Category: Global Sonic Cultures

Multi-disciplinary artist Samson Young works in sound, performance, video, and installation. In 2017 he represented Hong Kong with a solo project titled Songs for Disaster Relief at the 57th Venice Biennale. He was the recipient of the BMW Art Journey Award, a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Sound Art and Digital Music, and in 2020 he was awarded the inaugural Uli Sigg Prize.  
  
He has exhibited at venues such as the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Performa 19, New York; Biennale of Sydney; Shanghai Biennale; National Museum of Art, Osaka; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Ars Electronica, Linz; and Documenta 14: documenta radio, among others. Recent solo projects include: the De Appel, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; SMART Museum, Chicago; Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art, Manchester; M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Ryosoku-in at the Kenninji Temple, Kyoto; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; and Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, among others. 
 
Samson Young studied music, philosophy and gender studies. He was Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s Artist Associate in 2008, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University in 2013. 

Although I appreciate the galleries ability to recontextualalise and present art in a ’neutral’ environment, I still am not a big fan of gallery art, especially in the case of a lot of modern art.

I find the gallery space to be quite alienating, not only to me as an individual, but culturally in its abstraction and sterility, as well as its surrounding culture and industry

Currently studying sonic arts in Berlin, Joseph Kamaru aka KMRU is a Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist whose work is grounded on the discourse of field recording, noise, and sound art. His work posits expanded listening cultures of sonic thoughts and sound practices, a proposition to consider and reflect on auditory cultures beyond the norms, and an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions, installations and performances. 

It was very interesting to listen to Kamaru’s talk. I had previously listened to his music and watched the short documentary KMRU: Spaces, made in partnership with Ableton.

I found the relationship between environmental noise interesting.

I own a field recorder and have previously used it to record environmental sounds, however, I find it to be a difficult practice for myself. I have agoraphobia and find it quite challenging to build up the commitment and courage to leave the house for recording excursions. I have previously been pleased with material collected this way, I find the textures of recordings to be very inspiring, especially when warped and processed.

Makoto Oshiro is a Berlin-Tokyo-based performer and artist. His primary medium is sound, but he also combines other elements including light, electricity and the movement of objects. In live performances, he uses self-made tools and instruments that are based on electronic devices, everyday materials, and junk. His installation work handles sound as a physical and auditory phenomenon and focuses on characteristics such as vibration and interference. He is also a member of the live installation/performance group The Great △(夏の大△)  with Takahiro Kawaguchi and Satoshi Yashiro and runs the label Basic Function.  

I found Makoto’s electronic devices interesting, they somewhat reminded me of the Polyend Perc (though, the Perc is midi triggered instead of Makoto’s what are self contained motors.)

The idea of using these devices to interact with physical materials and create acoustic sound reminded me of previous visiting practitioners who liked focusing on tapping stones agains different materials.

I have looked into the idea of using hardware like arduinos before, as they can easily be synced and controlled with ableton. I also find the idea of running Pure Data on raspberry pi’s to be interesting, but i feel as though I would have to have a concept to apply the tools to.

Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist with a socially-engaged practice. She produces audio works with community groups for installation and broadcast, using voices, field recordings and found sounds. She also delivers workshops, makes zines and builds basic radios, aiming to open out sonic practices and technologies for all. Hannah is a member of the feminist radio art group Shortwave Collective and arts cooperative Soundcamp. 

Hannah is currently a PhD student with CRiSAP, developing and testing methodologies for collective listening within socially-engaged art.

I found Hannah’s talk to be very moving, specifically her project The Right to Record. https://www.sound-art-hannah.com/right-to-record

It reminded me once again of a topic that came up when I attended the Ultra-Red sessions at LCC (and met Hannah previously), where do we place ourselves in this work. Its important not to come across as some kind of protagonist, and to give others the tools to express themselves instead of dictating the piece.

This project was successful in telling an empathetic story unknown to me, that has also been impactful in lobbying the government to act and change these corrupt laws.

I also found the topic of the Shortwave Collective to be interesting and I’m happy about it existing in order to explore shortwave radio outside of the current older, male-dominated scene and structure. I’m interested in shortwave radio myself, mostly thanks to recordings of scanner and number stations in works by Godspeed You! Black Emporer, Tim Hecker, William Basinski and the Conet Project.

Felisha Ledesma is a Berlin based sound artist and musician. Ledesma co-founded and directed S1, a project space that hosted experimental music, performance and visual art as well as being the headquarters for the Synth Library –  a lending library for electronic music equipment. 

 Most recently Felisha conceptualized a synthesizer, AMQR, together with instrument designer Ess Mattisson which was used on Ledesma’s releases for labels Ecstatic Recordings and Enmossed x Psychic Liberation. This collaboration led to the formation of Fors, a music technology project creating software instruments.

I have previously come across the Fors software instruments available for Ableton Live, and plan to get into creating my own in Max.

I like the idea of the Synth Library and think it serves well as an educational tool

Born in Dublin and living in London, Vivienne Griffin studied fine art at City University New York supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. Griffin is a recent recipient of an Oram Award, named after legendary producer and electronic musician Daphne Oram, the award celebrates innovation in sound and music. Most recent exhibitions are Manchester International Festival 2021, the AGM in Somerset House at St Mary le Strand 2021, for Montez Press Radio in NYC, Griffin is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University Belfast at the Sonic Arts Research Center. They are represented by Bureau, NYC. They are currently working on a video game that functions as a music interface and writing poetry. Their upcoming album Music For Dead People (or requiems) will be out in 2022. 

I found Vivienne’s recent work in Unreal Engine somewhat frustrating and more like a gimmicky demo. It’s not that I don’t think of games as art, quite the opposite, I just don’t believe it’s very beneficial to apply the modern art mentality of ‘ready made’-ing everything. I think my background in games, and previous experience in games engines made me feel like the piece was an uninspiring collection of prefab assets and devalued the potential of the medium.

The game Proteus was the first game that explicitly me think about the game environment as a composition tool. You would walk around an environment and in-game assets would add to the music as instruments (such as walking past flowers.)

I previously dabbled with changing the sounds of a platform game I was making. Jumping triggered a kick and landing a snare etc.

For a while, I was very interested in the idea of creating simulated environments in games, and continue to be in relation to sound. This stemmed from watching films by Chantel Ackerman, as well as reading about the One City Block game design concept, and playing the indie game It’s Winter.

I find something appealing about the mundane escapism.

Lindsay Wright is an award-winning British composer combining traditional practices with experimental techniques. She utilises her skills as a performer and her experience with music technology to create visceral, emotional and enigmatic scores for all genres of visual media. She recently scored the feature documentary Adventures of Joan Collins; the independent drama Things Unsaid; and the HBO/BBC documentary The Mystery of D.B. Cooper with Tim Atack. Her music for Mudlarks starring Mirren Mack (Sex Education) was recently nominated for Best Score at the British Short Film Awards. Her advertising work includes the British Airways ‘Take Off to the People and Places You Love’ campaign, Rightmove’s ‘The Renter’ and Hewlett Packard’s ‘Orchestra’, winning Bronze at the 2021 LIA Awards. She is currently working on a television drama series set to be broadcast next year; an upcoming documentary for the BBC; and her next EP of original material.