MAKING MUSIC WITH LIGHTS – 2 days course
* When: Sat 24th and Sun 25th September 2016 – 11am to 18pm
* Where: Music Hackspace – LimeWharf. Vyner St, London E2 9DJ
This workshop intertwines practice (musical and performative), theory
(historical context and aesthetics) and technique (electronics). It
culminates with a performance and a composition.
[shopify embed_type=”product” shop=”musichackspace.myshopify.com” product_handle=”making-music-with-lights-2-day-course-1-day-booking” show=”all”]
1 day = £70
2 days = £120
*Concession 60/100 (students, unemployed, lone parents)
**Participants who make a booking for one day can choose which day they want to come.
*** Price, with this item you will be booking a spot in our workshop. Please send an email to workshops@stagingmhs.local indicating which day you want to go. This £20 booking fee will be deducted during the workshop from the price of the kit of your choice. Please note this £20 booking fee won’t be refunded in case of you cancelling / not showing. Thanks for the reservation and see you soon! We will be in touch with you to confirm registration and provide further details.
The workshop is lead by xname (aka Eleonora Oreggia) with assistance by Astrid Bin.
DAY 1
Sat 24th September 2016 – 11am to 18pm
- Construction of simple oscillators powered by solar panels
- Why solar panels and what do we learn from them?
- Basic of electronics and soldering for beginners
- Reading schematics and reproducing a circuit
- Modifying a circuit and fine tuning your noise
- Sensing systems and LDR (light dependent resistors)
At the end of DAY 1 each participant will have built at least 3 light controlled oscillators. Beginners will learn how to start with electronics, solder and read schematics.
More advanced users will learn how to modify a circuit and increase the complexity of an instruments by connecting different modules to process the signal (oscillate, amplify, filter), reasoning in block diagrams and using an oscillator to control another oscillator.
- Resources will be delivered before and after the class.
- All components will be provided.
- Participants keep what they make.
DAY 2
Sun 25th September 2016 – 11am to 18pm
- Imagining a live set using a choreography of lights and the oscillators constructed.
- Composition and synaesthesia with light controlled electronics.
- Understanding frequencies in terms of colour and sound.
- Melody as colour, beat as pulsation.
- Manipulating interferences.
- Expression, gesture and interaction in performance.
- Rhythmics, tempo, syncopation, cacophony.
- Examples from contemporary composers.
Aesthetics: analog synths and generated sounds working with silence and granularity overlapping and subtracting textures Techno, noise, musique concrete timbral and vertical music.
The day will start with a short lecture (optical music and live composition) and some space for reflection. The focus will be on practicing with the instruments created, imagining a system of notation for live performance.
Participants will learn how to construct a live composition.
The workshop will end with a performance: solo / in duet and all together (directed).
- The performance will be filmed and recorded.
- Video and sound files will be delivered to each student as additional didactic material.
- A small anthology (non compulsory but recommended) will be emailed to the students a week before the course. Individual feedback will be provided upon request.
This workshop is lead by xname (aka Eleonora Oreggia) with assistance by Astrid Bin.
“xname” is an interdisciplinary artist born in Milan and based in London. She makes interactive installations and live performances. Made of self built electronics, lines of code, and other inert matter (noise, dust), her alchemic constructions often contain a live element, something that has to happen, yet unpredictable.
Her live compositions transform light and other electromagnetic frequencies in sound waves through self built synthetisers and complex semi chaotic machines. The result is a hypnotic spectacle dominated by industrial and noise-techno frequencies.
She is currently associated with the Augmented Instruments Laboratory at Queen Mary University where she is developing electronic musical instruments within the Antennas & Electromagnetics Group. She is also the founder of Nebularosa, a record label promoting electronic music that challenges the established modes of music production.
http://xname.cc
http://nebularosa.net
The Music Hackspace programme is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
This activity is part of the workshop series #SoundUnfolded, curated by Susanna Garcia. #SoundUnfolded brings together action-based ideas about sound and explores the relationships we can establish with sound through the act of making.