AIRspecials

The Creative Sound Assemblage Podcast

In May of this year, AIR partnered with Harvestworks Digital Media Center in New York to present a week-long intensive in Creative Sound Assemblage for Radio Producers. The workshop was led by sound artists Michael Schumacher and Hans Tammen. Each of the eight participants came to the workshop with an idea they wanted to realize over the course of the week. Their short pieces were later assembled into a single podcast, now available for your listening enjoyment. The text supplement below provides readers with a variety of resource materials for those interested in expanding their knowledge of sound art theory, technique and software, as well as some information on the producers who participated.

Listen to the Creative Sound Assemblage Podcast here. (46:59)

Participating Producers

(in order of appearance in the podcast):

Carola Cintrón

E-mail: carola@velocipedo.com

Title: Microsounds

Comments: The intensive was a great experience. A lot of important information was communicated concerning the more conceptual and structural aspects of sound production. It was also helpful on a technical level, with lots of information about software and formats available to produce sound for radio, audio installations and other compositions.

It was great to be part of a group. I think all skills are best transmitted in a group setting, in which people can learn from others' experiences and questions. It's great to hear different points of view and diverse opinions.

I think the most interesting part was the diversity of the group in terms of background and level of technical experience. I learned a lot about my own creative process and got a great deal of inspiration to keep doing my sound work. Bio: Born 1974, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Carola Cintrón-Moscoso received her B.A. in Public Communications with honors from the University of Puerto Rico and an M.F.A. in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts. Awards and residencies include an award from the DUMBO Arts Center and the Experimental Television Center and a residency at Dyapason in New York City. Her work has been shown internationally in New York City, at the China Millennium Museum in Beijing, in Brazil and Barcelona, Spain.

David Goren

E-mail: dbgoren@panix.com

Title: Mercy, So Much Noise.

Comments: The intensive instructors, Hans Tammen and Michael Schumacher, were very knowledgeable and provided insightful feedback. It was also valuable to interact with the other audio producers. I felt challenged by the pieces I heard and inspired to try new methods of layering sound and working without narrative.

Bio: David Goren's radio career began in 1974 on WCRP, the Voice of Camp Ramah-in-the-Poconos. He's currently co-producer of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Jennifer Deer

E-mail: jendeer@gmail.com

Title: Radio and Dishes

Comments: This workshop was a turning point for me creatively. Everything just started to come together in an almost overwhelming way. Learning to really listen was critically important. After all, listening is the beginning and the end of all the work we do - no matter what style or form or outlet it takes.

Bio: Jennifer Deer is an independent audio producer living in North Carolina. Her work for radio has aired on such national programs as All Things Considered , Day to Day and Weekend America . Jennifer is the co-curator of the audio documentary podcast Big Shed (www.bigshed.org)

Chris Vondrasek

E-mail: chrisv@seanet.com

Title: Immigration: Threshold to a Better Life

Comments: I learned interesting sound-related ideas from the lectures and, most especially, from listening to the work and comments of the other participants. I benefited from being encouraged to create a piece without a narrator. Listening to and talking about how filmmakers use sound was an excellent lesson in creative listening.

Bio: Chris Vondrasek works as independent radio producer with KBCS and has aired stories on a range of environmental, educational, food security, transportation, peace and justice topics. He is also an artist, furniture maker and small woodworking contractor. He has been active in forest protection work, anti-nuclear organizing, renovating housing for Native American elders, efforts to reform globalization and media reform.

Natalie Bell

E-mail: natalie.a.bell@gmail.com

Title: A-C-E-ntelechy

Comments: I was able to learn a great deal about audio editing, as well as the history of music and ambient sound. Most importantly, I was allowed the time necessary to experiment and incorporate the things I had learned, and I feel like I can move my work in new directions.

Bio: Natalie Bell is a writer and multimedia producer based in New York City. Her interests involve experiments with phenomenologies of sound and ontological perspectives. Podcasts and more at www.nataliebell.org.

Keith Brand

E-mail: brandk@rowan.edu

Title: Sleepy Hollow Identifiers

Comments: The intensive was a very positive experience. I enjoyed listening to the work of my peers, as well as the discussions on various aspects of the use of sound, which got me to think about sound outside of linear narrative. I received many tips and tools that I will be using in my own classroom.

Bio: Keith Brand is an Assistant Professor of Radio, Television and Film at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. He is also host and producer of Sleepy Hollow , a popular weekend morning eclectic music program on WXPN FM in Philadelphia. Sleepy Hollow is one of the longest-running freeform radio programs in the U.S. Keith has also produced a number of award-winning audio documentaries.

Prue Clarke

E-mail: prueclarke@verizon.net

Title: Visiting Aboriginal Australia

Comments: The workshop gave me a completely new understanding of sound. I had no idea about the elements of a tone or the various digital programs available to record and store it. Listening to different sounds in different settings has made me more attuned to the sounds available to me in my reporting. I hope to see the results of this awakening in improvements in my work in the months to come.

Bio: Prue Clarke is an independent journalist reporting mostly from Africa. Her work has appeared on CBC Radio, The World , World Vision Report , Voice of America and in The Times , the Globe and Mail and the Australian . She spent eight years in television with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Financial Times before taking a six-month post teaching journalists in West Africa in 2004. She has Masters' degrees in International Relations and Journalism and lives in New York City.

Quinn Batson

E-mail: qbatson@nyc.rr.com

Title: Guilty as Charged

Comments: The instructor, Michael Schumacher, presented a highly diverse selection of film clips selected to demonstrate all the different ways directors work with sound. That really helped expand my thinking about sound design. And the field mic setup he showed us really helped me to realize new field-recording possibilities. Each person in the workshop was using different software and had a personal style of working, which allowed us to bounce things off of each other in refreshing and useful ways. The intensive certainly inspired me to keep going further. My critical listening skills have improved greatly thanks to the thoughtful comments of our instructors.

Bio: Quinn Batson worked as a recording engineer in the days before ProTools and has an active interest in dance (www.offoffoff.com/dance) and music for dance. This piece is his first step toward creating sound for dance. He lives and works in NYC.

Useful Reading:

Iannis, Xenakis. Formalized Music . Indiana University Press, 1971.

Curtis Roads. The Computer Music Tutorial , chapter 18-19. MIT Press, 1996.

Holmes, Thom. Electronic and Experimental Music . New York: Routledge, 2002.

Nyman, Michael. Experimental Music . Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Wishart, Trevor. On Sonic Art . Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996.

Helpful Links:

UbuWeb: http://www.ubu.com

WPS1 MoMA ArtRadio: http://www.wps1.org/

art@radio: http://art-radio.net/

New American Radio: http://somewhere.org/NAR/index.htm

New Adventures in Sound Art: http://www.naisa.ca/

Generator Sound Art: http://www.generatorsoundart.org/soundart.html

Richard Lerman's Audio Art: http://www.west.asu.edu/rlerman/

Ed Osborn Sound Art: http://www.roving.net/

Resonant Spaces: http://www.arika.org.uk/resonant-spaces/akio-suzuki/

Journal of Contemporary Art: http://www.jca-online.com/marclay.html

Bernhard Leitner: http://www.bernhardleitner.at/en/