We were the lucky audience at Carsten Stabenow's brilliant seminar on the project Tuned City, whereby cities including Berlin, Tallinn, Nürnberg, and Brussels have been transformed into laboratories for fascinating experiments in sonic architectures and interactions. Stabenow discussed historical efforts ranging from Athanasius Kircher's Phonurgia Nova to contemporary investigations of urban sound. Along the way we were treated to a discussion of dozens of projects carried out under the auspices of Tuned City, a project that responds in a profound way to the sites it inhabits and imbues. Please visit the Tuned City Web site, a detailed archive of projects and events since 2008. A beautifully designed book is also available for purchase through the Web site. We are sincerely grateful to Stabenow for sharing his insights with our group, and for his inspiring efforts in the area of sound art curation.
Sonic Lab Revealed!
Recomposing the City wishes to thank the Architecture Society at Queen's, who hosted a wonderful seminar on 17 February featuring Chris Corrigan, technical manager at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), and Stephen Douglas of Hall Black Douglas, the architects of SARC. We learned about the special challenges of designing a building for research in sound, and the many uses of the Sonic Lab as a performance and research space. Attended by students in Architecture as well as the general public, the seminar and ensuing discussion made clear that collaborations between sound artists and architects can result in innovative design strategies, new modes of building, and new ways of using space in the context of performance and recording. Thank you to Stephen, Chris and ArcSoc for a great evening.
Acoustic Mapping: Notes from the Interface
Recomposing the City will have a book chapter in the forthcoming volume The Acoustic City, edited by Matthew Gandy and BJ Nilsen. This chapter explores the possibilities and limitations offered by acoustic mapping, discussing such projects as Montréal Sound Map by Max Stein and Julian Stein, The Roaring Twenties by Emily Thompson in collaboration with Scott Mahoy, Chris Watson's Inside the Circle of Fire: A Sound Map of Sheffield, Matilde Meireles' X Marks the Spot, and Ian Rawes' London Sound Survey, among many others. Please look out for The Acoustic City, which will be published by Jovis in 2014.
Announcing PhD Studentship: 'The Acoustic Mapping of Cities'
Recomposing the City is happy to announce that we have been awarded a DEL strategic PhD Studentship at Queen's University Belfast on the topic 'The Acoustic Mapping of Cities', to begin in 2014-15.
You can find the project details and contact information here.
And more on DEL eligibility criteria here and here.
All applications should be made through the Queen's University Belfast Applications Portal.
We look forward to receiving applications! Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
Article on Sound Art in Belfast in Leonardo Music Journal
Thank you to Leonardo Music Journal and MIT Press for making the article 'Recomposing the City: A Survey of Recent Sonic Art in Belfast' free to download from their Web site. This special issue of Leonardo Music Journal is devoted to Sound Art, and we are excited to see our research included among so many fascinating projects. The article discusses the work of numerous sound artists who have created works in and for the city of Belfast, and how their projects can be said to '[expose] the city as a resonant, shared idea that can be composed, and recomposed, through sound'.
Get your free PDF of the article here!
Masters of Architecture students recruited
We have now recruited four great Masters of Architecture students at Queen's to think about sonic arts and architecture during their dissertation work 2013-2014. They are Rita Farrell, Declan Price, Antonis Stylianou and Meghan Nelson-Nilehn. They bring muscial and design experience with them from England, Northern Ireland and Cyprus including expertise in building homes and playing drums, piano and Uilleann pipes. We look forward to seeing (and hearing) what they find and create this year.
A Launch and a Liftoff with Jacob Kirkegaard
Recomposing the City was honoured to host the Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard for our first public events, on 9-10 October. During his visit, Jacob gave a seminar on his recent projects, and described recording sounds of the earth's ionosphere, in volcanic geysers, and in the devastated city of Chernobyl. He stressed the idea that 'sounds are not always what they seem' and that the same sound can be understood in many different ways depending on how it is experienced. The following day, Jacob presented his work Labyrinthitis , in which audiences can 'listen to listening' -- a concept explored in this wonderful review by Manuel Arturo Abreu. The visit concluded with a day-long meeting with Forum for Alternative Belfast (CIC), who invited Jacob, Sarah and Gascia to their offices to start a conversation that will result in a design proposal by Jacob for a vacant site in Belfast. We were wowed by the energy, enthusiasm and incredible knowledge of the FAB team, and are grateful to Declan Hill and Mark Hackett for giving us a brilliant, critical history of Belfast's planning and architecture, and a walking tour of Belfast's city centre. Jacob was an inspiring presence, and many students in our community wrote to us following his visit saying that they would like to participate in future events. Thank you Jacob for all your outstanding work for this trip, and we look forward to future collaborations!
Via Wikimedia Commons: "
| Ascent of Mr. John Hampton's "Erin-Go-Bragh" balloon, at Batty's Royal Hippodrome, Kensington. The "Erin-Go-Bragh" was the first hot air ballon built in Ireland and Hampton performed parachute jumps from it in Dublin in April 1848." |
Hear, Hear: Three Cheers for Sound Art
Gascia Ouzounian and Jacob Kirkegaard from Recomposing the City are featured in this article on sound art by Ella Delany in today's New York Times. Ms. Delany draws attention to important issues like the growing prominence of sound art; the perception of sound art by audiences; sound art in the global arena; the influence of new technologies upon the medium; and the buying and selling of esoteric and ephemeral works.
On the Road
Posters by ICRH Institute Fellows and Project Research Groups like Recomposing the City are on display at the Peter Froggatt Centre at Queen's University Belfast until 28 October and will be going on a 'poster road show' -- watch out for them at the Student's Union and the International Postgraduate Centre. And view them online, here!
MArch Dissertation Presentations
Sarah presented the Recomposing the City project to Queen's Architecture Master's of Architecture dissertation students in the design studios. We're looking forward to working with several students to think about how architecture and sound can work together in the city. This research by the students may go on to inform their later design projects in their two-year course.
Soundspace: A Manifesto
Gascia Ouzounian and Sarah Lappin from Recomposing the City have co-authored a manifesto on 'soundspace' that will appear in the forthcoming issue of Architecture and Culture, the journal of the Architectural Humanities Research Association. Please look out for the issue on Transgression: Body And Space (Vol. 2, No. 3), guest edited by David Littlefield (University of West England) and Rachel Sara (University of West England), and due to appear in November 2014.
Partnership with Ryerson University: Soundspace Toronto
Recomposing the City is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University in Toronto, where we will host a design lab for an international group of architects and sound artists in Summer 2014. This programme will invite pairs of sound artists and architects to collaboratively create design proposals for development projects in the City of Toronto. Proposals will be publicly presented with view to sharing our research with the wider community of artists, architects and researchers, as well as urban planners and policymakers. We are grateful to Professor Colin Ripley, Chair of the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University, and pianist Eve Egoyan for their support of this collaboration.
Welcome
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