50th (!) meeting, Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

helikoosolek:tartu
volume 50!
Wednesday, February 25th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

helikoosolek is 50! well, sort of...

Come help us celebrate our 50th meeting, where we will eat cake, drink coffee, reminisce about the good ol' times, and sample sounds from another jubilee: framework radio is 500! On Sunday, February 22nd framework radio (founded, produced and hosted by helikoosolek's own Patrick McGinley) airs it's 500th show.

framework, a show consecrated to field recording and it's use in composition, began broadcasting on ResonanceFM in London in June 2002, and now airs on 13 stations around the world, from Tartu to Brasilia. It's goal is to present not only the extremely diverse sound environments of our world, but also the extremely diverse work produced by the artists who choose to use these environments as their sonic materials. It hopes to ask this question: can field recording be presented as a single style or genre, or is it in fact as uncontrollable and undefinable an instrument or tool as any, that may be interpreted, manipulated, and appropriated by anyone with a microphone and an idea?

To celebrate it's 500th show, framework is publishing a 3-disc compilation of new works by artists that have been important to the program over the years, which will be available only to framework supporters. The work's publication also focuses heavily on provenance of materials, with the packaging produced from locally made recycled paper (from the Räpina Paperivabrik) and letter-pressed on the historical machines at the Tartu Trükimuuseum. What's more, as we are able to be present for the milling of the paper and the printing of the texts, recordings of these two processes will actually be included on the releases, enabling listeners to hear the production of the actual object they are holding.

This Wednesday we will sample a selection of the works to be included on the framework500 release (which will be available in about a month), the first opportunity for anyone to hear these new works.

NB: After this 50th meeting helikoosolek will be taking a small hiatus. We will continue to work with Eesti Rahva Muuseum, and to organiser events and meetings when opportunities arise, but we will no longer be holding to a monthly schedule. If you have a proposal for a helikoosolek activity for 2015, just let us know.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum.

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

49th meeting, Wednesday, January 28th, 2015

helikoosolek:tartu
with Madis Vasser
Wednesday, January 28th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Welcome to helikoosolek 2015! We are back with a slightly pared down schedule for this year - next month we will be celebrating our 50th(!) edition, after which we will be switching to a more casual, occasional schedule. But more on that in the coming months.

For this month's meeting we will be exploring the topic of psychoacoustics - our psychological and physiological response to sound. Our guide will be Madis Vasser, a masters student from the psychology department at the University of Tartu and also a helikoosolek regular. In the past year Madis has been heavily involved in Psühhobuss, an organization that brings psychological science closer to everyday folk.

We will explore exactly where sound-waves meet the psyche and where the signals go from there. Different brain regions will be discussed and their functions demonstrated (noninvasively!). We can test the assumption that everyone perceives the outside world similarly - you may be surprised! We also cover some interesting sound illusions and cross-modal effects. In the end we’ll hear why studying psychoacoustics might be a worthwhile pursuit in the fields of diagnostics and language learning.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum.

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

48th meeting, Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

helikoosolek:tartu
with Pärtel Lippus
Wednesday, November 26th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This month we take helikoosolek back into the realm of scientific research with a visit from Pärtel Lippus. Partel is a researcher of Estonian phonetics at the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, and studied linguistics at the University of Tartu (PhD in 2011 on the Estonian quantity system).

As a phonetician Pärtel studies how linguistic information is encoded in the sound signal when we speak. He will tell us a little about how speech is generated, physiologically: how vocal cords generate the pitch and how the different sounds are made by changing the shape of the mouth. This way of describing the vocal tract is called the source-filter model and can be also used in speech synthesis. Using re-synthesis (separating the "source" and "filter" of a speech recording) he will show how we can change the meaning of a word or a sentence just by changing the duration of the sounds and the pitch movement. Of course changing pitch works only when we are speaking with a regular modal voice. Sometimes our voice can also be breathy or creaky. Creaky voice can have different meanings in different cultures, being a social marker in US English while in Estonian everybody creaks.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Linnavalitsus.

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

47th meeting, Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

helikoosolek:tartu
Lights-Out Listening Session
Wednesday, October 29th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This month, as autumn weather sets in and the temperature drops, we will hunker down for a bit of sonic hibernation. Our regular host Patrick McGinley curates a Lights-Out Listening Session featuring recent favorite submissions to his framework radio program, "consecrated to field recording and its use in composition."  We will listen in full to these long works, sonic compositions making use of field recordings and real-world acoustic sound captures, in our usual space, transformed from a lecture room to our own autumnal den, darkened and arranged with cushions and pillows for comfortable listening in a comfortable position. Tea will be provided!

Participants are encouraged to bring recordings that they feel may be appropriate for addition to the playlist, their own pillows for sitting or lying on the floor, and biscuits. We will darken the room as much as possible, but participants could also bring something to cover their eyes if they wish.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Linnavalitsus.

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

46th meeting, Wednesday, September 24th, 2014

helikoosolek:tartu
with Kimmo Modig
Wednesday, September 24th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

Image by Jack Balance for Coconut Disco, a theatre play directed by Katariina Numminen, with sound design by Kimmo Modig (Ars 11, Kiasma, Helsinki, 2011).

This month our guestis Finnish writer, performance artist and sound designer Kimmo Modig, currently an artist-in-residence at MoKS in Mooste, who describes his visit with us thusly:

Kimmo Modig: Me & My Work ♥
Hi, I'm Kimmo Modig, an artist from Helsinki. I talk for a living basically but I'm also a sound designer. For Helikoosolek in Tartu, I will talk about sound design in video art. I will show you how things like unsync, noise, kitschy sound effects, and other such concepts play out in my practice. It'll be tons of fun I promise so I hope to see you there.

Check out my home page: kimmomodig.com

More info on Kimmo and his work can be found in this interview from 2013.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Linnavalitsus.

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

45th meeting, Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

helikoosolek:tartu
with Veljo Runnel
Wednesday, August 27th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This month we welcome Estonian nature recordist and biologist Veljo Runnel for his third visit to helikoosolek, the last one being back in late 2012 when he presented the relaunch online portal for Estonian animal sounds, Kõrv loodusesse (Ear into Nature). This year he released a new album featuring recordings from the Emajõe-Suursoo, will will be the basis of his visit:

Discovering the soundscapes of Emajõe-Suursoo

Sounds of a particular location in nature can be as diverse and changing as nature itself. I learned this through frequent trips to Emajõe-Suursoo over two years. It resulted in a nature sound album and many hours of material not heard on the album. For this helikoosolek I will play samples from the album and we will discuss what constitutes the acoustic identity of a location.

Veljo Runnel is a biologist, but also studied psychology at the University of Tartu. He started sound recording in 1999, with as his main interests the sounds of animals and natural soundscapes, but also auditory perception in general and the interpretation of the sonic world. He has been running workshops for teachers and nature interpreters for learning about biodiversity in nature, and also workshops in nature photography and sound recording.

He has released several nature sound CDs with The Estonian Fund for Nature.

http://www.loodusheli.ee
http://naturesoundscapes.eu

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Linnavalitsus.

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

44th meeting, Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

helikoosolek:tartu
with Ernst Karel
Wednesday, July 30th
6-8pm
Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Tartu

This month we are pleased to welcome back returning helikoosolek guest Ernst Karel. Ernst joined us a few years back to present his amazing recordings of Swiss mountain transport. This month he returns to present recordings from his fungal work-in-progress (and hopefully to take advantage of Estonia's copious fungi himself), Mycological.

Mycological is an experimental nonfiction sound piece which listens in on communities engaged in naturalistic observation and analysis. The piece takes as its subject certain aspects of human encounters with fungi. Genetically more similar to animals than to plants, fungi nearly always coexist in symbiotic, mycorrhizal relationships with other life forms and thus index above all interconnectedness. Mycology is unusual among the sciences in that advances in the field have historically been made by both professionals and amateurs, and these two groups have likewise been interdependent in the creation of mycological knowledge. The Boston Mycological Club, founded in 1895, is the longest running amateur mycological club in the U.S., with a growing active membership. While members often join initially out of a desire to safely forage for wild mushrooms, many develop fascinations which go far beyond the edible fruiting bodies, to the ecological and morphological aspects of fungi more generally. This piece was recorded in biology labs and the herbaria at Harvard University, and during forays with the Boston Mycological Club, and listens in on social processes of observation and knowledge production.

Ernst Karel's multidimensional audio work includes electroacoustic improvisation and composition, location recording, sound for nonfiction vilm, and solo and collaborative sound installations. Using analog electronics and location recordings, either separately or in combination, Karel creates audio pieces that move between the abstract and the documentary.

Karel, based in Boston in the northeastern U.S., is currently technical advisor and sound engineer for Non-Event, and lab manager for the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard University, where as Lecturer on Anthropology, he teaches a course in sonic ethnography.

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 Patrick McGinley and supported by Eesti Rahva Muuseum and Tartu Linnavalitsus.

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