[spectre] The World as Instrument: A Theoretical Workshop Taught by Francisco López at Tokyo University of the Arts

[Kazuhiro Jo]

Dear spectre,

Sorry for any crosspostings

The World as Instrument: A Theoretical Workshop Taught by Francisco López,
Open Campus 2011, Art Media Center, Tokyo University of the Arts

>From 5th to 9th September 2011, a theoretical workshop taught by
Francisco López, “The World as Instrument”, will be held at Art Media
Center, Tokyo University of the Arts. This workshop focuses on the
theory of “field recording”, audio recording of environmental sound.

“The World as Instrument” that López has organized worldwide
introduces the participants to the art of field recording through huge
sonic samples and discussion. At the end of the workshop, the
participants will experience the depth of the art at his blind live
performance.

Workshop
Date: 5-9th September 2011 (5 Days)
Place: Tokyo University of the Arts (Taito-ku, Tokyo)
Fee: 24,000 yen
Participation is limited to 30 participants

Open Campus 2011, Tokyo University of the Arts
http://www.geidai.ac.jp/guide/extension/index.html (in Japanese)

Application in English, contact [jo.kazuhiro at noc.geidai.ac.jp]

Live performance
Date: 10th September 2011
Place: Tokyo University of the Arts, Senju Campus (Adachi-ku, Tokyo)
(TBD)

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the main
figures on the stage of sound art and experimental music. His
experience in the field of sound creation and work with environmental
recordings covers a period of 30 years, during which he has developed
an impressive sound universe that is completely personal and
iconoclastic and based on profound listening to the world.
http://www.franciscolopez.net

THE WORLD AS INSTRUMENT: The "real world" as a source for sonic creation
Workshop + live immersive performance by Francisco López

For many years now the "real world" (as opposed to the instrumental
realm) has been used for sound creation as a source of sound
materials. This is a consequence of the technical possibility of
recording sound but, much more importantly, of the conception of sound
recordings as entities by themselves in their potential to generate
sonic possibilities, both original and transformed, real and virtual.
The socialization of different kinds of recording technology, as well
as the shifting conceptions on what a sound recording can be (in all
its manifestations since the mid-XIXth century until the present day)
has gone through several stages that have had a paramount impact in
the understanding of sound creation and in the popularization of an
exploratory praxis of that "real world", which nowadays involves
thousands of people worldwide.

This theoretical workshop is focused on the historical, sociological
and philosophical (rather than technical) aspects of different
practices that have the "real world" as a source, or an inspiration,
for sonic creation. From ancestral manifestations of music derived
from nature to the present massive sonic exploration of our world,
analyzing the historical attempts at recording sonic reality and
creatively transform it, from musical notation to digital technology.
With a multitude of sonic examples, from traditional to electronic
music, the workshop aims at stirring up discussion and at challenging
many stereotypical and misleading conceptions about recorded sound in
many diverse areas and objects of study, from bioacoustics to
experimental music, from phonographs to hard disk recorders, from
birds to cosmic radio emissions.

The workshop is completed with a live immersive performance in the
dark, using a large multi-channel surround sound system with
blindfolds provided for the audience. This sound experience –more a
journey through sound than a normal concert- has been created with
original environmental sound recordings done by the author in the
tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, in large buildings in New York
City and in the vast expanses of Patagonia, over a period of ten
years, constituting his "Trilogy of the Americas".

---
Kazuhiro Jo
Assistant Professor
Art Media Center
Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts)
12-8 Ueno Park, Taito Ward, Tokyo 110-8714 Japan
Tel. +81(0)50 5525 2473