DMSA Feature: Guoda Dirzyte

The first feature for the new academic year is with our alumna Guoda Dirzyte. Guoda is currently based in Scotland and about to start her MA at Glasgow School of Art. We talk to her ahead of her workshop on experimental music instrument building (Friday 28th, Performance Studio, GP).

DMSA: Where do we find you now?

GD: After graduating I was all over the place for a little bit doing different projects, but now it looks like I will settle down for at least a year in Glasgow where I will be studying for Masters of Design in Sound for the Moving Image.

DMSA:Three important words that represent you as a creative person


GD: Ambitious. Imperfect. Explorer.


DMSA: When did you start working with sound and music?


GD: I started playing piano when I was 8 years old, but got bored after a few years and decided to switch guitar. However, that wasn’t satisfying enough either, so when I was 13, I started looking more into sound experimentation and instrument making. It got me hooked up then and it still fascinates me today.

DMSA: In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?

GD: DMSA gave me a lot of technical and conceptual knowledge of my own practice. Before starting my bachelor’s, I wasn’t sure what I was doing or why I was doing it. So DMSA gave me a lot of knowledge about different fields of sound studies, from creative programming to audio production, as well as connections for collaborations and different events.

DMSA: Can you tell us a bit more about Más Hangok?

GD: Más Hangok is an experimental ambient music collaboration between me and Maja Mihalik. I play a Japanese heritage inspired handmade instrument which is a crossover between the traditional Japanese lute also called shamisen and the western cello, as well as other experimental instruments (handmade synths, mechanical percussion gadgets). Instrumental experimentations are accompanied by Maja’s eerie vocals that are inspired by Hungarian folk traditions. We started this project at the beginning of our third year at Brighton university, as part of DMSA night event.

DMSA: Other plans for the future? projects, events, visions?

GD: My current plans are to be part of Fort Process festival this weekend were I will be showcasing my new interactive kinetic installaition – Skaņas laukums. Projects and visions wise, I always have some ideas spinning in my head, but it needs time and funds to make it actually happen. For some time now I’ve been looking to put together a solid record of collaborations with different artists, so hopefully this will happen in the future. But for now I mainly plan to concentrate on my Master’s.

Web: https://www.guodadirzyte.com/

Workshop with Ingrid Plum

Composition techniques for electronic and acoustic ensembles, structured improvisation and score notation techniques
Thursday 27th September 2018
11:30-6:30
Performance Studio, Grand Parade

We are happy to have Ingrid Plum back to give a workshop to our students.

About the workshop

A workshop led by Ingrid Plum exploring composition techniques for electronic and acoustic ensembles, structured improvisation and score notation techniques. In this workshop you will learn a range of listening exercises to benefit composition, production and performance skills. Following this we will explore structured improvisations and students are welcome to bring any acoustic instrument of their choice or use their voice. After a break for lunch we will work in groups on compositional techniques and explore this through practical workshopping. By the end of the workshop participants will have a ‘tool kit’ of exercises they can work with to expand their own practice.
This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience and is best suited to those with an interest in sound art, experimental music, composition and improvisation, but previous practice in those fields is not necessary.

About Ingrid Plum

Ingrid Plum uses her voice with extended technique, improvisation, field recordings and electronics, to create layered soundscapes, spoken word and songs. Described by The Guardian as “gorgeously atmospheric vocal techniques woven around field recordings & electronics” she has performed and exhibited installation art internationally since 2002, creating work that sits between sound art, improvisation, multi-media installation, neo-classical and contemporary Nordic folk music. Incorporating her research into folk traditions with field recordings and studying directly with Meredith Monk her recent performances have been described as “succinct and nourishing… a luxuriant space between almost excessive precision and looser improvisation” by The Wire.

Distant Animals (Hallow Ground Records) to perform at ID Spectral Soft-Launch

We are incredibly proud to announce that Distant Animals (Hallow Ground Records) will be performing at the ID Spectral soft-launch event, to be held in the Grand Parade Performance Studio, Brighton on Wednesday 26th September.

Distant Animals has continually refused to conform. Being label mates with
The Dedekind Cut, Siavash Amini and Kali Malone – he has produced, written and engineered a plethora of contemporary projects and socially-oriented sound works across Europe, often choosing to work with a diverse range of collaborators, including visual artists, choreographers, theologians, lawyers, and political activists.

Link :
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/distant-animals-lines

His critically-acclaimed LP ‘Lines’ employs a highly conceptual approach to its genre, incorporating the notion of the drone as both a compositional method, a spiritual approach, and a participatory tool for engaging its audience.

Facebook Event :
www.facebook.com/events/300183130772731

Hands-On Workshop With Guoda Dirzyte

EXPERIMENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BUILDING AND FREE IMPROVISATION
Friday 28th September 2018
12-6pm
Performance Studio / Grand Parade

We are happy to have Guoda Dirzyte back to give a hands-on workshop to our students. The workshop is free to students of all levels.

OVERVIEW

This workshop will concentrate on using actions, concrete sounds, and random things, rather than being represented in an illusionist/harmonic manner. Intention is to rise awareness of sounds’ potentiality and create work that retains a sense of immediacy, corporeality, and curiosity. Instrument building and preparation session will be based on transforming the identities of seemingly familiar sounds, found objects and instruments.

In the improvisation session students will be encourage more to listen and communicate rather then show they technical musical abilities. Concert will be based on playing with trash (or any found objects) and deformed or handmade musical instruments brought by students or created during preparation session. Challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Intend to lean towards developing non-verbal communication skills, and strengthens inter-human, intra-human and trans-human relations, which is far more than conventional music based on consumption can offer.

PROGRAMME

First Part {JO 序}: Introduction Talk {30 min}

Second Part {HA 破}: Instrument Building and Preparation Workshop {2 h}

[short break]

Third Part {KYŪ 急}: Do It Yourself Concert (Improvisation Session) {1 h 30 min}

Digital Gestures | Human Contact Exhibition at ONCA Gallery

24-25 September 2018 | 24th Sept: Launch 6-8pm / 25th Sept: 12-5pm
ONCA
4 St George’s Pl,
Brighton
BN1 4GB
[map]
[Facebook Event]

We are happy to be supporting the upcoming exhibition titled ‘Digital Gestures | Human Contact‘ at ONCA gallery for Brighton Digital Festival.

The exhibition features works developed by 2nd year students in our course. The works have been developed in partnership with Fab Lab (University of Brighton) and Mi.Mu.

The two installations on display in Digital Gestures, Human Contact offer an inspiring, surprising and mesmering journey through digital motion sensor technologies, music and visuals where the audiences become interchangeably performers and observers.

54 Bones is a gesturally based performance art installation for an audience of one. It uses gestural glove controllers to trigger and manipulate sounds, using a series of gestures and movements inspired by British Sign Language. The work aims to extend the ephemeral moment at which sound, language and meaning collide, resulting in a truly intimate, human experience for each person who takes part, leaving them free to interpret what the interaction means to them.

Cogflux.01 is an interactive audio-visual installation by PRTCL Collective aiming to break the barrier between audience and performer through the use of motion sensor technology, generative audio and visuals. The piece aims to conceptually adopt the headspace one obtains whilst traveling long distances, which was inspired by Kaihōgyō, a walking meditation process used by Buddhist monks for more than 1000 years.

Artists exhibiting:
54 Bones – Duncan Cabral, Olivia Louvel, Jamie Moore, Dominic Rae
Cogflux.01 – PRTCL Collective are Jedd Winterburn, Tarek El Goraicy, Matt Were, Louis Sterling, Jack Cleary, Visuals: Joe Wheater

Poster and Banner Design: Jedd Winterburn

Exploring Boundaries at Brighton Digital Festival

1-6 October 2018 | 12-5pm
The Basement
24 Kensington St, Brighton
BN1 4AJ
[map]
[facebook event]

Two of this year’s graduates will be presenting work as part of this year’s Brighton Digital Festival in an exhibition titled ‘Exploring Boundaries’ curated by Digital Music and Sound Arts in partnership with Our Future City (Brighton Dome) for Brighton Digital Festival.

Merging the physical experience of sound with the digital realm, Exploring Boundaries brings two works by UK-based artists PJ Davy (UK) and Jeph Vanger (UK/GR) to this year’s Brighton Digital Festival.

Vanger’s s ‘Sφera’ is a multichannel sonic environment where the physical presence of sound and the ongoing engagement become the priority. The piece pays tribute to the mournful sound of the Foghorn, using original recordings from the Foghorn Requiem (2013) field performance in which more than 50 ships gathered on the North Sea (UK) to perform an ambitious musical score.

PJ Davy’s ‘Heads in The Cloud 2.0’ is a multi-channel, sound and light installation concerning the digitisation of our lives through the internet. Heads in The Cloud presents a physical, human experience to reflect on our relationship with technology and each other, in an increasingly digitised world.

Programme

Sφera | 1-2 October 2018, 12-5pm
Artist Talk: 1st October, 2pm

Heads in The Cloud 2.0 | 4-5 Octber, 12-5pm and 6th October 12-3pm
Artist Talk: 4th October, 2pm

Please note that the facilities can be only accessed through stairs

Poster and Banner Design: Jedd Winterburn

ID Spectral Soft Launch Event

Thursday 26 September 2018, 6:30pm
Performance Studio, Grand Parade Campus,
University of Brighton
[map]
[Facebook Event]

We are very happy to be hosting a special “soft launch” event of the student-led ID Spectral imprint. Our students will have the opportunity to meet the label team, learn more about the project, its partners, official distribution contract, IDS radio and future plans as well as experience two unique live electronic music performances from the label’s artists. Students are invited to submit demos for consideration.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday 26th of September at 6.30pm in the Grand Parade campus performance studio.

Live (A/V)

RHGT (Opal Tapes/Panatype)

Luke Vosper (IDS)

You can listen to the label’s radio programmes on Resonance Extra.