Room for sound: sound mapping

_about

📅 2-8 April 2024
📍 Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam [NL]
★ Guest tutors: Naomi Jansen and Ål Nik [Alexandra Nikolova]

During the elective R  m for Sooound, we collectively explored sound as a concept and medium. Through various group and individual exercises, we gave room to ways in which sound can be produced, experienced and transformed. The focus did not lie on the technical aspects of sound (post)production, but on the conceptual, research or poetic questions that can be asked when using sound in any art practice. For example: How could we translate an image to a sound and vice versa? How does our experience of sound differ per person? What role can the sound play in our practice and process? And what is the sound of     ? Next to giving room to sound, the focus of this elective will also lie on collectivity. In the first days this meant that through various exercises and workshops, we continuously interpreted, repeated and transformed sounds that we produced. In the last two days, the collection of sounds formed the basis of working in small groups towards a small sound experience, installation or publication.

The theme of this workshop was "Sound Mapping". It could have been approached as a specific location/place/room as a starting point. The students were invited to do experiments in recording, creating and transforming a sonic environment.

Sound is something that we share, either when communicating with each other or as an omnipresent element in our daily life. However, we often take it for granted. Sound can be experienced in many different ways and can take various forms on itself or in relation to different media. Therefore, when you give room to it, sound can become an extension or essential part of any art practice. In the context of this workshop, we will explore sound as a medium to be part of one’s artistic work - for the process and for the final product. It is not a common media for artists with a mainly visual practice, thus it has big potential for enriching their experience. With this elective class, we offer tools to experiment with this medium in an accessible environment towards using sound in research and art-making.

_programme

Day 1 // To Listen Individual experiments, collective listening, collective brainstorm
Day 2 // To Collect Individual experiments based on group theme and recordings
Day 3 // To Translate Collective experiments, starting point for final works, group division, sound manipulation workshop
Day 4 // To Resonate Groups work towards final project
Day 5 // To Play Presentations of the final project - a sound experience/installation/publication/…/

_students

27 students took part in this class

_outcomes

_audio snippets // During the elective the students had several assignments to create sounds - record their own and edit them. As a result, there was an archive with more than ??? snippets of 30 seconds and less.

_final projects // The students were divided into 6 groups to create a sound experience for the whole group. Their task was to choose a space as a starting point and transform it through sound. The groups chose the following locations inside/around the academy:
~ Basement ~
The group's concept:

Through the location we chose, the basement, we want to show fear experienced when sitting in darkness. From lack of information the mind tries to find something to grab on to, and in that begins to hear things that aren’t there.

While trying to remain calm you paradoxically start working against yourself. For now, we want to achieve this by progressively distorting white noise and subtly adding in more sounds that you would never actually hear.

~ Toilet ~
The group's concept:

From: Walls - To:You
For this experience we want you to listen. The bathrooms and elevators are spaces for gossip, awkward glances, small talk etc. It can also be chaotic and claustrophobic. We’re making the bathroom walls talk inspired by the writings on the wall. By using noise, gossip etc. trough speakers. With this we want to witness what we all experience in these four walls.

~ Parking Garage ~
The group's concept:

We want to create an experience or feeling, which kinda tells a story. We wanna do this by using different music speakers throughout the room, which create depth with the sounds. Our idea is creating/achieving a feeling of discomfort by the listener. You’re walking in the parkinglot/garage at night, all by yourself and you’re hearing some unexpected noises which kinda scare you or make you uncomfortable. 

On Monday we are gonna use a room that is completely dark to recreate the feeling combined with the sounds better than in a light room. We will use some light effects, not 100% sure how we’ll do that.

~ Cafe ~
For this experience, the student wanted to play with her voice and narrate some instructions and a story to tell to the visitors they can listen with headphones.

~ Bridge ~
The group's concept:

The bridge being a transitory space where movement is only momentary, we intend to create an Immersive sound experience/installation designed to explore the themes of movement and transition. Sound becomes the medium for understanding and reflecting on the dynamics of change which adds on to the journey through the bridge and what you experience while going through it. Utilizing strategically placed speakers along the length of the bridge, soundscapes shift and evolve as visitors progress, encouraging them to explore the space and engage with their surroundings. The installation serves as a metaphor for life's journey, with the bridge symbolizing the passage from one state to another. 

~ Library ~
For this experience, the group wanted to disrupt the quiet library by amplifying annoying sounds and hide their source between the bookshelves.

_reflections

_first time for Naomi and I to work with such a large group together. We adjusted the programme and grouped the students for their assignments in order to create more space for them to experiment and learn. However, for the final sound experiences, it would have worked better if we created a different setup:
+ would invite them to do sound installations that could last for a few hours and let people experience each one of them at different times; this way we can also engage more randomly passing people in the experiences;
+ would not make the whole group move around for the experiences, because it created moments of waiting (and queues), and almost every group needed some time to prepare immediately before their performance.
_the invitation for the final project was rather open - it could have been a performance, installation, sound publication, or anything in between. However, the setup of the whole group experiencing it made it lean towards the direction of a performance or sound installation that should be somehow facilitated on the spot. Thus, next time is perhaps better to play scenarios of the relation between assignment and actual setup limitations/invitations to assess what kind of setup is better. A reminder for flexibility, as well.
_I personally was missing the editorial part that we had last year (but we had 2 weeks instead of 1). Then, we gave a more complex assignment that gave the students the opportunity to dive a bit deeper into their concept and reflect on the piece they were working on. This time everything was more experimental, with short assignments and a short time for execution. Could be nice to see how to balance this in a different way next time.
_this year I didn't want to keep the students for too long and make them fill in the evaluation form before leaving - and gave them the task to do it later on the last day in order to reflect on their experience. As a result, we only got 4 evaluations out of 27... Thus, in the future, will always do this formal act in the classroom before letting them go.