Sound jams

What is this project about?

My master programme research is focused on exploring how to facilitate collective moments of sound-based publication making. The aim of my graduation project is to accommodate some processes that I discovered, edited, came up with and tested with groups of people. I envision making a handbook presenting a method to produce and publish collective sound-based publications. This hands-on guide will explore an applied method of deep listening sound jams by inviting people to participate in a collective sound-making and publishing process. By sound jams, I understand any facilitated process of sound-making and publishing that includes more than one person. The reader - an artist, educator or even a collective - will hold in their hands a collection of practical instructions on how to do the activities themselves, similar to Nature Study Notes: Improvisation Rites by the Scratch Orchestra.

The project focuses on bringing deeper attention to sound in the ways we perceive it, and the ways we respond with it. In the project, I will explore various ways to facilitate sound-making and publishing moments on the basis of listening and responding. The method is based on the concept of deep listening, originally developed by musician and educator Pauline Oliveros. In her practice, Oliveros investigated new ways to focus attention on music including her concept of deep listening - “a practice that is intended to heighten and expand consciousness of sound in as many dimensions of awareness and attentional dynamics as humanly possible”.

The sound jams, being various ways of collective sound-making and publishing without the restriction of time, space, instruments or format, will be implemented in collaboration with my classmate Mitsa Chaida. Our researches will meet in the moments of experiments with other participants in order to try out different methods and tools.

Here is a prototype of documenting a sound jam, done at PZI on 10-10-2022

Sound is my choice for the core medium of this project because even though we are surrounded by it on a daily basis, it still feels quite inaccessible for many educators, facilitators, artists and artivists. Often associated with music, it is a reserved territory for people with musical training and for sound artists. In reality, it is far more accessible and there are many ways sound-making can be open for participants from any kind of background. Thus, this handbook aims at bringing another medium (or opening more possibilities for exploration of it) to artists, educators, publishers and collectives.

 Check out the introduction of the project, created for my assessment at xpub in December, 2022.

Why this?

Facilitation is a substantial element of my artistic practice. Since 2016, I am experimenting with various ways of creating time and space for people to try out new artistic tools, no matter their previous experiences and training. Visual arts and digital communication were mainly the focus of the tools I was researching, but as a mixed-media artist, I am interested in bringing more sound as a format to these laboratories. During the first academic year of my studies at Experimental Publishing, I already noticed my increased interest in using more sound in my artistic practice. Highlights of my research and experiments were the pieces made for Special Issue 18: Radio Implicancies; the care-taking process of facilitating and the editorial work for some weekly releases; as well as participation in improvisational jams with the other XPUB students. I also facilitated my first sound-based artistic residency in September 2022, which allowed me to bring a new medium to my facilitation practice, a medium that worked well in a group of people, and that was a completely new form of expression to many of the participants in the workshop.

This project is also born out of the frustration of feeling oftentimes excluded from jamming sessions because of not being a musician (not having musical training). The element of collective making is also an important entry point for me. I am interested in exploring opportunities for collaborative creative work. I aim at bringing and establishing some principles in my art and facilitation practice: openness, inclusivity, improvisation and collectiveness. I want to create a safe space for experiments, where everyone is welcome, no matter their previous experiences and training.

How is it going to happen?

[research of methods for collective sound-making] I would like to start with a research of collective-sound making methods that are already published by other artists. Also, I will look for examples and inspirations of sound publications. Which of the sound publications I find interesting are done by a collective, a group of people. What is their process?

[sound jam experiments] Simultaneously, I would like to test experiments of collective sound-making and publishing. Since I already have facilitated a few moments, I would like to reflect on them and create prototypes for publishing them - as a tool, part of the handbook; and as a sound publication, an example.

[instruments] Whatever instruments you give to the participants in jam, shapes the whole experience. Thus, experimenting with giving various types of tools to make sound with, is another layer in the research to be taken into consideration, even though it is not the focus of the project.

[research publishing tools] Researching tools for publishing, in connection with collective publishing practices. What are the ways to share sound-based creations? Which one of them can be or already are collaborative?

[put things together] Describing the tools for collective sound-based publications making - how can we make sounds together; what are the ways to listen better, to respond with sound, to publish our sound works, to do it collectively?

Relation to previous practice

[facilitation] Since 2016, I am part of Nomadways collective - an association based in France that designs and implements artistic experimental workshops for artists, activists, and educators - artivists. As a project designer and facilitator, I have experimented with various mediums that we often mix with topic. In our traditionally 2-week workshops, we create space for people to try out new tools and look for ways to implement them in their practice. Adding a whole new library of tools to my facilitation practice is a quite relevant endevour, but sharing it freely with the public is exactly what I am interested in terms of expanding and developing my work.

[sound-based experiments] My complicated relation to music and sound started in my early years of childhood when I was attracted to music but discouraged by my parents to pursue any musical training (they were calling me and my sisters “musical invalids”). Thus, I became a listener. Listening to music and responding to it in my own ways, became part of my daily life. Later, I tried various activities as a user of music: I danced and choreographed; I curated music and performed as a DJ. But my desire to create was never fulfilled. Last September, I co-facilitated together with my friend Bruno Morera - a musician, clown, street performer, and acrobat, who has been facilitating group experiences around Europe - a 2-week music and sound residency in Burlats, France. It was a challenge for me to be a trainer in an Erasmus+ training course and feeling as an imposter because of the lack of training in music. However, it turned out to be liberating.

[xpub year 1] Highlight of my last year was Special Issue 18: Radio Implicancies. As a care-taker, I loved pre-editing, hosting and facilitating a weekly release. As a contributor - to reflect on a read or research with sound. I enjoyed mixing, editing, publishing, but also making and experimenting with sound. I participated in several jamming sessions (such as the X-unPub concert, facilitated by Harrold Schellinx) and felt included. I would like to create such spaces in the future and make that part of my artistic practice.

[visual translation & illustration] are my talents and skills that are always present in my work. They are part of my research, planning but also designing and illustrating the final publication.

Relation to a larger context

[method] The work of Pauline Oliveros was a starting point and an inspiration for me to structure the sound jams. My goal is to create an inclusive space, open for people from any background and without musical training. The practice of deep listening, developed by her, is open to anyone and is based on improvisation. Sound is not limited to musical or speaking sounds, but is inclusive of all perceptible vibrations (sonic formations), which creates a space for openness and awareness.

[inclusivity] In her essay, The Amateur’s Armour, Mariëtte Groot shares how she liberated herself from the pressure of calling herself an artist. She is an active part of Rotterdam’s music culture by running a venue and a shop, booking artists, researching the field of sound art and recently hosting a series of all-female live events at WORM. Her Re#Sister gigs, for instance, are a welcoming space for anyone who defines themselves as a female or non-binary, to join an improvised sound session. Her liberating approach is a great example of how there can be space for people to join music jams with or without musical training, no matter if they call themselves artists or not. Anyone can be a valuable part of the impro moments.

[joy in research] Coming from a very strict, serious and authoritarian educational system, I need to unlearn the maxima that “in order for my work to be valuable, it has to be serious and I have to suffer while doing it”. Writer, activist and facilitator, adrienne maree brown curated a collection of pieces on the topic of pleasure and feeling good in her Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. The understanding that pleasure is a measure of freedom is important for embracing that there should be no shame in activities that make us truly happy. During this research, I am also trying to create moments of joy and release the pressure that comes from other people’s expectations and one own’s self-restrictions.

[handbook, scores and improvisation] For this project, I will create instructions on how to do sound jams, which will include scores and descriptions of the steps to facilitate the activity. In order to do it, I will test various exercises and will look for different ways to describe them. For it, a great inspiration to me was Nature Study Notes by Scratch Orchestra - a collection of improvisation rites from 1969. There is always a facilitation element in the collective activities, even if they include improvisation, there is always structure provided, in which freedom takes place and opens the space for creativity.

Who is it for?

_educators: people who are facilitating various educational activities and are looking for ways to bring more mixed media in their activities;

_artists: who are looking for new techniques for their practice and ways to experiment, boost their creative process; to find more ways to reflect over topics and contents;

_collectives: who are interested in exploring new methods of collective making and publishing

Chapters

The chapters of my thesis are under progress. Here is what's currently out there:
▶ sound jams documentation
▶ sound jams glossary
▶ sound jams intro

Sound Jams

Here are the sound jams I have tested during my research this year:
▶ sound jams: reversed words

References/bibliography

what informs the research:

on facilitation, sound, music & more

Oliveros, P., (2005). Deep Listening. New York. Deep Listening Publications. [annotated pad]
Emiel Heijnen and Bremmer, M. (2020). Wicked Arts Assignments Practising Creativity in Contemporary Arts Education. Amsterdam Valiz.
Cardew C. (ed.), (1969). Nature Study Notes. Scratch Orchestra, Experimental Music Catalogue.
adrienne maree brown, (2019). Pleasure Activism. The Politics of Feeling Good. Chico, Edinburgh. AK Press. [annotated pad]
Evens, A., (2005). Sound Ideas: Music, Machines & Experience. U of Minnesota Press [annotated pad]
Kreidler, J. (2013). loadbang. Programming Electronic Music in Pure Data. 2nd edition. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag.
Weiss, A., (2001). Experimental Sound & Radio. The MIT Press.
Groot, M. (2019). The Amateur's Armour. [online] Available at: <https://underbelly.nu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/The-Amateurs-Armour.pdf> [Accessed 11 October 2022].
Toop, D. (2018). Ocean of Sound. Serpent’s Tail. [annotated pad]
Yuill, S. (). All Problems of Notation Will be Solved by the Masses: Free Open Form Performance, Free/Libre Open Source Software, and Distributive Practice.
La Monte Young (1963). An anthology of chance operations.
Yōko Ono (1971). Grapefruit. New York: Simon And Schuster.
Handbook Of Urban Exploration For Youths. (2022) Urbex.

sound publications

Brown, A. R., (2022). Beneath Maiwar.[online] Available at: <https://www.explodingart.com/arb/2022/06/28/beneath-maiwar/> [Accessed 30 September 2022]. [annotated pad]
Nagy, A., (2018). Hackpact / Sonification Studies. [online] Available at: <https://stc.github.io/HackPact/> [Accessed 30 September 2022]. [annotated pad]

scores & notations

Cardew, C. (2014) The Great Learning, Paragraph 7 (workshop, live) Helsinki, Finland [annotated pad]