Art’s Birthday Like every year, for the participation in the global celebration, we played online, using open microphones in the KRA garden, Hranice. 17 Januari 2023. The event started also the localisation version of the Rural Development performances, involving artists and other creative people from the neighbourhood, visitors and residents. Visit https://www.artsbirthday.net/2023
Reveil #10 As an experiments we started a local rendering of the virtual band/theme Rural Development with a participation in the annual 24h networked event Reveil. We organized a couple of workshops about the idea of Field Recodings: how to create a sonic scan of a natural environment. A representable Field/Area/Array/Mesh/… Instead of recording at one place with different microphones in specific positions/angles, we sit in an area with whatever recording gear we have. This is all streamed to a central point that checks the relative positions of the participants, and generates a binaural/spatial representation. Maybe we can move slowly and force the model into a set of vectors. Maybe it does not sound right to our human ears, maybe the birds are disturbed by this strange behaviour. Maybe nothing works next time the sun is rising. After all we are a silly species trying to make sense of everything by avoiding observing only. Hranice 6-7 May 2023. Visit http://soundtent.org/soundcamp_reveil.html and you can listen to the early morning sunrise streams here.
On/Off #9 After 8 successful editions, the Mothcatchers are back in the cowshed! A fine selection of exquisite alternative bands all different in style, manners, taste and sound. Find out for yourself: July 1. Hranice. Or check out the bands online!
Residents and creative visitors During the summermonths we are receiving guests again, after a 2-3 year Corona-pauze. We will update the activities and references as we are enjoying their presence and creativity. Feel at home and play: Krzysztof Topolski (PL), Maarten Buyl and Raphael Malfliet (BE)
Krzysztof Topolski: Sound is a kind of touch The title of the project is inspired by the statement of Maryanne Amacher, one of the precursors of sound art. Sound is an energy that we can feel physically, a bit like touch, it is also a force that when used properly can build and unite, or break and destroy when used inappropriately. The project is to focus on the study of the sonic side of prejudices, discrimination, or fear, e.g. concerning the foreign, unknown, or strange. I would like to consider how hatred sounds, what are the sound manifestations of unaccepting the unknown, and what is the role of sound in the process of the radicalization of behavior and social relations. Numerous historical and contemporary manifestations of human sound activity will be recognized and studied. They will include language and sounds of discrimination. I will observe how sound divides people and radicalizes individuals, what is the acoustic effect of radicalization of behavior, where it occurs, and how it manifests conscious or unconscious acoustic violence. I would like to investigate the different sensibilities and attitudes concerning this topic across our countries, and regions, in an intercultural context. Special focus will be given to considerations of the state of musical creativity. In this respect, jazz and improvisation in music can be treated here as positive examples. An important aspect will relate to the reflection on the state of the modern soundscape in confrontation with the original acoustic environment of nature. The rural acoustic landscape differs from the urban one and is chosen differently by the inhabitants. Reflecting on these differences will also become part of the project. When implementing the project, I would like to consider how the sound „affects us“ depending on its intention, that is whether it has the including or excluding role. What is the role of music, sound, and the broader soundscape in the process of exclusion, radicalization, or joining, inviting, uniting? In my project, I will also focus on audio field recordings of soundscapes, including spoken stories, archives research and texts, music and film and audio-visual works, instrumental recordings, and musical rehearsals. The inspiration will be phenomena in the field of acoustic ecology, improvised music, deep listening, electronic and electroacoustic music, broadcast, radio and internet transmissions, active co-creation, and sound performance. I hope to work with the body, voice, rhythm, and drums and percussion as a manifestation of pulse and time. I will also concentrate on neurodiversity and various aspects of the perception of signals and stimuli from the environment through the senses. This also applies, perhaps above all, to people with the autism spectrum, whose very different sensory perceptions of the external environment and unusual activities and skills are still often not accepted and ostracized. These people do not fit into the average imposed by the environment, therefore they are rejected. As a final result of the residency project, it is planned to create a composition and organize a concert with the participation of the local community, musicians, and not – musicians, composed of texts, images, voices, sounds, and music. https://culture.pl/en/artist/krzysztof-topolski-arszyn
Thursday 24 August, 2023.
Workshop (4pm) and Concert in open air (7pm), in front of Kohout café, Chotěboř.
Červené Jablko / The Red Apple by Krzysztof Topolski (PL)
Earlier in Summer I met Mr. Bambuch from Libice nearby. He mentioned that he used to sing a Polish song called „Czerwone Jabłuszko“. I knew it, had heard it many times, and remembered the melody. It was a very inspiring and joyful encounter, filled with music. I sang this song accompanied by Mr. Bambuch on piano in his living room. This gave me the idea to work out a piece with this traditional song in mind. It became the inspiration for organizing workshops and a concert.
During the workshops, we get to know the song, try to sing it, and perhaps subject it to a creative deconstruction. We also explore the very interesting historical context of the song’s origin. The starting point for our musical activities is the song itself. Together we prepare an improvised concert where vocal elements blend with percussion and electronic music, recordings from various locations, and elements of the acoustic landscape. After the workshops, there is a relaxed open post-workshop presentation.
The workshop is open for any creative musician, amateur or professional, of any age.
Bring your instruments, voice, and a good dose of enthusiasm.
Supported by the International Visegrad Fund, Zastávka194 and kra.land
The Governors Sound artists Maarten Buyl and Raphael Malfliet are both based in Antwerp, Belgium and have been working together on different projects within the context of ChampdAction (BE), a former production platform for interdisciplinary works departing from sound and music. Even though their individual work is very different from one another, their common ground lies in the importance they address to the act of listening in social, historical and ecological contexts. From here they have engaged themselves with setting up a field recording practice and drawn influence from recordists such as Chris Watson, Jana Winderen and Mark Vernon to create fictional audio portraits. These storytelling’s dramaturgy consist of documented and collected sounds that embody a place, atmosphere or situation and are preserved as much as possible without the use of sound processing tools. During the Kra.Land Sound Of The Village residency Maarten and Raphael will focus on the Doubrava valley, between the Doubrava river and the Železné hory, and its rich mining history, with the extraction of silver and coal being the primary industry in the region. Though all mines have been closed and transformed into parks and forests, choosing this area as their primary region for recording addresses the economic and environmental influence of this region on current local communities. In coordination with Kra Kravin Rural Arts, a sharing of the process is set up at the end of the residency period. Watch and listen, but meantime read https://www.raphaelmalfliet.com/governors
All Summer of the Kra 2023 activities and collaborations TBA here! And don’t forget the erratic Open Lab days, boosting your digital creativity, as part of the ButtuLab.space initiative.
