The high Pyrenees in August is an idyllic situation for exploring landscapes, both geographical and sonic. Our program contains a number of amazing opportunities for exploring field recording and ecoacoustics in this unique environment - this workshop, led by Mark Fell , Kathy Hinde and Kate Carr , is a bit different. Whilst traditional field recording practice seeks to make the recorder transparent, this workshop considers how sonic processes can be used to rethink our relationship to the landscape - the high valleys, forests, lakes, ridges and plateaus of the Ariege. We'll be exploring ways in which we can be present in the process of sonic landscape exploration, and ways we can interact as artists with natural systems.

By carrying out actions in the environment such as procedural sound performances, psychogeographical experiments, geometrical and land art installations, protocol-based recording practices, and instrument-making from natural materials, we will traverse ways of placing sound and performative practice in the incredible environment around CAMP. With instrument-making and tech-building sessions taking place at CAMP, and forays into the epic landscape at all times of the day and night, this workshop will suggest creative ways to listen and respond to the world around us.

We'll make Aeolian harps from found materials, and install them on mountain-tops; we'll construct flutes, ocarinas, bird-whistles and other basic instruments for use in procedural performances in the landscape; we'll create solar-powered instruments, turbines and distributed playback systems in the forests and on the high plateaus; we'll create and adapt microphones into "recording instruments", or "prepared microphones"; we'll explore transduction and the use of environmental debris as speakers. We'll create installations and compositions blending all these approaches, examine approaches to documenting the results, and think about the document as the work.

Mark Fell is a UK-based multidisciplinary artist. Recognised as being "one of the most compelling and influential electronic artists in the world" (South Bank Centre), his practice draws upon electronic music subcultures, experimental film, contemporary philosophy and radical politics, and typically explores issues such as time-perception, technology, cognition, and collaborative process. Over the past 30 years Fell's output has grown into a significant body of work: from early electronic sound works and recorded pieces, to installation, critical texts, curatorial projects, educational systems and choreographic performances.

In 2017 Mark curated a major exhibition of sound art for V-A-C foundation (Moscow) "The Geometry of Now", and led a British council research project to India to study Carnatic music composition and emergent electronic arts (with AC Projects Glasgow). Serralves Foundation (Porto) premiered "Intermetamorphosis" (2017), collection of works by fell which included new commissions as well as a retrospective pieces. In 2018 he completed two large scale multi-spatial sound works: "Protomusic#1" for Sage Gateshead, forming their flagship contribution to the Great Exhibition of the North; and "Frameworks" at Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice). 2019 saw two new performative pieces including "Hominin" (Rewire, Den Haag) and "Against Method" (Pirelli Hanger Bicocca, Milan), as well as the solo exhibition "The Concept of Time is Intrinsically Incoherent" (Focal Point Gallery, South End on Sea). Drawing from sacred geometries to programming structures, these works underlined Mark's particular interest in non-linear systems and structures, and our complex inter-relationships with them.

The diversity and importance of Mark's practice is reflected in the range and scale of institutions that have presented his work, including: VAC Foundation Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice), Hong Kong National Film Archive, The Baltic (Gateshead), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Laboral (XIxon), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Royal Festival Hall (London), The Serpentine (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Whitechapel Gallery (London), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Barbican (London), Raven Row (London), Seville Biennale, The Australian Centre For Moving Image (Melbourne), Artists Space (NYC), Moma (NYC), Issue Project Room (NYC), Corcoran (DC), Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (NY), Lampo/Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago), Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (Karlsruhe), Pirelli Hanger Biccoca (Milan) among others. Mark's work is in the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna) and has as been recognised by ARS Electronica (Linz). He has worked with a number of artists including: Yasunao Tone, Laurie Spiegel, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Okkyung Lee, Luke Fowler, Peter Gidal, Terre Thaemlitz, John Chowning, Ernest Edmonds, Peter Rehberg, Oren Ambarchi, Carl Michael Von Hausswolff and Mat Steel (as SND). Mark is currently guest professor of media art at Die Staatliche Hochschule fur Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG).

Kathy Hinde is an audiovisual artist whose practice embraces open methods and evolving processes. Through installations, performances and site specific experiences, she aims to nurture a deeper and more embodied connection to other species and the earth’s systems. Composed of hand-made objects, electronics and a blend of digital and analogue systems, Kathy's work represents a cross between kinetic sound sculptures and newly invented musical instruments. She creates pieces in response to specific locations and frequently works in collaboration with other practitioners and scientists and often actively involves the audience in the creative process.

Kathy has toured work across Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Colombia, Australia and New Zealand. Awards include an Ivor Novello Award for Sound Art 2020, an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2015, a British Composer Award in Sonic Art 2017, an ORAM award 2017, a Scottish Award for New Music 2018 for Collaboration with Maja Ratkje. Kathy was a selected artist for European SHAPE Platform for innovative music and audiovisual art in 2018, is a member of Bristol Experimental Expanded Film (BEEF), and a resident at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Kate Carr's practice explores the encounters, textures and technologies entangled with field recording using movement, objects and experimental recording techniques. Working across composition, performance and installation, Kate is particularly focused on hybrid soundscapes: where forest meets town, nuclear power plant meets wetland, booming car stereo meets residential street. Her most recent commissions include a new composition for The Coventry Biennial and the development of a live performance for Listening to Place at the Barbican. She has also been commissioned to produce new work for Late Junction and The Verb on BBC radio 3, and been interviewed on BBC radio 6, The World Service and BBC radio 3. In print her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, Pitchfork and The Wire among other publications.

Kate regularly performs in the UK and Europe including Donaueschingen Musiktage (Germany), Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), Oscillations Festival (Brussels), Bone X Iklectik (Barcelona), Sonic Territories (Vienna), The Long Now at Kraftwerk (Berlin) and Supernormal in the UK. Other notable live performances include Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Instants Chavires (Paris) and AB Salon (Brussels). As part of her practice she also runs the sound art imprint Flaming Pines. In 2022 she founded the sound art duo Rubbish Music with Iain Chambers. Her music can be found on the labels Room 40 (Australia), Persistence of Sound (UK), Mana Records (UK), Helen Scarsdale (US), Hasana Editions (Indonesia), Longform Editions (Australia) as well as at Flaming Pines.



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, August 6, 2025. We advise that you arrive the evening before (05/08/2025) - 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 (11/08/2025). If you decide to take the minibus with us, you will be picked- up in Toulouse at 6pm on 05/08/2025, and will be back in Toulouse at 11am on 11/08/2025.

You'll also have the option to stay at CAMP an additional 7 nights, following the workshop, for an additional cost of $379. Hang out, do some hiking, use our facilities, work on your projects and process the content of the workshop at your own pace. In 2024, just over 50% of participants stayed for the +7. We expect that number to increase in 2025 - don't miss out on the extra fun! Read more about the +7 option here.

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.