The creative workshop: Miraculous Agitation. Coils Magnets Music

With: Dan Wilson and Chris Weaver UK
Where: Munich. Schwere Reiter Halle. Dachauerstr. 114
When: May 5-9 2009 3-9 PM. Presentation May 9 at Materialausgabe 2009
Participation: ±15 places. Attendance is free. Electronic parts 30,-Euro
Registration: http://www.aa-vv.org/?av_02010101 by April 15 2009
Organized by: http://aa-vv.org
In cooperation with: http://echtzeithalle.de and http://schwerereiter.de
Support: Department of Arts and Culture of Munich
More: http://www.aa-vv.org/?av_0201

Drawing the hidden music out of everyday objects. Coils are the very soul
of electronic music. The Victorians made jump, Jimi Hendrix made them howl
and this workshop hopes to make them sing. It guides participants in
creating and using electro-magnetic forces to create a type of
‘acoustically synthesized’ music from salvaged metal objects. We will
explore how any object can be turned into a loud speaker and how the
principal of feedback can make these objects vibrate with sound. You will
learn among other things: How inventors, musicians and experimenters have
used various objects as sound diffusers throughout the history of
electronic music. How to stereoscopically eavesdrop on the inner of
workings of electronic devices. How to make a basic amplifier. How to
create an electromagnetic field capable of resonating ferric metal objects.
How to create cheap and effective contact microphones. How to adapt an
amplifier so that it becomes an expressive touch-controlled instrument,
namely a ‘crackle box’.

Day 1-5: Introduction to music made with similar techniques involving an
emphasis on coils. The relationship between music and electromagnetism.
Listening to different electro-magnetic fields. Demonstration of an object
being resonated. Demonstration of sympathetic resonance. How to read
electronic schematics. How to solder. Construction of simple audio
amplifiers. Feeding an audio signal into a coil. Adapting the amplifier
to create a ‘crackle-box’. Exploring, personalizing and tailoring the
circuit to your own fancies. Miraculous agitation! Acoustic waveshaping.
Scavenger hunt trip. Using the coils and amplifiers to resonate junk
objects. Filtering sounds through the objects. Setting up. Recap and
rehearsal. Gala!

ñ: How about shifting the current educational emphases more towards
co-creation of the interesting spatial and acoustic situation, complex
setup? The openness of instruments, setup and us are very important to me.
CW: So to summarise your reply. More composition less gadgets!
Great, these kind of events get far to bogged down in technology.
ñ: And please, please: ‘How to interact’ (including public) instead
of ‘How to solder’! And in case someone somehow did miss a soldering
technique in his/her life, it could be explained. Secretly.
Although sure: learning, soldering and building instruments..
CW: I agree I would much prefer to get on with the music and composition
rather than teaching people how to solder!

The aim of the workshop is to get the participants quickly to the point
where they have two adaptable instruments (a cracklebox and essential a DIY
ebow to be focused on using these tools to pull out a wide soundscape from
discarded objects. Each participant would be an ‘island of sound’ in the
space, surrounded by the junk that they were using their newly constructed
instruments to transform into a harmonic sound environment! Because we are
using the junk objects as loud speakers all over the space
allowing the public to see exactly what is going on soundwise.

Dan Wilson is a composer, instrument builder and sound designer from
Hertfordshire with a BA and MA in Sonic Art, and whose interests lie
primarily in the use of electromagnetic agitation in new instrument design.
As of 2009 he features on SPNM’s composer shortlist. As well as instrument
building, he is also a keen practitioner and theorist of mediadropping
the act of leaving homemade tapes or CDs in public places for people to
find). He was awarded the 2007 Arts Foundation electroacoustic composition
fellowship (nominated by the Ed Baxter of the LMC) which led to a
performance of his electromagnetic work ‘Corrosion Suite’ at the
Tate Modern in June that year. He has been featured in The Wire on
numerous occasions, in Unknown Public, in Nic Collins’
book ‘Handmade Electronic Music’, and in the groundbreaking 365 Days
Project MP3 series on Ubuweb. He is a performer in the
electroacoustic improve quartet Oscillatorial Binnage.

Chris Weaver is a composer and experimentalist, laptop and electronics
improviser from London. When not manning the helm at London’s
Resonance104.4FM, he can be found alongside vocalist KJ Grant in
their frequent duo and sporadic guest-lead trios.
Occasionally he also turns up twanging rubber bands
and playing circuit bent casios in the group, Oscillatory Binnnage.

Some ideas on where to stay in Munich:

http://www.hoteltheresia.de/e_index.htm

http://www.euro-youth-hotel.de/

http://www.munich-info.de/hotels/hotel-pension-central/welcome_de.html

http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/memberlocations.php?city=munich&code=GM-02

-883330

Get in touch: workshop[at]aa-vv.org

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Sorry for the x-postings

Kind regards