helikoosolek:tartu

20th meeting, Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

2012-01-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Evelyn Müürsepp & John Grzinich
Wednesday, January 25th
6-8pm

Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

For this Helikoosolek Evelyn Müürsepp & John Grzinich will lead a workshop and presentation based on the idea of "Sonic Traces", how physical processes not only leave marks but also reveal something in the sounds they make. The focus will be on sound and drawing, looking at the idea of "translation" from one medium to another. Evelyn and John will lead some simple exercises to illustrate their ideas and talk about and play pieces from their collaborative sound and drawing project "Sonic Scratch Cycles", which will be shown at the NAPP exhibition in Pärnu in February. The project is based on an ongoing series of site-specific sound and drawing actions recorded in different locations. No experience is necessary. All are welcome.

Evelyn Müürsepp is a mixed media artist and cultural coordinator, based in Southeast Estonia. Since 2001 she has worked as an artist organizer, coordinating activities for MoKS - a non-profit residency center and project space. This ongoing life-university has offered her the opportunity to learn from artists from all over the world and develop fruitful collaborations in various media. Her recent interest and ongoing work is with drawing where she explores how the repetitive movement of a pen/pencil affects the body and its motion. This surface-body-surface feedback is a generative method to shift from abstraction to figural imagery.

http://maaheli.ee/eku

John Grzinich has been conducting his own forms of sound research for over 15 years, including field recording, kinetic sculptures, electro acoustic composition, performance, group workshops and exercises in listening.

http://maaheli.ee

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.

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

19th meeting, Wednesday, November 30th

2011-11-24T03:24:00.001-08:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Rauno Kalda
Wednesday, November 30th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Rauno Kalda, one of Estonia's very few experts in bats and echolocation, will be our guest at the
next helikoosolek. Rauno is a master's student in biology at the University of Tartu, and has been working extensively with bats for the past five years. Much of his work is comprised of recording and analyzing the sounds they produce.

Rauno will explain echolocation and how it is used by bats to sense their surroundings and orient themselves within it. Bat sonar can tell us a lot about a specific species' place of habitation and ecological niche. Together we will try to catch a glimpse of the deceptively soundless world of bats, in order to realise that their world is full of sounds that we can't hear. We will also examine the equipment and devices that are used to study this sonic world, as well as watch and listen to many recorded examples.

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 my MoKS and supported by Eesti RahvaMuuseum and Tartu Kultuurkapital.

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

18th meeting, Wednesday, October 26th

2011-10-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Marja-Liisa Plats and Patrick McGinley
Wednesday, October 26th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Marja-Liisa Plats and Patrick McGinley will present their project 'revenant:paiva', made in collaboration with the Portuguese artists Luis Costa and Tiago Carvalho in November 2010. The project took place in northeast Portugal along the Paiva River as part of the Paivascapes Festival at Binaural Media in the small village of Nodar. Under the umbrella of the wider 'revenant:sound' project, it deals with site-specific performative sound actions recorded in locations along the river and presented as 5 short films. The artists will screen the films, discuss both the Paiva and general revenant projects, and will also present some other 'revenant:sound' works featuring other artists.

'revenant:sound' is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions; each is a document of a specific moment in time in a specific location. The name derives from a concept of spatial memory, or, more specifically, of the long-term gestural memory of space; the ability of a location to retain an imprint or trace of activity or energy that has been present therein.

Patrick McGinley is a member of MoKS, and is the host and main organiser of helikoosolek:tartu. He is a sound, radio and performance artist who has worked extensively in Estonia since 2005. He is the founder of Framework Radio, which has been on the air in several countries since 2002. He works with field recording and attempts to integrate and resonate found sounds, found objects, specific spaces, and moments in time, in order to create a direct and visceral link with an audience and location.

Marja-Liisa Plats graduated from Tartu Art College in photography and works as an illustrator. She has participated in group exhibitions in Estonia and in Portugal. Her first personal exhibition, with Anna Hints, showed in 2010. From 2008 to 2010 she sang in the vocal group Vaikuse Koosolek, and experimental voice remains one of her main interests. She has been reading children’s books already from an early age.

further info:
http://www.revenantsound.net
http://www.binauralmedia.org
http://www.murmerings.com
http://www.frameworkradio.net
http://liiso.planet.ee

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 my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva
Muuseum and Tartu Kultuurkapital.

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

17th meeting, Wednesday, September 28th

2011-09-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with William Bilwa Costa and Kristin Orav
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

| resonance | sound, space + time
improvisation workshop for movement + sound
co-lead by William Bilwa Costa (sound) and Kristin Orav (movement)

| resonance | is based on practices that enable heightened states of sensory perception. The workshop shares methods for reverberating mindfully with other artists during duet and ensemble improvisation. We will focus on listening, sensing, and acting from sound, movement, and memory impulses. We will explore expansions and contractions of energy and sound in our bodies and in the space. We will trace the pathways that movement material takes between outside and inside: input - filtering - output - sending. Rather than reacting to other bodies, we will cultivate a stance that allows us to observe, consider, and respond with as much of our selves as possible.

The group will explore questions like: How do we transmit messages that perpetuate in different forms through the space instead of dying out? How do we translate or morph messages into different media like writing, drawing, or assessing? How can we use vibration, reflection, sounding, panning, resounding, writing, and remembering to create a resonating body?

Please bring a notebook and pen.
Please wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes.
Please feel free to bring your own instruments/sound equipment. Set ups should be acoustic or self sufficient, so please bring small personal speakers or small practice amp.

William Bilwa Costa is a sound and visual artist/electronic musician/improviser. He has worked with movement artist Emily Sweeney as perpetual movement sound since 2006. He currently works internationally, generating research/ lab/ performance projects, actively cultivating opportunities for artists to work together on new interdisciplinary explorations. Bilwa works in both the performing and visual arts contexts. His electronic music and sound art often involve the abstraction of source material such as dancers’ breath and body sounds, acoustic musicians, and audio frequency feedback—sonic relics through which he pulls elements of specific spaces, times, and interactions into his work. He is interested in sensory perception and subjectivity, and his work documents those acts of decipherment. He often uses multiple speakers placed throughout a space, generating a sensory environment rich in ambient, rhythmic, and spatial sound.

Kristino Rav is a performance artist whose creation could be described as pushing her body to the extremes. Thus, the intersection of completed projects contains an element of tiredness together with physical, mental and temporal endurance. She draws inspiration from movements, silence, coincidences, as well as from the tension that lies between public and private spaces, being lately interested in the phenomenon of dance in this context. She has finished the Estonian Academy of Arts in sculpture and The university of Tartu in semiotics.

http://perpetualmvmtsnd.org/bilwa/
http://kristino-rav.blogspot.com/

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 my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva
Muuseum.

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

august break

2011-08-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

we're taking a summer break this month, but we'll be back in september with a visit from william bilwa costa:

http://perpetualmvmtsnd.org

more soon!

tomorrow's van location!

2011-07-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

we have chosen a location for tmorrow's action: the Urban Audio van will be at the main pedestrian crossing on Riia at the corner of Aleksandri, from 1pm to 4pm, wednesday, july 27th. there will be chairs and headphones and pleasant company. come and join us!

16th meeting, Wednesday, July 27th

2011-07-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Florian Tuercke
Wednesday, July 27th

* ALL DAY action at a location in the city to-be-announced *
* EVENING presentation from 6-8pm at Eesti Rahva Muuseum *

!!! The URBAN AUDIO van will be set up to receive visitors throughout the day on July 27th, at a location in central Tartu to-be-announced by the evening of July 26th on the helikoosolek blog, facebook page, and mailing list. !!!

Florian Tuercke will introduce URBAN AUDIO, a project that he has worked on for 6 years now. With URBAN AUDIO he transforms the noise of public space to musical abstractions. Special instruments are temporarily placed in urban situations and transform any ambient sounds to musical tones. The acoustical structure of each situation is the compositional basis for the music that is extracted from urban space. The result mirrors the urban environment as musical abstraction.

more information and recent projects on: www.urban-audio.org

In Tartu, Florian Tuercke will record musical abstractions during the day (places and time to be announced on the helikoosolek:tartu-blog) and present the instruments and the recordings in the evening.

Florian Tuercke (born 1977) lives and works in Nuernberg (Germany). He has performed this project in Budapest, Zurich, 27 Cities in the USA, 17 German cities and recently in Turku and Tallinn.

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 my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum.

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

15th meeting, Wednesday, June 29th

2011-06-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Kiwa
Wednesday, June 29th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Kiwa will introduce "metabor", a project, sound-art platform and series of events active in the period around 2001-04. "metabor" was the first Estonian sound-art and noise project/platform and series of events/temporary soundscapes in "peculiar" places (a former hospital, a steam icebreaker, the last analogue phone station, a soviet memorial etc). The aim was to bring together a few Estonian artists working with sound/silence at that time: Estonian modernism classic and kinetic art pioneer mr Kaarel Kurismaa, young noise-dj DJ Masin, avantgardist of Russian origin p0rt, low-tech experimentalist Martiini etc. "metabor" was organized by Ki wa & A nagu Alfa (A as in alfa aka Andres Lõo). In 2006 a book called *metabor. skidmark of the force before the shape* was published by Kurismaa & Ki wa as a project for the Ljubljana Print Trienniale.

Kiwa will show two movies about "metabor": Boreaalsolaarium, a documentary by Priit Pääsuke (DV, 21 min, 2005) that has never shown in public before and a VJ mix by British artist Lewis Bray.

KIWA (born 1975) – multidisciplinary artist, lives and works in Tartu and Tallinn. He actively explores and blends different media, from paintings and conceptual objects to total audiovisual environments. His artistic practices include painting, objects and sculpture, installation, video, performance, sound art, scenography, text, etc: all together functioning as a hypertextual research of meaning-making and cultural codes on different levels, collective and personal myths. KIWA is also active as a lecturer in the Estonian Academy of Arts (since 2006) and curator (since 1999), promoting interdisciplinary and research-based projects of the younger generation of Estonian artists. He initiated a series of multimedia events with a code name “Metabor” (2001–2004) and publication of an anthology of experimental literature “Kangelasema toitepiim – Tekstilääts” (Nutritive Milk of Mother Heroine – A Textual Lens, 2006). This year he also ﬁnished his ﬁrst full-length documentary movie “Wariazone” (with anthropologist Terje Toomistu) about the Indonesian transgender phenomenon. He has participated in exhibitions since 1995, his last personal shows took place at Y-gallery (Tartu), Galerie Rivoli 59 (Paris) and Draakoni Gallery (Tallinn). Recent group shows and festivals include: NU Performance Festival and Kumu Art Museum (Estonia); Black Leather club and Manizales Theatre Festival (Colombia); Henie Onstad (Norway); The Kitchen, Yvon Lambert Gallery and Renaissance Society (USA); Tate Modern and Milch Gallery (UK); Stedelijk and DeAppel (Netherlands); Tseretely gallery and SKIF festival (Russia); Seccession and CAT/MAK (Austria), 1st Electronic Festival (Belorussia), Rivoli59 and Chateau de Tours (France) etc. Works in collections of Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, and private collections in Estonia, Europe and USA.

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 my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva
Muuseum and Tartu Kultuurkapital.

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

14th meeting, Wednesday, May 25th

2011-05-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with John W. Fail
Wednesday, May 25th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

For May's helikoosolek,"Partial musician" John W. Fail will look at the aesthetics of contemporary outsider experimental music, with a concrete bend. Specifically, the work of one obscure axis of musicians - Graham Lambkin, The Shadow Ring, Idea Fire Company, etc. - will be listened to and discussed. Topics will include: sound art vs. music, imagery and expression, isolation and obfuscation, and maybe if things go that way, the culture and marketing of sound.

John W. Fail (b. 1980, Pittsburgh) is an artist and organiser working in Tallinn. He has released recordings under his own name and in several group projects, working in an intersection of improvisation, modern concrète and sound art. Since 2009 he has co-facilitated Ptarmigan, a non-commercial project space in operating in Helsinki and Tallinn. He has worked professionally in the area of digital preservation and written academically on film theory and avant-garde literature. He is one organiser of the Helsinki Public School, the current facilitator of the Svamp sound improvisation workshops, and has operated the record label Cenotaph for ten years.

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

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

13th meeting, Wednesday, April 27th

2011-04-26T01:07:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Thomas Tilly
Wednesday, April 27th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Apologies for the silence on these pages in the recent past - we will be catching up with reports on the past few meetings, including recordings from Dennis Tan's Breath workshop, very soon. In the meantime, we can announce that this next meeting, our 13th, is our 1st birthday! Happy birthday to us! Come along and help us celebrate...

photo: John Grzinich

This month's guest will be French sound artist and phonographer Thomas Tilly (aka Tô), who will be visiting the country as an artist-in-residence at MoKS. Tilly will present a series of underwater recordings made in fresh waters over the past four years. Inaudible with the ear and very little known, most of these sounds are generated by animals and plants. Tilly will talk about these phenomena and their interaction with the environment. We will also discuss the understanding we have of these sounds and of the place of the composer/sound recordist in this interaction.

Artist-composer and self-taught musician, Thomas Tilly uses the microphone as his main instrument of work. In 2001 he created Tô, a solo project of concrete music focusing on environmental sounds and found-object manipulations. In this situation, the composition and publication on disc of such sound material has to be considered as a sonic synthesis of a place during a certain period of time. (N.B. this method requires one to stay, observe and study the architectural aspects of the place in order to formulate a personal view and interpretation of it). Tilly also uses his experience for sound-installations allowing the development and enlargement of the logic of specific data collected in a place – via various systems of triggering/diffusion in situ.

For more information visit Tilly's website at http://www.fissur.com.

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

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

11th meeting, Tuesday, February 22nd

2011-02-15T02:35:00.000-08:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Dennis Tan
Tuesday, February 22rd
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

*****THIS MONTH ONLY!!!*****
This month's helikoosolek is happening one day early due to the upcoming holiday. Please make a note of it!

helikoosolek:tartu's 11th edition features a visit from Singapore-born and Germany-based artist Dennis Tan. Dennis will be presenting a new interactive version of his work Breathe:

"A good friend once asked me, would there be sound if there were no human beings in this world?

Of course there would be sound, only there wouldn't be anyone to appreciate it.

Sitting in a quiet room, I hear sounds of machines nearby, my neighbour listening to music and maybe a car driving by. What else do I hear? What is the softest sound in this room? I hear the rustle of my clothes when I move but what else? Closing my eyes, I start to concentrate on listening, deep listening. What do I hear? I hear my breathing. My inconsistent breathing, at times deep, at times light. This is the sound we constantly make, without much effort and without any intention. It just happens because we are alive.

For this edition of helikoosolek:tartu, I would introduce 4 notation symbols for breathing. The public will observe their own rhythm of breathing and learn how to notate them. After that each will create a composition for their own breathing and we will come together as a choir to perform the composition." -Dennis Tan, 2011

Dennis is currently an artist-in-residence at MoKS Centre for Art and Social Practice in Mooste. He will also be giving a presentation about his work at Tartu's Y Galerii on Wednesday, February 23rd at 7pm.

Helikoosolek:Tartu is organised my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Kultuurkapital.
http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com
http://www.moks.ee
http://www.erm.ee

Questions for Steve Peters

2011-02-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

I mentioned at the end of the 10th meeting report that i would forward along some of our group's questions about Steve Peters' work The Very Rich Hours to him for comment. He has graciously responded, and I've posted his answers below. He's has also expressed his willingness to continue the conversation, so if anyone has any further questions for him, feel free to send them along or put them in the comments section below. First, here again is the piece:

What is the intended role of the singing that is mixed into each piece? what is the music used?

The singers are singing the Latin names of endangered species in New Mexico - plants, animals, birds, insects, fish, etc. The music was improvised in the studio, with varying degrees of guidance from me. The five singers were each given a different list of species names and asked to improvise, so that each name was a short "piece" in itself. They had a continuous drone in their headphones to use as a reference pitch (a different pitch for each singer). They were each recorded separately in the studio, and were not allowed to hear what any of the other singers had done before them. In some cases I was more active in directing them, but with some singers I said almost nothing and just let them do what they did. Three of the singers specialize in both early music and contemporary classical. One of them specializes in contemporary classical, but is also trained in Persian and Javanese classical music. And one of them is mainly a jazz singer.

The original installation was made for a very beautiful old adobe (mud brick) church in New Mexico. I wanted to directly reference the historical use of the church, and also the idea of all creation as "holy", and I specifically used only the names of endangered species to highlight the urgency and tragedy of what is being lost. I liked the fact that Latin is both the spiritual language of the Church and of scientific classification. In the mix I treated the singers as if they were part of the environmental sound - moving around within the eight-channel audio field, sometimes "farther away", sometimes "closer".

Is it intentional that the spoken description is almost entirely visual description and not aural?

Absolutely. I felt there was enough audio content without the voices commenting on that, and I was more interested in the contrast between the sound and the visual. Specifically, each speaker was asked to choose a place to which they feel a deep personal connection or relationship, and they were directed to describe only what they were experiencing in that place at that very moment. I told them I was not interested in their stories about the place, or their opinions, or their past experiences, etc., but only in the their perception of the place in the moment. Of course, this is very difficult to do, and I edited out quite a bit of material that deviated from the instructions they were given. Emotional responses and feelings were allowed, but only within the context of the present. Overt references to past experiences were generally removed.

Some people felt the spoken word was too overpowering and didn't allow enough time or space to experience the rest of the soundscape - any comment on that?

That is certainly a valid criticism, and something I struggled with a lot. In fact, I have thought about doing a mix with no speaking voices at all. But I am also very interested in the human experience of place and the more-than-human world, especially in the devotional sense. In a way, the piece is really focused on the human organism as one of perception and interpretation - the way we observe and place ourselves within the world and the meaning we make of it, and the affection/connection that comes from that. And I was also consciously addressing the anti-human bias within the sound art world - I don't mind that in this piece the environmental sounds play a background role to the voices. When working with sound it is so easy and tempting to remove the "human", to create a pristine sonic environment that is essentially an illusion. Sometimes that is the right thing to do, and I have certainly done it myself in other works. But in this case I wanted to acknowledge the role human perception plays in the creation of the world, and the feelings of love and loss that are intrinsically part of the human experience.

I was also very much dealing with the limitations of time - both the length of the piece itself and the amount of time I had in which to make it, as well as the amount of attention it could reasonably hope to sustain from listeners sitting in an otherwise empty church. Each of those recorded monologues was around 45 - 60 minutes (sometimes longer), and I mercilessly edited each one down to about 5 minutes. Within that, I tried to leave as much open space as I could for the other sounds and the singers to come through without it turning into a cluttered mess, and there is at least one minute of pure sound between each of the sections. If each section could have been twice as long, there would have been much more space for only sound. Given the time restrictions, I tried to use sounds that are continuous enough that the listener is able to get a good sense of them. The shorter sounds are woven into the holes in the spoken text and singing so they do not get buried.

I had originally thought that the speaking voices would be shuffled in a more random way, like the singers - that you would hear one person briefly, then a pause of random length, then another person, etc. That would definitely reflect my own typical artistic tendencies. But as I worked with the voices, even though they were heavily edited, I felt that there were narrative threads emerging that should be respected. Each person had a little story to tell about the place they loved, so I decided not to break those up, but to group them together sequentially within general kinds of places, beginning with "home" and moving further away to more remote locations. (I would also have liked to include a section on mountains, but there was simply not enough time.) I knew that not all listeners would stay to hear the entire piece, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to have a complete experience in a short time, to hear what each person had to say, rather than the sense that they were dipping into a completely random thing that was essentially "the same" throughout. You can tell that each section is a short story, and hopefully that encourages listeners to stay to hear the next one.

10th meeting report

2011-02-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

A great turnout for Carlo Cubero's talk about the use and role of sound within the field of anthropology. Carlo himself has this to say:

In my talk I wanted to address several issues that are highlighted when a social science - like anthropology - engages with the field of sound studies. On first impression, it would seem that the connections between sound studies and anthropology would be apparent and easy to explain. Anthropology claims to be the study of the lived experience, of the quality of social relations that make up our daily lives from a holistic and cross cultural perspective. Given that sound is an integral aspect of our experiences of being human and of living in the world, it would seem evident that anthropology be interested in how is it that people perceive and design sound in different parts of the world. However, during my initial research into this matter, I was surprised that there is not a wealth of research material on this subject. If anything, I found that the researchers that look into the relationship between sound and society, by and large, approach the matter from a multi-disciplinary perspective. But as for anthropology itself, the study of sound has mostly been addressed through the study of music and the social and political representations that can be articulated through music. But sound, as a social experience in itself, has not played a major role in the development of the discipline. And yet, sound producing technology has always been present throughout the history of the discipline. Tape recording interviews, musical groups, and the use of audiovisual material have been a central aspect of ethnographic research. However, the tendency has been to look at these materials as research materials, as data from where symbolic, structural, or political representations can be extracted from. Methodologically, treating sound recordings in this way, suggests that the material of the recording is consistent and objective, that it is reproducing interactions in the field with fidelity. It also suggests that the recordings do not produce knowledge in themselves, but that mainly lay inert until the expertise of an anthropologist decodes the material and makes it intelligible cross-culturally. And this is one of the first conceptual hurdles that one faces, as an anthropologist, when engaging with sound studies. If a sound ethnography is to seek to understand the different ways in which sound inter-relates with the social experience, how can we use sound on its own terms and expect it to communicate cross-culturally? In other words, what kind of technical and conceptual tools can we use, as anthropologists, to communicate a sense of the sonic across cultural contexts that are not related? How do we deal with the issue of cultural difference? How can we use sound in a way that does not exoticize cultures?

Current generations of anthropologists have been reviewing the paradigm that looks at the materials collected during fieldwork as mere data and started to look at the experience of doing fieldwork itself as a suitable means of understanding social relations cross-culturally. This kind of approach places the ethnographic encounter at the centre of the research text. Methodologically, it is an approach that is practise centred rather than meaning centred. Better said, the quest for cultural meanings does not lie exclusively in understanding the discourses through intellectual exercise, but also includes corporeal and affective dimensions of knowledge. That in the practise of doing participant observation of engaging with culture through associations, of focusing on the process of knowledge production a more open ended and processual understanding of culture emerges. The questions posed by this kind of anthropology do not part from the cultural comparative approach, but centres its attention on the inter-subjective encounter in the field. It asks about the quality of relationships that are embedded in the text, its asks questions about the narrative and the ethical and methodological process of constructing the text, it seeks to produce a knowledge that is corporeal – which is felt in the body – rather than exclusively intellectual. It seeks to go provide the “reader” with a sense of being there by representing the fieldwork experience on its own terms rather than relying on intellectual schemes that lie outside of the context of encounter. A result of this approach is the creation of texts that place the reader in the centre of the action - they give a sense of the textures of the place, of the various subtleties that makes life meaningful. For some authors, it is an approach that approximates to giving the reader a sense of being there. The search for these kind of interactive texts has led to anthropologists to consider the limitations of academic text as a means of rendering the affective, improvisational, sensual, and chaotic dimensions of daily life. Some more salient examples of these approaches are ethnographies that addressed the format and politics of ethnographic writing and looked into formats such as novels, poetry, autobiography, and other means of experimenting with the ethnographic genre. It is my contention that sound studies has a great deal to contribute to this kind of scholarship for it engages the anthropologist through a more experiential and sensual dimension of producing knowledge.

This is an ideal and the question still remains on whether this paradigm is successful in being consistent and convincing. In my view, a very important issue to look into is to look into how other disciplines and paradigms have addressed similar issues. For example, in architecture there is a whole field and speciality that focuses on acoustic design for the construction of concert halls and churches. Musicians are constantly seeking new ways to produce music or to re-interpret and re-contextualise the classics. Sound artists are continuously interacting with engineers and designers as a means to seek different ways to articulate an experience sonically. This kind of interdisciplinarity is what I have attempted to follow in the designing of the course "Soundscape: Perception and Design" to be offered during the spring semester of 2011 in the Anthropology Department of Tallinn University.

- Carlo Cubero, Tallinn, 2011

We also introduced a new segment to the Helikoosolek, the Ear Cleaner, or opening listening session. In future we will begin each meeting by listening to a recording (composition, sound poem, field-recording, radio show, etc, etc...) proposed either by myself, or a member of our group. If you have any suggestions for recordings that could be suitable for a Helikoosolek Ear Cleaner, let me know!

Last night we listened to a piece by American artist Steve Peters entitled Canyons from his online release The Very Rick Hours. You can listen to and/or download it here:

You can also here these pieces as featured in the last several editions of framework, the weekly field-recording based radio show that I produce:

http://www.frameworkradio.net/2010/12/311-2010-12-26/
http://www.frameworkradio.net/2011/01/313-2011-01-09/
http://www.frameworkradio.net/2010/12/311-2010-12-26/

The Very Rich Hours presents an interesting mix of field-recording, spoken word, and choral singing. it raised many questions in our group: was it intentional that all of the spoken word description was specifically of visual aspects of the space? What role, conceptually, did the singing play in the work? Did the spoken word add to or detract from the experience of the composed soundscapes?

I plan to ask these questions of Steve himself. I'll post his responses here.

10th meeting, Wednesday, January 26th

2011-01-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Carlo Cubero, PhD
Wednesday, January 26th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

The first meeting of the Helikoosolek in 2011 will feature a visit from Carlo Cubero, PhD, Associate Professor of anthropology at Tallinn University. In the coming year, Carlo will be teaching a course at the university entitled 'Soundscapes: Perception and Design', and is also heading the Soundscape Study Group, which is preparing works for the Maailmafilm Ethnographic Film Festival in Tartu, and for Tuned City Tallinn as part of Tallinn Capital of Culture 2011. In his visit to the Helikoosolek, Carlo, accompanied by members of his Soundscape Study Group, will address issues, questions, paradoxes, and possible solutions that come up when anthropology meets "the sonic". He will also discuss his plans and goals for the upcoming university course, which he describes as an exploration of:

"... the range of discourses and practices that relate to sound's relationship to social experience, from an anthropological perspective. It will focus on the different ways in which humans perceive sound – as a socially constructed phenomenon – and design sonic experiences. The course will discuss how technologies of sound emerge from cultural and historical worlds. Some themes that will be addressed in this course will be: (a) the political economy of noise, (b) cross-cultural discourses on sound perception, (c) intersections between technology and sound such as architecture, sound recordings, and experimental music, (d) copyright and sound ownership, amongst others. By examining sound from a cross-cultural perspective the course will also attempt to open up a dialogue with alternative sonic practices and thus ultimately challenge many taken-for-granted notions underlying contemporary theories of culture."

helikoosolek:tartu is organised my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum, and Tartu Kultuurkapital.
http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com
http://www.moks.ee
http://www.erm.ee

9th meething, Wednesday, November 24th

2010-11-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

MOKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
John Grzinich's film Sound Aspects of Material Elements
Wednesday, November 24th, 6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

The 9th meeting of helikoosolek:tartu will feature the Estonian premiere of John Grzinich's film Sound Aspects of Material Elements.

The film is based on sound recordings made in Estonia and Portugal from 2006-2009. It shows a specific approach to the artistic use of sound, documenting a 3 year in-situ process of sonification, of exploring interactions between natural and man-made environments implementing numerous found objects in the context of landscapes and abandoned structures. The film employs a minimal editing style and durational shots, shifting our attention toward and extended view of time and place, of the ever changing micro-processes that hint to eternal growth and decay inherent to cycles of nature itself. The possibilities to intercept, shape, disrupt, recombine and capture the elements through creative experiments is what this film illustrates in the interest that it may inspire the viewer to listen in new way.

Sound Aspects of Material Elements reveals how our sense of hearing can use non-linguistic signals to communicate, interpret and build relations to the world around us. Using sound as the primary signifier, the film shows a specific approach to the artistic use of sound, covering a 3 year period of the authors personal research and collaborations with a number of close colleagues. The film documents in-situ processes of exploration and sonification of the landscape along with the numerous objects and structures found there.

All the sound recordings emphasize how the combinations of certain materials (metal, wood, glass) with natural elements (water, wind fire), take on alchemical characteristics as we listen in. We experience aeolian metal wires in the wind, structures affected by fire, water, snow and the casual effects of human interventions in insect worlds. The sonic outcomes can be subtle and sometimes below our common perception so a variety of experimental recording techniques were employed. Contact microphones are placed on surfaces shifting our attention toward the internal resonances of the materials themselves while mini microphones reveal spaces normally inaccessible by our ears. What we hear is what we see, yet is sometimes translated through amplified means.

With its minimal editing style and durational shots, Sound Aspects of Material Elementsshifts our attention toward and extended view of time and place, of the ever changing micro-processes that hint to eternal growth and decay inherent to cycles of nature itself. The possibilities to intercept, shape, disrupt, recombine and capture the elements through creative experiments is what this film attempts to illustrate in the interest that it may inspire the viewer to listen in new way.

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

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

8th meeting report

2010-10-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

For our 8th meeting we explored the Eesti Rahva Muuseum itself, experimenting with the building's sonic spaces, structures and architecture. After some initial group exercises in our usual meeting room (using the room's most prolific item: it's chairs) we broke into smaller groups for individual exploration of the building, culminating in two performances:

Our first space was the museum's coatroom; usually covered in coats, it's structure was already altered at this time of the evening by being completely bare, revealing the hollow metallic skeleton of the racks themselves. We found each hook to have it's own resonance when struck or bowed, and the hooks' numbering system (meant to help you find your coat among many) proved to be a convenient way to locate specific points and repeat resonant forms.

The second space was the small staircase area next to the bar - a varied palette of sounds came from the rotating bar stools, the staircase railing, and the museum's Finno-Ugric language display, representing each language within the Finno-Ugric group by a disc sized proportionally to the language's number of native speakers. Each disc, of course, proved to have its own distinct sound.

We finished our meeting by watching some video material of site-specific actions in Estonia and Latvia. For more information on the revenant:sound project that inspired this workshop, see http://www.revenantsound.net.

8th meeting, Wednesday, October 27th

2010-10-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
revenant:tartu, with Patrick McGinley
Wednesday, October 27th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

revenant:tartu - site specific soundscape explorations

The 8th edition of helikoosolek:tartu will be led by its regular moderator Patrick McGinley as an exploration of group actions within specific spaces. The group will explore concepts of active participation within a space's soundscape through a series of games, exercises and improvisations in various spaces within the Eesti Rahva Muuseum itself, experimenting with materials, shapes, resonances, surfaces, distances, and micro and macro sound events, towards a series a private group 'performances' to happen around the building. All sounds will originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself, and no artificial amplification will be used.

McGinley will also present a series of short audio and video recordings dealing with the same topic, from the collected activities of revenant:sound, an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions.

http://www.revenantsound.net
http://www.murmerings.com

helikoosolek:tartu is organised my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu Linnavalitsus, and Eesti Kultuurkapital.
http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com
http://www.moks.ee
http://www.erm.ee

7th meeting report

2010-10-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Natalia for preparing yet another workshop. This one being very condensed also made people focused. In just 2 short hours we created a whole ensemble of low power circuits. Most of us even managed to get a fairly diverse range of sounds by connecting the free leads to different materials and the circuits of our neighbors. After a short while its hard to know why the circuit is doing what its doing and how to control it. All good fun.

7th meeting, Wednesday, September 29th

2010-09-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Natalia Borissova
Wednesday, September 29th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This edition of helikoosolek:tartu will feature a visit from current MoKS resident artist Natalia Borissova, who will give a 'Hands-on (your neighbor)' workshop with audio amplifiers adapted into homemade 'crackle' devices - simple, but expressive interactive instruments. The human body and any conductive matters become part of an electric circuit (or the other way around) and determine the range of sounds possible.

Everything conductive found in a room, including the bare skin of your neighbour, can be wired and played in a short collective sonic cross-performance, after building our own 'crackle'-circuits and figuring out what/who is conductive and why. Eight circuits can be temporarily constructed and played collaboratively. All parts will be provided, but please bring a 9V battery.

Nata(lia)sha Borissova is Moscow born, Munich/Berlin-based media artist/organizer working with (s)low-tech in a DIY, explorative, and process-related way. Since 1995 she has been experimenting with visual media while living in Moscow, Berlin, Stuttgart, Buffalo, NY and Munich. She has spent some time as a visiting professor, lecturing on Motion imaging, at New York State University/Buffalo (SUNY), and has been selected for several grants and artists' residencies in Europe. Since 2006 she has been independently running aa-vv.org - a migrating workshop-zone for informal audiovisual education and experimentation, trying to keep both change and continuity in setting up creative workshops, as well as instigating those self-(de)constructivist, experiment-based, temporal norms-forms abandoning situations. Gradually her main interest is shifting from motion to stillness, from showing to looking, from hearing to listening, from art to life, from life to... the dead frog.

http://www.aa-vv.org/about-natabor
http://www.aa-vv.org

helikoosolek:tartu is organised my MoKS and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu Linnavalitsus, and Eesti Kultuurkapital.
http://helikoosolek.blogspot.com
http://www.moks.ee
http://www.erm.ee

6th meeting report

2010-09-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Some nice discussion generated by the work of Yiorgis Sakellariou this month, including questions of field-recording in live performance - is there a conceptual or preferential difference between live software processing and simple listening session playback? We had both in this edition - Yiorgis played a live set using field-recordings made in and around the small greek village from which his family originates (with a few recent recordings from Tallinn thrown in for good measure), and also played us a few long duration untreated recordings from the same location, including one stunning recording of the mournful funeral bells of the village church (where he was recently offered the job of village priest, apparently). We moved this meeting to the floor this time around, borrowed some filled hemp sack cushions from the museum's exhibition, making the room a bit more comfortable.

Next month we'll have a visit from MoKS current artist in residence, Natalia Borissova. Stay tuned for more details.

6th meeting, Wednesday, August 25th

2010-08-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
Mecha/Orga, with Yiorgis Sakellariou
Wednesday, August 25th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This edition of helikoosolek:tartu features a visit from Greek artist Yiorgis Sakellariou.

Yiorgis Sakellariou is involved with the contemporary and experimental music scene in Greece through his CD-R label “Echo Music”, and as a member of the Contemporary Music Research Centre, and the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association. He is also a participant in the Ear to the Earth organization and he has composed music for film and theatre plays. Yiorgis recently spent a month in the village of Abeliona, in the region of Peloponnesus, in Greece. During that time he made a series of field recordings, including thunderstorms, funeral church bells and used the material to compose an album.

Mecha/Orga is the project and recording name of Yiorgis Sakellariou. Since 2003, 2 CDs and 5 CD-Rs have been released and Mecha/Orga has been presented live in Greece, The Netherlands, the U.K., France, Belgium, Germany, Russia and Switzerland. Mecha/Orga’s music and performances are mostly based on field recordings (from passing trains to waterfalls and from refrigerator drones to desert winds), which are filtered and mixed in real time, with the use of a laptop.

During this edition of helikoosolek:tartu we will have a performance/listening session, and Yiorgis will lead a question/answer session and discussion based on his work. Participants are encouraged also to bring any field recordings of their own that the group can listen to and discuss.

For more information on Yiorgis' work, please see:
http://www.mecha-orga.com
http://thenoisehitthemastheyopenedthedoor.blogspot.com/2010/08/yiorgis-sakellariou-abelionas.html
http://blog.noise-below.org/tag/field-recording-mini-series/

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

5th meeting report

2010-07-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Marko Kosnik for joining us yesterday at the helikoosolek. We explored ideas of corporeal (or individual physical) tunings, running through a series of vocal exercises as a way of seeking the individual resonant frequencies within our own bodies, and discussing the inherent inconsistencies of institutional forced matched tunings on bodies that are intrinsically different. We recorded our vocal experiments, including collective vocal exercises in which each participant had ears covered, in order to concentrate specifically on 'singing in'. we will be posting samples from some of these recordings, as well as a few images, shortly.

We are also looking for ideas from the community for upcoming helikoosolek editions. If you have an idea for an activity, workshop, exploration or presentation, let us know! The next meeting will be Wednesday, August 25th; stay tuned for details! And for our participants: comments are open below; please let us know if you what you thought!

5th meeting, wednesday, july 28th

2010-07-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
Corporeal Bioacoustics, with Marko Kosnik
Wednesday, July 28
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

a journey into corporeal bioacoustics / some practical exercises for the social bodies of self tuned individuals / by marko kosnik

This edition of helikoosolek:tartu features a visit from Slovenian artist, and current resident at MoKS, Marko Kosnik.

In the common practice of singing we are used to refer to a generally accepted tuning system and musical scales, which enable us to orchestrate, harmonize, transpose and modulate musical phrasing in collective situation. There are different kinds of absolute and relative tunings found around the globe, based on variety of cultural traditions. The references for tuning might depend on instruments in use, surrounding acoustics, commodity of singers, ...

As humans we have our own very specific acoustics at hand, that of our own body. by attentive listening to the resonant volumes of our own bodies while singing, we can conduct vibratory experiences which lead to tuning based on individual bioacoustic properties.

There are sets of experiences to enjoy when self tuned individuals enter the choir situation. the aim of the workshop is to evoke and introduce these kind of experiences in a participatory situation.

Marko Kosnik (Slovenia), polymedia artist, started his carrier in 80's as collaborator with many alternative groups (Junajtit Adis, Laibach, Cavis Negra, Most). Since the beginning of his collaborative projects he was producing creative environments, open labs and media platforms, dealing with synchronisation of authors from different backgrounds and self organisation. Crossing from acoustic studies of subterranean Karst to performances and installations with sonorostatics (electro acoustic plates) he initiated his own productions in the frame of Egon March Institute, and started building interactive environments in 1993. Kosnik acts as performer, installation artist, producer and video instrumentalist. In the span of 24 years he connected over 30 international artists in research and productions of Egon March Institute worldwide.
http://web.me.com/marchegon

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

4th meeting report

2010-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out for the soundwalk. We had a group of about 12 participants with many new faces. I spent the previous afternoon planning out a simple route to walk starting from the museum. The general strategy was to focus on passing through different sound environments and to see how far the group would realistically walk in 30 minutes. While most of what I planned happened, there were some nice surprises. The main "catch" to this soundwalk was that the group divided into pairs with one person being a guide while their partner was blindfolded. After half the walk the pair would switch roles. What I didn't expect was how freely the guides interpreted their roles. Immediately many of the guides chose to highlight the tactile environment as much as (if not more than) the sonic environment. While "leading" the group I often turned around to find blindfolded people touching trees, buildings and other objects along the way. Thee were also a few situational surprises like the fellow practicing his martial art in Toomamägi park eventually finding himself surrounded by our group. None of the blindfolded people knew what they were listening to until they opened their eyes. Overall it seemed to be a sensory heightening experience for most, something a few said, they would like to try again in their own way.

4th meeting, wednesday June 30th

2010-06-18T02:48:00.000-07:00

helikoosolek:tartu
'a soundwalk of Tartu'
Wednesday, May 26th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

For the next Helikoosolek, sound artist John Grzinich will conduct a soundwalk through Tartu. This soundwalk will be designed to highlight different sounding environments of this city. The idea of a soundwalk is primarily to simply listen and understand our surroundings from the perspective of our ears. By listening we shift our attention away from the visual world and question the ways in which we orientate ourselves. It is also an exercise in attention, to be reminded of the way we hear and select the sounds that are important for us as opposed to what we tune out.

The soundwalk participants will stay together as a group. The group will be organized in such a way that the participants will work in pairs. One person will be blindfolded and the other person will act as a guide. It is the responsibility of the guide to allow the blindfolded person to listen carefully and navigate through space with their ears and yet protect their partner from any potential dangers. Communication between the guide and the blind person should kept to a minimum to orient the attention to the surrounding environment and what is taking place there.

The soundwalk will begin at ERM at 18:00 and last approximately 1 hour. After 30 minutes the roles of the partners will switch. So the one who was blind will then become the guide. This gives each person the experience of being "blind" and being a guide. Both roles are equally important. The end of the walk will be at ERM where we will have a follow up discussion to share our experiences.

Please wear comfortable shoes and appropriate outdoor clothing. Anyone who does not feel comfortable being blindfolded is also free to join the walk.

In the case of heavy rain or other bad weather an alternative program will take place at ERM.

John Grzinich is an artist originally from America but now lives in Estonia and works with MOKS, an artist-rn center in Mooste, Põlvamaa. He has been conducting his own forms of sound research for over 15 years and is currently working on a project to analyze and raise awareness about soundscapes in Estonia.
http://maaheli.ee

---

Eesti Rahva Muuseumi näitusemajas (Kuperjanovi 9)

Kolmapäeval, 30 juunil kell 18.00

MOKS esitleb - Helikoosolek:Tartu, vol 4 – Helikõnd Tartus

Kolmapäeval, 30. juunil viib helikunstnik John Grzinich järgmisel Helikoosolekul osalejad helikõnnile läbi Tartu linna. Jalutuskäigu eesmärgiks on tuua esile Tartu linna erinevaid helikeskkondi. Helikõnni juhtmõtteks on panna tähele ja mõista ümbritsevat kuulmiselundite kaudu. Kuulamise kaudu pöörame tähelepanu eemale nähtavalt maailmalt ja seame kahtluse alla tavapärase arusaama ruumis orienteerumisest. See on ka tähelepanuharjutus, millega uurida seda, kuidas me kuulame, valime ja teadvustame enda jaoks olulisi helisid vastandina helidele mille suhtes me end „välja lülitame“.

Helikõnd toimub grupitööna. Grupp korraldatakse selliselt, et osalejad liiguvad paarides. Ühel paarilisest on silmad kinni seotud ning teine on talle juhiks. Juhi ülesandeks on võimaldada kinni seotud silmadega inimesel hoolikalt ümbrust kuulata ning ruumis orienteeruda ning kaitsta kaaslast võimalike ohtude eest. Suhtlus juhi ja kinnisilmi liikuva inimese vahel peaks olema minimaalne, et suunata tähelepanu ümbritsevale keskkonnale ja seal toimuvale.

Helikõnd algab ERMi juurest kell 18.00 ning kestab umbes tund aega. Pärast 30 minutilist jalutuskäiku vahetavad paarilised osad, nii et juhitavast saab juht. See annab mõlemale paarilisele võimaluse olla nii „pime“ kui juht, kuna mõlemad osad on võrdselt tähtsad. Jalutuskäigu lõppedes kogunetakse Eesti Rahva Muuseumi näitusemajja, et vahetada kogemusi ja nende üle arutleda.

Osalejatel palutakse panna jalga mugavad jalanõud ja ilmaga sobiv riietus. Kes end kinniste silmadega seotult ebamugavalt tunneb, võib lihtsalt helikõnniga liituda. Meeles tuleb pidada siiski peamist reeglit – lubada juhitavatel segamatult tajuda maailma kuulmise kaudu.

Tugeva vihmasaju vms halva ilma korral toimub ERMi näitusemajas Helikoosoleku alternatiivprogramm.

Eestis elav Ameerikast pärit helikunstnik John Grzinich töötab Põlvamaal MoKS kunsti ja sotsiaalpraktika keskuses. Ta on tegelenud heliuuringutega üle 15 aasta ning töötab praegu Eesti helimaastike analüüsimise ning tutvustamisega. http://maaheli.ee

Helikoosolek on regulaarselt toimuv kohtumine inimestele, keda huvitab heli meie ümber kõigis oma väljendustes. Kohtumiste raames leiavad aset jutuajamised, esitlused, kontserdid, töötoad, arutelud ning väljasõidud. Kõigi nende tegevuste eesmärgiks on uurida heli esinemist ning kasutusvõimalusi kõikvõimalikes kontekstides: kunstis, muusikas, arhitektuuris, ökoloogias, filosoofias, sotsiaalses ja kultuurilises vastasmõjus jms. Ka osalejatel endil on võimalus pakkuda välja tegevusi või arutlus-teemasid vastavalt oma huvidele või tegevustele. Helikoosoleku kohtumisõhtud toimuvad iga kuu viimasel kolmapäeval kell 18-20.

http://moks.ee

3rd meeting report

2010-06-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

It was a pleasure to have Carsten Stabenow and Derek Holzer come down to talk about Tuned City. They gave an overview of the concept and many of the projects and events that took place at the first Tuned City in Berlin, summer 2008.They also gave an overview of what's to come for the 2011 Tuned City for Tallinn.

3rd meeting, wednesday, may 26th

2010-05-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

helikoosolek:tartu
featuring Tuned City Tallinn 2011
Wednesday, May 26th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This meeting of helikoosolek:tartu will feature a presentation and discussion about the upcoming Tuned City events in Tallinn as part of Tallinn Cultural Capital 2011.

During the initial tuned city event in Berlin in the summer of 2008, almost 100 artists, architects and thinkers gathered together in a variety of locations around the city to discuss issues of sound and architecture. The ongoing project draws the traditions of critical discussion about urban space within architecture and urban planning discourse - as well as its strategies and working methods - into the context of sound art. This expanded discussion reinforces the potential of the spatial and communicative properties of sound as a tool and means of urban practice. tuned city continues as a platform, exploring other cities and locations with their own cultural and social settings, working theoretically and practically on the question how sound and architecture are related. The talk will introduce general ideas that mark the field of research and present recent planning developed by tuned city for the European Cultural Capital Tallinn in 2011.

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

2nd meeting report

2010-04-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out and to Veljo Runnel for an excellent talk and presentation. It was another good turn out, and Veljo treated us to a wonderful collection of his sounds. We ran out of time, though, before he could play us the slowed-down-birdsong recording he promised us, so for those of you were disappointed, Veljo says: "Here it is, first in natural speed, then slowed down six times. The bird is Eurasian Reed Warbler, recorded from a boat in Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve."

it's here on aporee maps

2nd meeting, Wednesday, April 28th

2010-04-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

MoKS presents:
helikoosolek:tartu
with Veljo Runnel
Wednesday, April 28
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This second meeting of helikoosolek:tartu will be led by Estonian nature
recordist, phonographer, and photographer Veljo Runnel. Veljo is a
biologist based in Tartu who has been making nature recordings since
1999, founding the loodusheli website (http://www.loodusheli.ee) with
the Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) soon thereafter. Veljo says, "I
think I can name myself as a nature educator and nature guide. This also
applies for nature sounds. I am educating people and helping them to
listen, understand and enjoy nature."

For our meeting, along with a presentation of his photography and
recordings, Veljo will address the following topics:
- Discovering aesthetic resources from nature.
- Learning to listen.
- Soundjourneys to wild places.
- Birds - artists or advertisers?

For more information on his work, see the following publications:
http://www.greengate.ee/index.php?page=4&id=20373
http://tartu.postimees.ee/010307/tartu_postimees/247439_print.php
http://www.epifanio.eu/nr9/est/plaadikogu.html

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

1st meeting report

2010-04-02T04:46:00.000-07:00

a great turnout for our first meeting, and plenty of enthusiasm for future activities. requests have been made in future for a contact microphone building workshop, and an explanation of binaural recording/listening, and hence the intricacies of how the brain and body physically process directional sound information. if there are any experts that would be interested in making that presentation, please get in touch!

this time we met with anthea caddy and felicity mangan for a guided tour through the australian sound art scene, exploring the role environment plays in the creative realm via the long wire recordings of alan lamb, the industrial field recordings of camilla hannan, the spatial interventions of eamon sprod, and many more. we also learned that koalas are not as cute and cuddly as we thought. our australian tour took most of the meeting, so we only took a brief look at some revenant:sound materials, but that's a topic we can return to at a later date.

a few pics from our first meeting below, care of mari jõgiste. the next meeting will be on the last wednesday of this month, april 28th, at 6pm. we will be announcing shortly who our guests will be.

1st meeting of helikoosolek:tartu, march 31st

2010-03-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

MoKS presents: helikoosolek:tartu, a regular gathering for the exploration of sound in all forms. The meetings will 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 normally take place on the last Wednesday of each month, from 6-8pm at the Eesti Rahva Muuseum. Please check this blog for date confirmations and programme details. Supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu Linnavalitsus and Eesti Kultuurkapital.

The 1st meeting of the helikoosolek will take place at 6pm on Wednesday, March 31st. There will be two presentations:

Patrick McGinley will welcome participants and open with a discussion on the aims of the helikoosolek. He will also present the/revenant:sound/ project./Revenant/ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. The project comprises performances, workshops, and publications that explore human interaction with and the gestural memory of specific spaces. Since 2006 a diverse group of sound artists from around the world have been coming together in various combinations to further explore these interactions.

Visiting Australian artists Felicity Mangan and Anthea Caddy will give a presentation on the Australian sound art / experimental music movement and their own work within it. They will address questions both of culture and environment, and explore how Australia's specific landscape and surroundings have informed their work.

These three artists will also be performing live in concert with Kiwa and Sven Vabar at Genialistide Klubi on Saturday, April 3rd. We hope this 1st meeting of the helikoosolek will provide potential concert-goers with further insight into the artists' work.

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