SoundFjord

CHASE Cohort Development Events

AuralDiversities III: Space . Place . Confluence . Entanglement

The third iteration in our interdisciplinary programme addressing the ‘auraldiverse turn’ in Arts and Humanities research and theory, questioning how and what we hear, what we listen to and why, as situated within our contemporary milieu and its associated crises. 

These multimodal sessions trouble accepted norms in audio technology, sound culture and Western epistemologies and question the extent of human perception, our relation in and through the vibratory world, and whether hearing and listening is ever an individual act.

For the past few years, many of us have paused our fieldwork or reconfigured methods by practising at a distance. For some, our domestic situations have become the in situ of the field, unavoidably blurring the “out-there” with the “in-here”. This workshop is a wonderful occasion to get back into the field and to share and be guided on sonic methods, through exploring a number of subterranean locations that are resonant with meaning and affect.

Field Trip to Bervie Brow

19 May - 21 May 2023

Guest: Louise K Wilson and David Chapman

Open to CHASE Studentship holders and PhD researchers at CHASE-affiliated institutions.

Information and booking

This field trip offers an exciting opportunity to spend time in a small group exploring a variety of richly and contextually resonant environments. We will be based at Bervie Brow, a 28-acre research field site and creative habitat at a historic Cold War radar and listening station on the north-east coast of Scotland. It was built in the 1950s as an RAF Rotor early warning radar station, and later used by the US Naval Security Group as a listening station, and finally by the British Army as an emergency communications centre. The large underground bunker on site is a unique and distinctive environment to consider sonic traces, acoustic phenomena and the palimpsests of Cold War sites.

We will be spending time undertaking group and individual work: engaging in listening, recording (visual and auditory) activities - with plenty of time for discussion and presenting ideas and material. While we will primarily be based at Bervie Brow, we will be making use of the locale with trips to the Craigiebarns ROC site; Wormit Reservoir or Cupar Silos (TBC) and to the coastal area near Bervie Brow.

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A free-to-attend (and open to all) online event with Angus Carlyle and Marie Koldkjær Højlund will follow in the late spring.

These events are curated by  John Drever (Goldsmiths, University of London).

The AuralDiversities programme is partnered with Aki Pasoulas (University of Kent) . Alice Eldridge (University of Sussex) . Helen Frosi (SoundFjord)

AuralDiversities is supported with funds from the CHASE Cohort Development Fund.

Some Possible Landscapes

Steve Roden

Paying us a fleeting but jam-packed visit from the US, veteran sound and visual artist, Steve Roden will delight our ears and eyes with a series of events connected to site and setting, grouped together under the umbrella title: Some Possible Landscapes.

Workshop | Possible Landscapes

Led by Steve Roden; Facilitated by Helen Frosi and Andrew Riley

SUNDAY 27th March 2011 | 2pm – 6pm | £8/£6conc. | wegottickets.com/event/112303

SoundFjord | Unit 3b – Studio 28 | 28 Lawrence Road | N15 4ER

Workshop and presentation 

Active Crossover 

01 October 2011 | 1pm | free  - Please RSVP 

SoundFjord | Unit 3b, Studio 28, 28 Lawrence Road, London, N15 4ER

Simon Whetham will present past and present work, and introduce participants to ‘Active Listening'.

Two Day Non-Idiomatic Improvisation Workshop 

Saturday and Sunday 28-29 April | 10-6pm | £25 including meals

SoundFjord | Unit 3b, Studio 28, 28 Lawrence Road, London, N15 4ER

SOUND//SPACE (V22 The Old Biscuit Factory)

Please see below for all workshops associated with SOUND//SPACE, a three-month programme of performances, workshops, talks and events with a pop-up record store at it's heart (curated and produced by Helen Frosi of SoundFjord) held at V22's Summer Club, a warehouse full of events and a club house to relax in and be inspired by throughout the summer.

May to July 2012

Workshop | Pure Data Starter 
Led by Tom Mudd                                    
12 May | 1-7pm | (S//S Project Space) | Further Information/Bookings: £20 (£25 door) wegottickets.com/event/165689

Workshop | Foley Performance 
Led by SoundFjord  
13 May | noon-6pm | (S//S Project Space) | Further Information/Bookings: £20/18 wegottickets.com/event/165618

With Josephine Dickinson and Helen Frosi

Saturday to Sunday 30 April - 01 May 2016 | Octopus Collective HQ and environs (Venue: Ulverston, Cumbria) | Free (booking required)

SUMMER CLUB // SOUND (V22 Louise House)

A series of events including listening sessions, film screening, live performances, educational activities and workshops. 

Details of our workshops are below:

Alexander Wendt 

Children of Savia (workshop) 

24 July 2016 | 12-3pm |  V22 Louise House, Forest Hill | £3 Tickets

Armed with microphones and cameras, Alex and workshop participants will explore the locale, hunt for sounds in the Community Garden, the Old Laundry and the surroundings of Louise House. Children will be able to learn about sound recording and their sonic environment while gathering and editing material for a final presentation. hellosavia.wordpress.com

Alexander Wendt is interested in new forms of presentation, for performing arts and education. He performs and exhibits internationally, and organises sound recording and listening workshops in sometimes remote locations. Wendt researches aural visual culture of the post-millenial society, and socio-cultural and conceptual development of field education. He recently set up Savia (Sound, Arts & Video Activities) in West Sussex. Wendt studied Multimedia Engineering and Special Effects Design at London's South Bank University, and was awarded an MA in New Media Production by John Moores University, Liverpool in 2004. Before becoming lecturer at London Metropolitan University, he studied and taught at the International Center for Digital Content, Liverpool. Wendt gained a Masters degree in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in 2008, and was awarded Fellow of Academy for Higher Education by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2009. www.alexanderwendt.com

Daniel James Ross 

Field Recording and Sonic Time Travel: A Workshop for Kids 

04 August 2016 | 12-2pm | V22 Louise House, Forest Hill | Donations welcomed on the door

Spend an afternoon with a professional sound artist and educator and learn how to record the past. This is an opportunity for children to learn new skills, become part of an art work, and have loads of fun! Learn how to use hand-held sound recorders with composer and sound artist Daniel James Ross. Imagine & recreate a Victorian sonic landscape, time travel with sound! Have your recordings included in a sound art installation at London's I'Klectik Art Lab for Sound Yard 2016. Led by Daniel James Ross and Alice Reicher.

Alice Reicher is a fully qualified primary school teacher with 8 years of experience working with children of all ages. She graduated from Edinburgh University with a Bachelor of Education honours degree in 2008 and since then has taught in schools both in Scotland and London. Alice is passionate about a wide range of creative processes relating to sonic and visual art and she is looking forward to bringing her sense of fun, imagination, and energy to these workshops.

Daniel James Ross composes algorithmic electro-instrumental music and is a PhD candidate in composition at Goldsmiths. He has recently had work premièred at the National Museum of Wales, the Brighton Fringe, and via release on Classwar Karaoke and NX Records. Daniel also improvises with custom built software in various ensembles, including Some Some Unicorn and Roddart, the latter having reached the finals of the Engine Room International Sound Art Competition 2015. Daniel's music combines elements of free jazz, electro-acoustic, and choral music. Daniel is a lecturer in music technology at Morley College.www.vitruviandan.wordpress.com

Octopus Collective 

Breadboard Orchestra (workshop for the whole family) 

11 August 2016 | 12-1pm & 1-2pm | V22 Louise House | £3 Tickets

From their studio base in a public park on Cumbria’s Furness Peninsula, Octopus Collective produce the biennial Full of Noises festival and events series, providing an incubator for new work from the most innovative of contemporary composers and sound artists.

Sharon Gal 

Gals with Guitars: Feel the Noise (workshop for women) 

26 August 2016 | 12-6pm | V22 Louise House | Contact for participation.

Sharon Gal is an interdisciplinary artist, performer and experimental vocalist /composer, with particular experience of free improvisation and collaborative group compositions. Her work relates to sound, sculpture, architecture, live performance and participatory art, exploring the psychology of sound and its relationship with space. Gal performs solo and in ongoing collaborations with David Toop, Steve Beresford, Phil Minton, Andie Brown and Lina Lapelyte. She also directs and performs a series of participatory group compositions which examine the inter-relations between people and place. Co-founder of Resonance 104.4 FM, Gal's music has been released by various labels. She has performed in the U.K. and internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, Arnolfini and Tate Modern. 

Tendrils

With Helen Frosi

Sat 17 September 2016, 12-2pm | Fort Hill Shelter (Margate) | Free (booking required) | Sign up here.

A sensory participatory walk for the (sonically) curious, led by Helen Frosi (SoundFjord, Postcards From the Volcano). Followed by a discussion at Fort Hill shelter. Please allow 2hrs.Tendrils is part of Sounds For Living // Shelter - a day of experimental, improvised and newly commissioned soundworks based at, and leading out from, the Fort Hill Shelter,  Margate. Sounds For Living // Shelter is part of Inside Out for the Margate Festival.

Ink Slingers & Silver Tongues (a workshop of invented words)

With Helen Frosi, Wajid Yaseen and James Worse (Jim Hill)

Sat 22 October 2016 | 12-13:30 & 14:30-16:00 | Chaucer Room, British Library Conference Centre | Free - drop in.

Join sonic tricksters Helen Frosi (SoundFjord), Wajid Yaseen (Modus Arts) and wordsmith James Worse for a day of word making and word bending inspired by the British Library's Evolving English Collection. Make the likes of Roald Dahl and Lewis Carroll proud by invent new words; have them accessioned into the mysterious Archive of Neologisms; and witness spoken-word performances that bite back! Ink Slingers & Silver Tongues is part of Family Day: British Library Uncovered.

SoundHoppers

With Wajid Yaseen and Helen Frosi

SoundHoppers is a sound exploration playgroup for children in Early Years (ages 3-5), Key-stage 1 (ages 5-7) and Key-stage 2 (ages 7-11).

The sessions aim to encourage children to become careful, deep listeners; more nuanced and sensitive to the different qualities of sound around them. We encouraging the group to explore and play with specially constructed sound boxes and enable a variety of dialogues with sound via listening exercises.

Forthcoming dates:

17 February 2017: Coconuts Nursery (Stoke Newington, London)

25 February 2017: 3pm and 4:30pm. Two workshops as part of Sound is Sound is Sound, curated by Charles Hayward (The Albany, Deptford)

26 February 2017:  11am-3:30pm. Workshops at Crossroads event in association with ArtHoppers (RichMix, Shoreditch).

Led by Helen Frosi and special guests

A participatory sound recording and visual art project that will meander along the River Wandle throughout September and October 2017, culminating in the production of a permanent installation at the Ram Heritage Centre, Wandsworth (set to open in 2018). Activities are hands-on and include: drawing and sketching, collecting, field recording, lino printing, listening, local history, material studies, natural history appreciation, poetry, photography, presentations, rambling, soundscapes, vocalisation and aesthetic movement. All sessions are suitable fo families* (except Open Ears! and The River Speaks, which are suitable for people age 16+) and are free to attend. Click here to email for further information and to make bookings.

Workshops and Recording Sessions

The World is a Camera

Saturday 16 Sept 2017 | 11-4pm (1-hour lunch)  | Venue: Vestry Hall

Session lead: Helen Frosi | Session support: Stephan Barrett

A playful and inquisitive walk, collection session and workshop investigating the River Wandle and environs through digital and cameraless photography, led by artist Helen Frosi.

NB. Participants should bring their own cameras.

Open Ears!

Tues 19 Sept 2017 | 10am-4pm | Venue: Vestry Hall

Session lead: Lee Patterson | Session support: Helen Frosi

A session on listening, led by sound artist Lee Patterson, exploring the sonic potential of materials and recording the sounds of local objects and features found at Morden Hall Park. In addition, Lee will demonstrate his unique hand-made sonic instruments!