This is the second of our two-part ecoacoustics series for 2024 (the first part is here). Whilst the first workshop focuses on transmitting soundscapes and working through ecological, indigenous and everyday perspectives to listening, this week will follow up with a deep dive into how and why we listen, what it means to listen, and the political, ethical and social implications of ecoacoustic practices. There will, of course, be field recording opportunities and plenty of time spent in the epic mountain landscape.

Each of the two ecoacoustics workshops stands alone - you don't need to attend one to enjoy the other - but if you sign up for both, you get the week in between free (full board accommodation, use of facilities, etc - see CAMP +7 for details).

In Raquel's section of the workshop we'll explore, through different case studies, the challenges of curating sound, particularly when the aim is to prioritize environmental awareness and ecological thinking, which extends beyond the traditional notion of nature and the environment. Rather, it is concerned with interconnected systems, including issues of cultural difference, power dynamics, and politics of representation. Curators can take an ethical stance and actively work to challenge structures of privilege and inequality by having a more inclusive and collaborative approach to curating, one that embraces the complexities and contradictions of our globalized world and fosters meaningful dialogue and exchange.

In the context of sound art curation, documentation is particularly important due to the ephemeral nature of sound. Unlike visual artworks, which can often be preserved in physical form, sound artworks typically exist only in the moment of their presentation, and are reliant on technical equipment and spatial context for their reception. Effective documentation can help to capture the unique qualities and experiences of sound-based works, and ensure that they can be accessed and understood by future audiences. Additionally, documentation can help to communicate scientific knowledge to a wider audience and serve as a valuable educational tool, helping to inspire and inform future artists and researchers.

In Joseph's section, we will focus on field recording and "other listening". Listening is critical to all living processes; it is a necessary process in actively shaping social and political discourse within various societal practices. Although its scope is narrowed by focusing on occidental listening cultures, this reduces what it can produce - a more interdisciplinary perspective of listening to sound and its relationship between art and politics. The workshop will engage with propositions of listening practices as transformational, active research producing sociality - a focus on listening toward contemporary modes. It will ask how we hear, and what we learn by listening to the places in which we live; it will explore ways to map, represent, and be creative with environmental sound. The workshop will also pay attention to immediate sounds, reorienting our entire relationship with the environment and asserting listening as an approach to action and intervention.

Joining us for videocall sessions will be two more brilliant artists offering diverse viewpoints on natural sound - Francisco Lopez , and David Toop .

Francisco will offer his unique perspective on located sound - in his own words, "a lifetime experience of environmental recording, field listening and 'wilderness composition' has informed my perspective of sounds as self-sufficient 'things-by-themselves' – entities at the same ontological level than so-called 'sources'. This is not at all an abstraction but rather the opposite: a non-representational penetration into the rabbit hole of the concrete real. And with it, a dramatic expansion of the unnamed things in the world."

Meanwhile, David will engage in conversation about ecologies of spaces, resonance, friction, micro-listening and materials as they have shaped his own practice of improvisation and writing.

Raquel Castro is a researcher, director and curator. Founder and director of the Lisboa Soa sound art festival and the international symposium Invisible Places, she holds a PhD in Communication and Arts by FCSH-UNL with the thesis "Contributions to an Analysis of the Soundscape: Sound, Space and Acoustic Identity". She is integrated researcher at CICANT and currently teaches "Archaeology and Soundscapes" at Universidade Lusófona, in Lisbon. Her activities as a researcher and curator resulted in documentaries such as Soundwalkers (2008) and SOA (2020), where interviews, art and sound environments combine to broaden awareness about sound and listening. SOA was exhibited by RTP2 and is currently streaming on Netflix. Castro has been curating internationally, namely the cycle of exhibitions "Sound Art in Public Spaces", presented in the following contexts: Wilde Westen (Belgium), November Music (Netherlands), Spor Festival (Denmark), Onassis Stegi (Greece) and Ultima Olso (Norway). In 2022, Castro founded the cultural association Sonora, with which she creates, plans and produces transdisciplinary projects in the intersection between art, science, ecology and sound. In her work, Raquel Castro seeks to create awareness of the relationship between sound and environment and, by extension, the social, cultural and ecological aspects that are revealed through the practice of listening.

Born in Nairobi but now based in Berlin, Joseph Kamaru (KMRU) is a sound artist whose work is grounded on the discourse of field recording, noise, and improvisation. His work posits expanded listening cultures of sonic thoughts and sound practices, a proposition to consider and reflect on auditory cultures beyond the norms, and an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions and installations. His last three albums ("Peel", "Opaquer" and "Jar") received high praise from Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, NPR, and Bandcamp, and he was selected for the SHAPE platform roster of artists for 2021. His works have been presented in NyegeNyege Festival (UG), CTM Festival (DE), GAMMA (RU), and Mutek (Montreal and Barcelona).

Francisco Lopez is internationally recognized as one of the main figures in the realm of experimental music and audio art. He is also a Ph.D. Ecosystem Biologist, with extensive teaching and research experience as professor in several universities in Spain, Africa and Latin America. His experience in the field of sound creation and work with environmental recordings covers a period of more than forty years, during which he has developed an impressive sound universe that is completely personal and iconoclastic and based on a profound listening to the world. His extensive catalogue of sound pieces -with live and studio collaborations, as well as projects curated and directed, with more than a thousand artists- has been released by over 450 recording labels / publishers all over the world. Among other prizes, Lopez has been awarded five times with honorary mentions at the prestigious Ars Electronica Festival (Austria) and is the recipient of a Qwartz Award (France) for best sound anthology. He has realized hundreds of environmental recording projects, commissions, live performances, sound installations and workshops, as well as research in entomology and ecosystem dynamics, in over seventy countries of the six continents.

David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator working in many fields of sound art and music since the late 1960s. He has recorded Yanomami shamanism in Amazonas, appeared on Top of the Pops with the Flying Lizards and worked with artists ranging from John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Bob Cobbing and Ivor Cutler to Akio Suzuki, Tania Chen, Camille Norment, Thurston Moore and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Exhibitions he has curated included Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery, Playing John Cage at Arnolfini, Bristol, and Blow Up at Flat Time House. He has published eight books, translated into ten languages, including Ocean of Sound, Sinister Resonance, Into the Maelstrom (shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize) an autobiography, Flutter Echo, and Inflamed Invisible, a collection of essays on art and sound. Since his first album, released on Brian Eno’s Obscure label in 1975, he has released twelve solo records, including Screen Ceremonies, Black Chamber, Sound Body and Entities Inertias Faint Beings. He is also the co-creator of Sculpture events with artist Rie Nakajima.



WHERE AND WHEN?

The course takes place at our residential centre in Aulus les Bains. It's two hours south of Toulouse, high in the French Pyrenees, very near the border with Spain. For detailed travel information, see the transport section. The course starts on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. We advise that you arrive the evening before (11/06/2024) - dinner and accommodation that night is included. The course runs for five days, ending on Sunday night. Accommodation on Sunday night is included, then we leave on Monday morning (17/06/2024). If you decide to take the minibus with us, you will be picked- up in Toulouse at 6pm on 11/06/2024, and will be back in Toulouse at 11am on 17/06/2024.

You'll also have the option to stay at CAMP an additional 7 nights, following the workshop, for an additional cost of €299. Hang out, do some hiking, use our facilities, work on your projects and process the content of the workshop at your own pace.

HOW TO BOOK

To book your place on the course, click the button in the green section above. You won't pay anything right now - we'll send you a booking confirmation email with everything you need to know next. Your place is reserved without payment for three days.

You'll find a payment link in the booking confirmation email - follow the link to make a payment (either in full, or the first payment of a 4 month payment plan). In the latter case, a monthly payment plan will be put in place, so your card will be charged 1/4 of the fee today, and 1/4 each month (on the same day) for an additional 3 months. All card payments are handled by Stripe, and are extremely secure. We don't store any card data ourselves - all of this is handled securely off-site by Stripe. If you have a discount or grant code, you will be able to add it when you follow the payment link in your confirmation email.

Once you've made a payment, you'll receive another email containing your receipt, links to resources, contact information and access to our group chat to discuss the workshop with other participants.