Morrad + McArthur - DesignHOP - Beijing Design WeekA two-day workshop on improvisation, sound mapping and performance

Title: ReSounding Beijing

Day One (2-3 hours): This is a presentation (morning or afternoon) on telematic methods of working with sound, including examples from Pauline Oliverous book Deep Listening (2005), that provides examples of a variety of training exercises in listening, recording and playing. Morrad + McArthur will discuss and demonstrate their use of digital online software to create sound non-idiomatic improvised pieces; both live and recorded. The intention is to include invited speakers from artistic practice in sound and moving image.

This session gives particular emphasis on digital appliances in recording and producing sound together with improvisation and ‘liveness’, based on Phillip Auslander’s discussion on digital inclusion Liveness (1999). The workshop also looks at the philosophic ideas of 'time' with Bachelard (the instant) and Bergson (durational) in Time and the Instant (2000). This views the past as a construct based on one’s own understanding, together with engaging with the flow from past to present. The ethos of the event placing these concepts together with Lefebvre's input on the rhythm of cities and how this informs patterns in societies, rhythmanalysis (1992).

The workshop offers participants the opportunity to use simple audio tools to map the urban environment in Dashilar in/through time. To achieve this the participants will engage in fieldwork to record sound on a variety of digital devices.

Day Two (2-3 hours): The second session (evening) realises these found sounds and field recordings in a different modality then, through improvisation by re constituting the time based on a pre-conceived structure. This can be facilitated using methods such as, each participant being allocated a number/colour/word/letter. For example, the 'conductor' calls out one of these cues at a time, and at the point of hearing 'your' number/colour/word/letter you play or trigger your sound/s.

What this achieves is the re-ordering, from a set of conditions, an understanding of an initial idea, for example, 24 hours in a city. By re-ordering this, new understandings emerge together and new languages are formed. This re-visitation asks both the participants and audience to reassess what they are observing, thus we find newness.Day one:All meet at the workshop site. Time TBD.A presentation of methods that use 'sound' as a platform for improvisation; including short talks from various practitioners from China, UK and Australia. Participants are invited to then go into the city to collect sound/s.Day two:All meet at the workshop site. Time to be agreed.Discuss the sound findings.Organise the types of sound and the spaces.Discuss the various methods of improvisation that can be utilised with the content.Conduct the sound scape.

The participants are asked to supply the following information:Where is the recording is taken?What time this is recorded?How long is this recording?

Why did you choose to record this?

This information will enable a Geo Map to be produced; this will become a part of the final presentation.

Day one Discussion Group:The discussion consisted of conversations between four speakers: Martijn de Geuse, architect, Tsinghua University Beijing, China.Martijn spoke on sound and architectural space; based on the individuals needs as opposed to an architect imposing an ideal or concept onto the building. His concept is to work from a centre that is a person's requirements.Enno Hytrek, print designer Xi'An Jiatong, Liverpool University, Suzhou, China. Enno spoke on sound as rhythm within his own practice as a designer.Ian McArthur, digital designer, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. Ian discussed the nature of design and cities in relationship to soundAnnie Morrad, artist, University of Lincoln, Lincoln UK; Annie spoke on how improvisation is a dialogue between location, practitioners and instrument.

The audience was made up of a mixture of students from Beijing universities and members of the public.

Day one The Workshop: The attendees were a mixture of students and general public

The participants are asked to supply the following information:Where is the recording is taken?What time this is recorded?How long is this recording?Why did you choose to record this?

An example from Antoinette, one of the Chinese students:

As part of my presentation, I played the participants a recording I’d previous made in the Lisbon underground August 2016; this recording was of ‘the rhythm of an escalator’; Antoinette chose to listen and record the difference between Lisbon and Beijing escalators; this was only part of her recordings.Also Antoinette produced a power point as a record of her participation; this was submitted along with recordings she made in Beijing and previous ones in Shanghai.

Antoinette also contributed to the symposium, discussing her previous tutors (in Shanghai) methods of experiencing and teaching sound. Their approach was from a deep understanding of the reaction of sound to the body, in an experiential way that included a scientific approach to hearing and brain. This lead on to discussions that engaged with and echoed Milford Graves writing in Arcana, where

he scientifically acknowledged the physical value of improvisation throughout the body and brain.

The final files:These were used in a final improvisation with Martijn de Geus at Beijing Design week as well as with the following:

‘Wave Farm Radio; welcome to the October edition of Itinerant Mind with Morrad+McArthur. Annie Morrad is based in the UK and Ian McArthur is currently based in Chongqing, South West China. Every month Itinerant Mind presents a mix of live telematic improvisations alongside material we have developed through the email and skype conversations that direct our collaborative sound art practice.

This month we document our recent work together at Beijing Design Week. The show this month includes two live improvisations performed in Beijing and sounds generated at our Beijing Design Week sound workshop “ReSounding Beijing”.

The first performance was recorded at BEIJING/BABYLON/BERLIN an event staged by Shanghai based DJ Enno Hytrek (aka Spacemotherload) at DADA, a small Beijing club. The second was recorded at The Factory, a gallery space in  Dashilar - a hutong area in central Beijing. On both occasions we were joined by Beijing based bassist, architect, and former zoo keeper Martijn de Geus. We hope to able to announce a new project with Martijn in the near future. 

The two performances are mixed with and augmented by found urban sounds by Xie Wenting and Zhang Fan who were participants in the ReSounding Beijing sound workshop. The workshop was held as part of the Australia @ BJDW program at Beijing Design Week 2016.’ Ian McArthur, -Oct 2016-

Please access to the final presentation broadcast on Wave Farm Radio NYC on October 16, 2016: https://wavefarm.org/wgxc/schedule/5vzwtj