[spectre] NO TOURS WITH ESCOITAR.ORG_LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial

[Monica]

NO TOURS WITH ESCOITAR.ORG
25th, 26th and 27th March 2009
LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial

Escoitar.org is currently working in Gijón in the exhibition /The Past 
in The Present (and The Near in The Far),/ curated by Juan Antonio 
Álvarez Reyes for Laboral Centro de Arte, opening its doors on April 
3rd. The collective’s collaboration will consist in the development of 
an audio-guide of the Cimadevilla (a district in the city of Gijón) 
based on GPS technology. The system (PDA, hand-held computer connected 
to several satellites) can be used by local residents while they walk 
through Cimadevilla and listen to real and fictional stories, and 
acoustic experiences associated with the place. This system can 
precisely locate the user, and tell you stories related to this specific 
space.
The idea behind Escoitar.org’s /No Tours/ workshop is to rediscover the 
city while analysing the value of sound as a form of engaging with 
today’s society. Focusing on the listening experience and the problems 
historically affecting sound, this workshop will examine the composition 
of a sound cartography of Cimadevilla made during a sound-walk with GPS 
technology. The workshop will conclude with the production of a work to 
be included in the exhibition /El Pasado en el Presente./

Escoitar.org is a cultural association from Galicia linked to a research 
group at the University of Vigo, whose priority goal is the promotion 
and encouragement of the sound phenomenon and active listening. This 
collective also promotes Aural Studies in Spain, a new field of 
knowledge which explores societies through the sounds it produces and 
listens to. Anthropologists, musicologists, engineers and artists are 
involved, among other activities, in the preservation of sound memory, 
the acknowledgment of intangible cultural heritage, the encouragement of 
listeners’ involvement in the composition of the sound heritage and the 
field works, recording and contextualization of environmental sounds in 
the country. Escoitar.org has worked all over the world offering their 
particular point of “hearing” (view) about sound experience and the 
potential of sound as a witness of history. One of their lines of works 
with the greatest impact is research into some of the hidden aspects of 
sound, and particularly of sound technologies of social control (and 
acoustic weapons). Escoitar.org has recently collaborated with the 
National Music Library of Mexico and ZKM (an art centre located in the 
south of Germany engaged in new media and digital culture).
www.escoitar.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Chiu Longina, anthropologist, sound artist and acoustic spaces creator, 
is also a member of the production team of IFI, the sound art festival 
held in Pontevedra, the collective SINSALaudio from Vigo, the 
association Alg-a and the Centre for Experimental Creation in Cuenca. 
Chiu Longina is also co-editor of the network projects 
Mediateletipos.net and Artesonoro.org.

Juan-Gil López Rodríguez is musicologist who collaborates in the 
projects Mediateletipos.net and Artesonoro.org. He is involved in 
several research projects in the field of ethnomusicology and 
contemporary music.

Enrique Tomás is an engineer and composer of interactive sound systems 
interested in sound art and computer music. He has participated in 
festivals such as Ars Electronica, Sonar, Observatori, to name a few, 
and currently works in Futurelab and Ars Electronica.

This event is organised by LABoral in collaboration with Fundación 
Municipal de Cultura of Ayuntamiento de Gijón.

+ INFORMATION: _http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org 
<http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/profesionales/proximos/39>
_http://www.escoitar.org/notours/ <http://www.escoitar.org/notours/>