Slide show will automatically start, or click through using the arrows     01/37    
WORKSHOPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH Join us for weekly workshops in sound art at the University of Guelph. MARCH Professor Ellen Waterman, University of Guelph Listening to the world, R.M. Schafer's ideas on soundscapes, sound walking Emory Davis, CFRU Radio volunteer and independent DJ Recording buses at Guelph, saving sound files MARCH/APRIL Upcoming sessions include Michael Waterman, internationally respected sound artist Michael will be talking about his own work and encouraging the creative combination of recorded sounds. Stave Mason, Operations Coordinator for CFRU Radio Steve will be talking about technical aspects of using microphones and recorders Dr Andy Houston, University of Waterloo Andy will be exploring the history of places through sound Germaine Liu, nationally renowned percussionist Germaine will be getting participants to explore sound through the relationship of the body to the physical spaces around it, look forward to becoming part of the world's sound scape. MAY Workshops in Audacity sound editing software, mixing and adding sound effects to sound samples, planning sound art pieces. Completion of a number of sound art pieces to feature on the website.
TRAINING WORKSHOP ON MICROPHONES AND RECORDING (VIDEO)
Steve Mason with participants at an earlier workshop This video is an excellent training resouce on how to use audio recorders and different types of micophones. Steve Mason is Technical Operations Director at CFRU Radio, a campus community radio station at the University of Guelph. He has conducted a number of workshops for the Community Sound [e]Scapes poject. On 14th April, 2010 he was geenerous enough to hold a workshop for members of the Univesity of Guelph group. Below is the video of the workshop. Thanks to Steve and to John Campbell for making this video possible and available on this website. Video content here using Flash
REBECCA'S UPDATES Updates on each week of the University of Guelph project bv Rebecca Caines, participant/observer REBECCA'S UPDATES MAY 16th, 2010 Today was the last day of the University of Guelph component. Individuals interested in borrowing a recorder to continue adding sounds to the library should contact me. I am also up for one offs in location recording if anyone has some great visions of locations we could capture sounds in. We are also taking part in World Listening Day on July 18th, see the forum if you are interested.
In August we will start again with input from all of the projects. The August program will include -Location recording at the Guelph Prison with Andy Houston from the University of Waterloo (exploring the history of places through sound) -A workshop/performance by local sound artist Boston Carlyle (demonstrating how sound pictures of cities can be created) -The final Beta testing of the new eScaper online mixer for improvising with recorded sound -Collaboration between the four groups -Time to create improvised soundscapes with the sounds you have collected -Rehearsals for the launch of the project at the Guelph Jazz Festival REMEMBER: We are launching at the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, either the Thursday or Friday of the first week of September, and we want everyone who has been involved to be there, so if you can't be involved in August, please keep in the loop to get the details of the launch and join us to celebrate this great adventure.
Rebecca’s Update April 28th, 2010 A wonderful session with Toronto percussionist Germaine Liu. For full artist bio, see the Forum. We met at the Albion hotel in downtown Guelph, and then moved up to Our Lady’s church and then around town. The “workshop” (we both hate that word, but end up using it anyway) was more of an exploration about bodies in space, and the way we can interact with the soundscape of the world around us. Germaine brought two exercises with her, to shape our explorations around Guelph. The first, based on an exercise by composer/musician Pauline Oliveros, asked us to choose a public space, locate ourselves away from each other (but close enough to just hear each other) and then interact with the sounds in the environment (whether made by the group or arising from the environment) by making our own sounds, either with objects in the environment or our voices. A number of options were given to create sounds that imitated, complemented or contrasted the sounds we were hearing. The second exercise encouraged us to use our own bodies and an object in the environment to make as many different sounds as possible. We chose to start by entering the church and listening to the sounds our bodies made in this space. Germaine had chosen this building as a good starting point for us, and had called ahead to ensure we could use the space. We decided we would leave if anyone was using church in any way or entered while we were there, because we didn’t want to disrupt private prayer or contemplation. For many it was the first time inside this iconic, haunting Guelph building http://www.churchofourlady.com/ We moved through the space, hearing how voices echoed and every movement was intensified by the acoustics of the building. Squeaks, rustles and footsteps were amplified. Some chose to just explore the spaces of the church, others, to see what sounds we could make with the building itself, from the squeaky wood of the pews, to the rustle of books and pages, to the echoes of fragments of song or sounds played on mobile phones. Some used audio recorders to capture sounds, which for me intensified the experience, the church itself felt like a giant recorder, amplifying and somehow holding the sounds we made, with headphones and a mic, this experience was tripled until it felt like every sound was significant. When Emory rang my mobile phone to say he couldn’t be at the workshop, everybody jumped, the space broke and reassembled for a second, exiting the building felt like coming to the surface to breathe. When some tourists arrived, we left the interior of the church and began the exercises Germaine brought in the outdoor area in front of the church. It was a cold windy day, but the sun was shining. From where I was, it was a beautiful soundscape, some rustled in the leaves and grass, or made sounds with the metal railings, others used their voices or the sound of found objects such as plastic or glass bottles, old wedding invitations or sticks and rocks. I had a great sense of joy playing with the sound of glass and plastic bottles on the stairs passing between us in a part dance, part soccer game, part sound composition which grew and changed as we moved through the space. In a reminder of the controlled nature of public spaces, we had a sharp, almost violent interaction with a neighbor/perhaps groundskeeper of the church? It was hard to tell, he lived in the house next to the church and after watching us for five minutes, he came running down and snatched away the bottle we were using. A strange, shouted, incoherent dialogue later, he had left and we moved on to avoid further conflict. It seems he thought we were a gang of youths (despite our age and diversity), perhaps drinking on church grounds (despite no evidence of that and the fact that it was a Wednesday afternoon) and thought we were going to leave rubbish and broken glass for him to clean up. He didn’t seem to see us, only his idea of what we could be, probably based on previous experience. There was no dialogue possible, he was so incredibly angry and ready to fight, his fists were clenched, he was breathing heavily, he was nervous and infuriated. It did remind me of my earlier thinking about how to frame sound recording in public spaces. If we were in authorised t-shirts with clipboards, or if we had a sign that named the project as attached to the university, or if he had known we were artists, would things have been different? If I had followed him to explain we had permission to be there, and given him an information sheet, would he have changed his mind? Would I have wanted to do that? Should I have needed to? It was his pace, our space, the Churches space, it was religious and private and public all at the same time. From the Church we moved down the street, stopping to explore a creepy alleyway behind some houses (with beautiful grafitti and some fantastic echoes off strange shaped corners and stairwells), ending at the closed end of Wyndham Street near the bridge. Again I felt this surreal combination of hosting a respected artist on a university run project, and taking people into potentially unsafe or illegal areas. Nevertheless, there were some wonderful interactions in the concrete tubes and construction materials, and under the bridge itself, but we moved before we could attract construction workers attention. I remember thinking, what would this have been like if it were night instead of afternoon, if this group of people were wandering the streets and laughing and going into unlikely areas in the dark, how different it would have seemed. We ended the workshop journey at the train tunnel near to the bus station. Here we worked with the environment ( aVIA train passed by us) and explored the ways our bodies interacted with the concrete of the tunnel, the wood of the train fence, the iron of a railway spike discovered on the tracks, the steps and the tunnel itself. Some fantastic compositions arose, percussion rhythms which grew and intensified, skipping games with stone which produced musical notes off the concrete surfaces, metallic chimes as the railway spike ran up and down a loose railing or a bicycle passed through the tunnel and voices bounced off the surfaces. We ended with an impromptu picnic by the train tracks, spent, but inspired. I felt a whole other project could have run for months just doing these sorts of creative explorations of spaces and places, performative, sound-based adventures in the world we move through everyday. To see more of Germaine’s work see: http://www.improvcommunity.ca/hvs/liu_inter_eng.html http://www.improvcommunity.ca/hvs/liu_part_eng.html For more on composer/artist Pauline Oliversos see: http://www.deeplistening.org/site/
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- Rebecca’s Update, April 24th, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, April 21st, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, April 14th. 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, April 7th, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, March 31st, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, March 24th, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, March 17th, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, March 10, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update , March 3, 2010
- Rebecca’s Update, February 11, 2010
