The World as Instrument: A Theoretical Workshop Taught by Francisco López :: September 5 – 9, 2011 :: Open Campus 2011, Art Media Center, Tokyo University of the Arts, Senju Campus (Adachi-ku, Tokyo) :: Fee: 24,000 yen :: Participation is limited to 30 participants ::

This workshop focuses on the theory of field recording, audio recording of environmental sound.

The World as Instrument that López has organized worldwide introduces the participants to the art of field recording through huge sonic samples and discussion. At the end of the workshop, the participants will experience the depth of the art at his blind live performance. The live performance will be held on September 10, 2011 at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

Application in English, contact [jo.kazuhiro@noc.geidai.ac.jp]

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the main figures on the stage of sound art and experimental music. His experience in the field of sound creation and work with environmental recordings covers a period of 30 years, during which he has developed an impressive sound universe that is completely personal and iconoclastic and based on profound listening to the world.

THE WORLD AS INSTRUMENT: The “real world” as a source for sonic creation :: Workshop + live immersive performance by Francisco López

For many years now the “real world” (as opposed to the instrumental realm) has been used for sound creation as a source of sound materials. This is a consequence of the technical possibility of recording sound but, much more importantly, of the conception of sound recordings as entities by themselves in their potential to generate sonic possibilities, both original and transformed, real and virtual. The socialization of different kinds of recording technology, as well as the shifting conceptions on what a sound recording can be (in all its manifestations since the mid-XIXth century until the present day) has gone through several stages that have had a paramount impact in the understanding of sound creation and in the popularization of an exploratory praxis of that “real world”, which nowadays involves thousands of people worldwide.

This theoretical workshop is focused on the historical, sociological and philosophical (rather than technical) aspects of different practices that have the “real world” as a source, or an inspiration, for sonic creation. From ancestral manifestations of music derived from nature to the present massive sonic exploration of our world, analyzing the historical attempts at recording sonic reality and creatively transform it, from musical notation to digital technology. With a multitude of sonic examples, from traditional to electronic music, the workshop aims at stirring up discussion and at challenging many stereotypical and misleading conceptions about recorded sound in many diverse areas and objects of study, from bioacoustics to experimental music, from phonographs to hard disk recorders, from birds to cosmic radio emissions.

The workshop is completed with a live immersive performance in the dark, using a large multi-channel surround sound system with blindfolds provided for the audience. This sound experience –more a journey through sound than a normal concert- has been created with original environmental sound recordings done by the author in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, in large buildings in New York City and in the vast expanses of Patagonia, over a period of ten years, constituting his “Trilogy of the Americas”.

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Kazuhiro Jo
Assistant Professor
Art Media Center
Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts)
12-8 Ueno Park, Taito Ward, Tokyo 110-8714 Japan
Tel. +81(0)50 5525 2473