33rd meeting, Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Sven Vabar & Patrick McGinley
Wednesday, May 29th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This month helikoosolek explores the radio - as object, instrument, and memory. Your regular host Patrick McGinley will be joined by local writer, reviewer of literature and sound/music, and editor working at the Estonian Literary Museum, Sven Vabar. Sven will present us some archival recordings and discuss their importance to him. In his own words:

I am going to present some radio sounds from my childhood in Elva, roughly from 1981‒1984. My grandparents had a huge vacuum tube radio, Minija 2, produced in Lithuania in 1962. From it we listened to Voice of America, Fred Jüssi's broadcast „Looduseaabits“ („ABC-book of nature“ or smth :)), live broadcasts of  the Song Festival, etc. I am going to play those sounds and some other signature tunes and broadcasts that we listened to back then, and which I later collected from the archives of Estonian National Broadcast. I played those sounds on the first Topofon event in Tartu in 2010, but that event was more „art“ and no words; this time I will talk about what those sounds meant to me as a small child, how they unconsciously defined for me „what is out there“ beyond the borders of our little flat in Elva. I suspect this static noise of our radio, and the analog synth ambient signatures inspired by J.M. Jarre, Vangelis, Kraftwerk and the like more or less defined me, how I see and sense the world now, and also what sound and music I listen to these days. But I strongly suspect I am not unique in any way; I think the whole generation in Estonia, Eastern Europe and partly the whole Western world was strongly influenced by these kind of radio sounds, so we have an opportunity to re-sense and discuss our unconscious aural past.

For the 2nd part of our meeting we will collectively explore the sonic potential of a collection of old radios, improvising together with the sounds we can extract from them, tuned to or between stations. We will become a live improvised radio orchestra, playing with the sounds on, or of, the airwaves. Our experiments will be conducted and recorded by Patrick McGinley, who recently produced raadio mälu for his regular radio show framework. you can listen to it here.

We will be bringing as many old radios as we can find for our experiments, but if you have one, please bring it along! shortwave, mediumwave, longwave, FM, AM, small, large, whatever you have! It should be battery powered and have a built-in speaker.

helikoosolek:tartu is a regular gathering for the exploration of sound in all forms.  The meetings comprise presentations, concerts, workshops, discussions, and field trips pertaining to sound and its consideration in art, music, architecture, ecology, philosophy, social and cultural interaction, and any other context that presents itself. Participants are encouraged to propose activities or discussions on topics of their interest, or to present projects of their own for feedback.  Sessions take place on the last Wednesday of each month, from 6-8pm at the Eesti Rahva Muuseum.

helikoosolek:tartu is organised by MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu Linnavalitsus, and Eesti Kultuurkapital.

http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com
http://www.moks.ee
http://www.erm.ee