New Maps of Time

Tutor:

Martin BLAŽÍČEK

Synopsis:

Přednášející / Instructor: John Grzinich, koordinuje / coordinator Martin Blažíček

Místo a čas / Date and Time: 9-16.10. 2009

Podmínky atestace / Assignment: 100 % účast / participation, 1 kredit / credit

Anotace / Annotation:

New Maps of Time

Sound and media workshop by John Grzinich

October 9 - 16, 2009

Prerequisites:

Study Objectives:

Outline and Syllabus:

New Maps of Time

Sound and media workshop by John Grzinich

October 9 - 16, 2009

Exploring subjectivity and territory through sound, bridging acoustic processes with digital communication.

Project and workshop about mapping architectural and urban spaces using sound, then representing these actions in a multimedia performance.

Prepared in collaboration with FAMU (Open EYE visiting lecturers project), Four Days in Motion Festival, Bienale Industrial Vesitges and Galerie Školská.

Statement

The project process works with the basic understanding that artistic creativity can be a ritual, by which we live out and share the subjectivity of our own experiences. This inherent subjectivity must be understood not only as an intellectual notion but through means of participatory activity on different levels of personal, collaborative (between artists) and contextual actions (interventions in a space).

Sound, as perceived by one of our primary senses hearing, is one of the best ways in which to explore the subjectivity of personal and collective experience and to test our own creative abilities. By using sound we develop means to map both space and social relations with our own cognitive process. In order to refine these cognitive maps we introduce constraints such as activities, materials, durations and the physical dimensions of the surrounding build environment. These constraints are the boundaries by which we can reference our own activities for interpretation and discussion to help further refine the activities.

In addition, we employ more objective external references (commonly known as recorded media) to add to the mix. The plethora of digital media recording devices offer a set of tools from which to develop an array audio-visual narratives for sharing on the local level and throughout any network these devices may be connected. Both processes, the cognitive and the mediated aim to increase the level at which we find recursive modes of information exchange integrated with the artistic working method.

The project involves spending a few days in and around the city of Prague and Kladno, mapping various abandoned industrial spaces through sound by using simple objects (glass jars, plates, wires, found objects etc...). I wish use the same set of objects, but play them in different spaces. I would like to work with a small team of students or local artists to help play these objects as a sort of free-form ensemble who gets to develop their abilities through the activities of the project. These participants can be from CZ or artists from abroad. We will record these actions and keep a record of the times and places where they took place (and make short films from video recordings as well).

The actions will involve generating acoustic sounds and patterns from the objects we have and/or find in the space to activate each location. Working together we will explore the balance between our gestures and movements to create sounds and the intelligibility by which we communicate through sounds (this has been thoroughly explored in various workshops. See the documentation from the „Sound as Space, Sound as Language“ workshop at www.maahli.ee.

At the end of each action the working group would evaluate their experiences in a short discussion session as well as by listening to or watching the recordings. A selection of the recordings would be made and edited for the potentially use in the final performance lecture. The sound recordings would also be uploaded on the internet to The Prague Favourite sounds, or Radio Aporee Maps.

http://panto-graph.net/favouritesounds

http://aporee.org/maps

Performance/Lecture

Locations: Prague, during the festival Four days in Motion, the building of the former parlament. Galerie Školská, FAMU, or/and Kladno in and around the Mayrau Mining Museum.

The final presentation phase would be a „New Maps of Time“ performance/lecture on the „sound mapping“ process using the various materials collected and edited during the residency including sounds, video, PFS website, Radio Aporee, and even the objects used. This mix of material offers a representative experience of the workshop as compressed time, a nonlinear narrative with which to engage the public. As much as possible, the presentation space itself would be transformed into an instrument, a hollow body to enter and and be transported to the spaces and shared experiences of the working group from the previous weeks.

Project duration

app. 5 days.

John Grzinich

John Grzinich, b. 1970, new york state, lives and works in Estonia

sound-video artist photographer, artproject coordinator.

Have worked primarily with sound composition, performance and installation since the early 1990s and performed and worked on projects extensively throughout Europe and the US and have published a number of CDs of my compositions on such labels as SIRR (PT), Staalplaat (NL), Edition Sonoro (UK), CUT (CH), CMR (NZ), erewhon (BE), Intransitive Recordings (US), Orogenetics (US), Elevator Bath (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Digital Narcis (JP) Taalem (FR), and Cloud of Statics(CH). Currently he is a project coordinator for MoKS ? Center for Art and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in southeast Estonia.

Study materials:

Note:

Further information:

This course is an elective for all students of this school

Schedule for winter semester 2009/2010:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Fri
Thu
Fri

Schedule for summer semester 2009/2010:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Animovaná tvorba - bakalář (optional subject)
• Dokumentární tvorba - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Dokumentární tvorba - bakalář (optional subject)
• Animovaná tvorba - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Scenáristika a dramaturgie - bakalář (optional subject)
• Scenáristika a dramaturgie - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Režie - bakalář (optional subject)
• Režie - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Kamera - bakalář (optional subject)
• Kamera - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Produkce - bakalář (optional subject)
• Produkce - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Audiovizuální studia - bakalář (optional subject)
• Střihová skladba - bakalář (optional subject)
• Střihová skladba - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Zvuková tvorba - bakalář (optional subject)
• Zvuková tvorba - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Fotografie CZ - bakalář (optional subject)
• Fotografie CZ - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Fotografie EN - bakalář (optional subject)
• Fotografie EN - magistr (optional subject)
• Audiovizuální studia - magistr (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Cinematography (qualification subject, optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Screenwriting (qualification subject, optional subject)
• Fotografie CZ - magistr: restaurování (faculty subject, optional subject)
• Cinema and Digital Media - Directing (qualification subject, optional subject)
• Fotografie EN - magistr: restaurování (optional subject)