CLiC Listening Workshop

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

L5 student Jack Cleary will be leading a listening workshop as part of CLiC.

CLiC is offering an exciting, one-off workshop, that aims to engage you in attentive listening.
Participants will engage in a number of simple, equipment free activities both with the group and individually.

This free workshop gives you insight into the practice of acoustic ecology and will help us build a bigger picture, of how listening can improve life. The practices are relevant to those whom studying sound or music. Specifically: acoustics, production, sonic arts, sound sculpture and activities where listening to sound types is most prominent, wellbeing or associated topics, psychoacoustics, architecture and communications are some examples.

What is CLiC?

CLiC is a new social enterprise that is designing a corporate wellness program, based on acoustic ecology; peoples relationship to the environment through sound.

DMSA Feature: Jade Gunner (Y1 Student)

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

Jade Gunner is the first of our first year students to contribute her thoughts to our features series. Jade’s entusiasm for experimentation has allowed her to create some fascinating work as part of the course but also outside it as it is clearly documented on her soundcloud page.

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

JG: Unique, Unafraid and Experimental!

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

JG: I have always been interested in Sound and music throughout my life, I’ve always been fascinated by how it’s made. When i was 14 I started to learn guitar, then later on moved onto the ukulele. In college I studied creative Media Production, and started working with digital music/sound design through that. The project I did that made me realise I wanted to do this course was removing all the Sound from a game clip and re creating all the atmospheric music, Sound design, ADR and Foley. I feel in love with it from there.

DMSA: What made you choose the course and in what ways has the course supported or helped you so far to develop creatively?

JG: I chose this course as I was looking around for courses that focused on experimental music and working with sound. This course looked perfect for me, and when I went to an open day I realised it had everything i was looking for. I have been given so many opportunities to be creative, which is what i wanted. I have been able to do so much more than I imagined studying here so far, from learning how to use different studio set ups, Surround Sound, how to make atmospheric sound and Sound in Space. I am very excited with more boundaries I can push with my creativity!

DMSA: What are your plans for the near future? projects, events, visions

JG:I want to expand my portfolio more and create different styles of digital music. I am also looking for different artists from other courses that I could collaborate with, for either music purposes or sound design/art. I have also been very interested to visit the event: Splitting The Atom, as I know they do experimental music nights there which would been brilliant to experience.

Listen to more sounds from Jade via her soundCloud.

DMSA Alumni Ben Hall to present work in Festival ZERO1, La Rochelle, France

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

DMSA graduate Ben Hall was invited in Festival ZERO1 in La Rochelle, France to present ‘Threshold’, an audiovisual installation he created as part of his final degree project.

‘Threshold’ challenges the audience’s perception with a series of cross-sensory interactions between unusual sounds of frequencies on the threshold of human perception and computer generated visuals.

ZERO1 is an annual international festival in La Rochelle, France focusing on audiovisual digital arts. This year it takes place on 28/03-01/04. More info.

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2
Monday 19th March 2018 | 6-8pm | Performance Studio

No Hollows and No Projections: Part 2 is a workshop led by Ingrid Plum exploring composition for ensemble performance, deep listening exercises, sonic meditations, improvisation and extended vocal technique following the teachings of Pauline Oliveros and Meredith Monk as well as a wealth of techniques gathered from other teachers and traditions around the world. In Part 2 we will review some techniques and also look at compositional methods for working with listening and performance using the voice as our instrument, with a focus on ensemble performance.

This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience and is best suited to those with an interest in contemporary composition, sounding the voice, sound art, experimental music and sonic meditation, but previous practice in those fields is not necessary. Learn a range of listening exercises to benefit production and performance skills along with breathing and vocal exercises with a focus on deep listening and harmony, involving discussion and working with the natural voice to develop confidence, plus compositional exercises for ensemble performance.

About Ingrid Plum

‘Gorgeously atmospheric vocal techniques woven around field recordings & electronics’ – The Guardian

Plum uses her voice with extended technique, improvisation, field recordings and electronics, to create layered soundscapes, spoken word and songs. Having performed and exhibited installation sound art and visual art since 2002, and studied with Meredith Monk, she creates work that sits between sound art, improvisation, multi-media installation, neo-classical and contemporary Nordic folk music.

www.ingridplum.com

International Women’s Day Special

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

Digital Music and Sound Arts doesn’t mean a men-only club: we support equal participation to the course by male and female artists and producers; an aim that is still difficult to achieve as female students often either choose more safe pathways or are not confident enough to choose a creative sound course.

It needs to be said that some of our most exceptional work in this course has been created by female students and some of our notable alumni are female who hold competitive posts in the field. We want to make our students feel empowered through the course to explore their unique creative perspectives, to take risks, to feel inspired and to be self-driven.

In celebration of International Womens Day, we would like to use this space to precent some of the work produced by our students and alumni which we feel give a well informed perspective of the breadth of creative outputs that the students have developed over the years. There are of course many notable student works missing from this feature and we hope to be able to bring it to the foreground in another occassion in the near future!

We begin with Jade Gunner who is a student currently in her first year in the course. Jade’s ‘Watercolour Spaceship’ is a fascinating exploration of colour, texture and timbre reminiscent of expressionist painting.

Merging music with dance as well as other forms of art and media is something that we encourage our students to do as part of their learning process. Aki Purser is a student currently in the third year of the course who has been developping an intersting and unique body of audiovisual work. Her piece I, Omega encapsulates the intensity of her work combining contemporary dance aesthetics, electronic collage and experimental visuals.

Olivial Louvel, currently in her second year in our course, is exceptional in creating fascinating synapses Facross voice, computer music and digital narrative. You can enjoy her work in situ at the Roayl Pavilion Gardens via the ReHear audiowalk.

'My Crown' by Olivia Louvel from Cat Werk Imprint on Vimeo.

Rebecca Davis aka Ecka Mordecai is the artist behind our beautiful banner but also an alumni of the course. Ecka, currently a freelance artist, cellist and curator, has developed a subtle yet texturally layered palette of sounds, images, objects and actions while studying in the course. Sand:blink is a wonderful audiovisual experience into her unique world of microsounds and textures.

Guoda Diržytė is an experimental music instruments designer, composer and sound artist living between the UK and Lithuania. A recent graduate from our course, Guoda received the Nagoya (Partner University, Japan) Award of Excellence for her excellent piece Kokon Dansetsu Ma [古今 伝説 間] which she developped during a residency in Nagoya.

Beth Chesser is an artist experimenting with sound, noise and music and how they work combined with moving image and new media. ‘Enso’ is her final degree piece for our course, a beautifu stop motion animation film.

Amanda Brooks is a musician, composer and sound artist currently in the second year of our course. She is the lead singer of the band Undercover Agends and her work has been featured in Lewes Light Festival, ReHear Audio Walk (Brighton Digital Festival 2017) and more recently in a fantastic ‘Christmas’ compilation entitled ‘View from a hill’ by the eclectic label Linear Obsessional.

Last week’s DMSA feature presented the work of currenty third year student Jasmyn Bloch. Jasmyn’s powerful mix of voice, femininity and electronics is beautifully demonstrated in her piece Alter, a celebration of the feminine and of women and a great way to end this feature!

DMSA Feature: Jasmyn Bloch (Y3 Student)

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

This month’s feature welcomes third year student Jasmyn Bloch, a classiclally trained singer with an electronic music twist who through her explorations in our course developed new and engaging pathways of addressing issues such as voice, embodiment, femininity and the emotional affect of sound and music. Her upcoming multimedia installation entitled ‘FEMPORIS’ will be exhibited at this year’s degree show.

DMSA: Three important words that represent you as a creative person
JB: Feminine, intimate, emotional 

DMSA: When did you start working with sound and music?
JB: I started working with sound at a very young age, experimenting with all sorts of different instruments, but nothing really stuck. My true musical beginnings started when I found my passion for Classical Singing; this was the portal through which I found what sound, and especially voice, meant to me and what it could communicate to others. I remember being gob smacked the first time I sang in front of an audience, because by the end of my performance a lot of the audience were crying. I always knew music effected my emotions deeply, but to see others react so vividly to something I had sung was a turning point, I knew then I had to work with my voice and my emotions.

DMSA: In what ways has the DMSA course supported or help you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?
JB: The DMSA course opened my eyes to a lot of experimental, more artistic ways of approaching music. Before this course I was well versed in more mainstream electronic music, but had no idea of the plethora of ways music and sound can be used, creatively and powerfully, to evoke emotions and create statements. During my time here I believe I have created projects that I will continue to work on well past my graduation, but also planted seeds of ideas for my future work and concepts.

DMSA: What are your plans for the near future? projects, events, visions
JB: I am currently working on a multimedia sound installation called Femporis, which is a conceptual womb piece that will be a part of the Brighton University Degree Show this June. This piece is an exploration into the soundscape of the womb, but also considers the concepts of safety, nurturing and rebirth. I hope to continue down this vein of feminine works and create a trilogy of pieces that are focused on the female body and voice. Post University I plan to create a platform for young female artists in Brighton, a website and bi-monthly exhibition space, where they can show their work and be a part of a supportive collective, showing female sound and artworks in a unified space. 

More info:
http://jasmynbloch.weebly.com/

Wwise Workshop – Fundamental Concepts and Audio Feature Example

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

We are happy to have DMSA Alumni back for a session on sound design for video games. For his final degree piece, Andrew developped Symbiosis, an open-world music game which places the player in an environment that responds to their interactions with music.

Since his graduation, Andrew has been working with game audio for 4 years, and currently works for The Creative Assembly, one of the UK’s largest games studios, based in Horsham. He has worked on audio implementation and audio testing for the BAFTA-winning audio team behind Alien: Isolation (2014), Total War: Warhammer (2016, 2017) and Halo Wars 2 (2017).

www.andrewhair.co.uk
Twitter: @AndyHairAudio

About the workshop

In this session, Andrew will introduce students to the Wwise sound engine, a common audio design tool used in the games industry. Students will be guided through the process of integrating Wwise into a game project, using Unity. We will then move on to add the sounds of a lake or sea shore as an example audio feature, giving students an understanding of the kind of problems and solutions that arise in game audio development. Through this tutorial, students will be given a grounding in fundamental game audio concepts, such as sound positioning and attenuation, soundobjects, listeners, and game-to-audio parameter sync. Students are encouraged to bring their own recordings of lake/seashore water (approx. 1 minute of recording), though preprepared recordings will also be available.

https://www.audiokinetic.com/discover/wwise-in-games/

Experimental Film Project | Direct Animation onto 16mm Film

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

Monday 12 February | 5:30-8 | Performance Studio, GP

Digital Music and Sound Arts students are invited to join Design for Digital Media students in a workshop on direct animation onto a 16mm film. This project will offer the students the opportunity to work with the physical elements of direct animation on to the film.
Participants will be provided some film stock to work on to create a few seconds of 16mm film footage that can be looped and played through a 16mm projector, the work will then be video captured and edited on the computer to create a final outcome.

The process of direct animation involves scratching into the surface of the film’s emulsion to make sequential patterns and shapes, or painting images, textures and shapes on to clear leader, negative and positive mark-making, and possibly contact printing in the dark room.

The workshop will also explore the historical contexts and ideas born out of the early years of experimental film production especially focusing on the Cinema of Attractions.

The Brief:
Students will work to the theme of ‘negative and positive’ and expole sequential animation of pattern and form, light and dark, subtle and overt mark making, try to convey different oppositional moods by the colour or texture and emphasis of the marks they make. Or they could attempt to portray an idea that has an oppositional message to the original image (if there is one on the film). Or merely consider two opposing ways of looking at an image as a sequence.

There is an additional optional extra theme of Altitude
If students opt to make work with this theme, the resulting work can be entered for selection as part of a group screening at the Towner Gallery in April more info to come…

The Final Outcome:
A short (30 to 120 seconds) moving image piece that explores the theme of Negative/Positive (or Altitude). This can be either presented as a film loop on the projector or as a digital outcome.

Be experimental . . .

The workshop will be led by Louise Colbourne and Jim Hobbs.

Spaces are limited. Booking necessary.

Projection Mapping Masterclasses with Rafael Vartanian (DMSA Alumni)

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

We are happy to have DMSA Alumni back to lead two masterclasses on Projection Mapping. Rafael graduated from the course in 2016 and has received the Honourable Mention Award for his final project ANTHROPOCENE.

Rafael will be introducing our L4 students to the art of projection mapping on the 7th of February and our L5/L6 students on the 8th.

The full programme for each day can be dowloaded in the links below

DMSA_L4_7Feb2018_Schedule
DMSA_L5L6_8Feb2018_Schedule

DMSA Feature: Sloth Operator Radio

Posted on by Maria Papadomanolaki

This month we are taking to  Ivan Camps & Boogie Man Aka Álvaro Villar, both Year 3 students and producers of ‘Sloth Operator Radio’, a weekly broadcast of emerging techno music on Resonance Extra.

DMSA: Three Important words that represent you as a creative person.

I.C.: Perseverance, Integrity and exploration.

B.M.: Creative, alchemist and bored.

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

I.C. I started back on 2008 when I formed a band with a friend and started creating music and gigging, meanwhile, also I was doing some DJ’ing in local venues in Brighton.

B.M. I went for five years to a music school playing guitar studying Classical music and Flamenco. I went to the Conservatory in Madrid, so I got a bit depressed because the little kids in my class were far better than I. Then, when I was 15, I discovered techno, left music school and started to produce with my computer and my old friend Luis. Luis had an old mixer from his uncle, who used to be a wedding DJ back in the 70’s, another friend bought a turntable and a stereo Hi-fi with cassette deck, and we started to record our first mix tapes. Those were really inspiring, challenging, and learning times because we played with a cassette and one turntable, so was just possible to mix one way, we looked for tracks with a melodic intro to be able to sync the cassette with the turntable.

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

I.C. Has helped me to understand better my creative instincts.

B.M. DMSA opened my mind musically speaking. All my life I saw myself as a Techno DJ “Superstar”. The course showed me that I could be ending composing music and sound design for TV, films and/or video games. The course has also shown me how to create my own sounds on ways previously unimaginable for me, like creating my own devices and sound field recording. Practices that blew my mind were the soundwalks lead by Dr. J. Milo Taylor.

Can you tell us a bit about Sloth Operator Radio?

I.C. The original idea comes from Álvaro, I liked it and joined the project.

B.M. The idea of creating a radio show came from my first year at University of Brighton. It was not successful and end it up just as an idea. A couple of years later I discussed the idea with Ivan and Kevin. We joined forces and developed the idea of the program’s format. Thanks to Maria Papadomanolaki who gave us the contact of Peter Lanceley in Resonance Extra we were able to start the broadcast of the program.

The program pretends to offer an alternative view on Brighton Club scene which lacks of the genres we play in our show.

DMSA:What are your plans for near future? Projects, events, visions…

I.C. Be a better DJ, lunching our own collective, releasing our own productions and running a night, at least once a month. Ideally weekly, about dance music (non-commercial) in Brighton.

B.M. The first thing to accomplish is to finish my final degree project and graduate at University of Brighton. Future plans?? As Yoda said, “Impossible to see, the future is”.

SOR Facebook Group
 
SOR Soundcloud