Murmurans Mundus: Sonic Ecology and Beyond is an international interdisciplinary conference focused on the current matters of acoustic ecology perceived from the perspective of arts and both social and natural sciences. The aim of the conference is to contribute to the international discussion on topics such as noise pollution, options of interpretation and manipulation of the acoustic environment or possibilities to reflex “acoustic ecology” in the educational process.
The conference picks up where the founding conference, CENSE, left off. The Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies conference was held in Budapest at the end of November and beginning of December 2018.
The project is based on collaboration of Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem (CZ), Faculty of Education at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem (CZ), The Soundscape Research Studio, Institute of Cultural Studies, University Wroclaw (PL), Faculty of Arts, Constantine the Philosopher University, Nitra (SK) and Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest (HU).
Three basic theses, formulated by the composer and philosopher Raymond Murray Schafer in 1977, introduced the idea of acoustic ecology, including his conception of soundscapes, of the ecology of sound, and of the deep listening method. The moment of a factual recording of a sonic situation, of a soundscape, and the further processing of such a recording is seen as less important in this context than the existential and environmental situation connected with the actual act of subjective listening to the manifest acoustic events present in the given space and time.
Since the topic of acoustic ecology in Central Europe is still marginal, this conference aims to ask the right questions, rather than to provide clear answers to them. The program of the event will take place at the Faculty of Art and Design at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. Apart from five thematic blocks, the conference program will also include workshops, sound performances, sound walks and the exhibition Atmospheric Disturbances at the Hraničář Gallery.
Program
2 / 10 Arrival
@ Public Hall Hraničář / Cafė ve Foyer
19.00 Meeting with participants of the conference
3 / 10 Day 1 @ Faculty of Art and Design
10.00 Opening (Pavel Mrkus)
#1 Sound as a source of information and a means of environmental change — The acoustic environment as an indicator of the critical state of the world and the need to alter our relation to it.
10.30 Peter Cusack: Aral Sea Stories: Soundscapes of A Major Environmental Change
11.00 Tomáš Šenkyřík: Soundscape of South Moravia, Virtual field recording trip from the confluence of the Morava and Dyje rivers to the peak in the Wild Carpathians
11.30 Slawomir Wieczorek: Sonic Ecology and a Big City. The Soundscape of Paris according to Des Coulam
12.00 Anna Kvíčalová: Manufacturing nature? How to do things with sounds in the Anthropocene
12.30 Jaroslaw Jaworek: Soundscape Ecology in the Perspective of Environmental and Sound History
#2 Design and sound — Connections between architecture, urbanism, design, and acoustics.
14.30 Sam Auinger: Listen to the Sonic Commons – Sonic works in public space by O+A
15.00 Balázs Kovacz: Hangfarm project presentation
15.30 Jeff Gburek: Sound Stranger
16.00 Karolína Kotnour: Evolving Architectures – Spatial Adaptation and Extreme Dynamic Environments
16.30 Peter Cusack & Sam Auinger Sound walk
@ Public Hall Hraničář 20.30—23.00 AV performances (Moderator – Jan Krombholz)
Ali Chakav / Aloïs Yang / Jeff Gburek / Jiyun Park / Tomáš Šenkyřík
4 / 10 Day 2 @ Faculty of Art and Design
#3 Sound as an inner experience — Acoustic ecology as a possibility for transforming our relation to the world in both art and science.
10.00 Aleksandar Vejnovic: Audience Development in Acoustic Ecology Facilitation and empowerment for open public exemplified on a case study
10.30 Jadwiga Zimpel: Deep listening, place sensing and the sense of place
11.00 Jan Trojan: An acoustic signal articulated by musical instruments in a form of musical composition or sound performance
11.30 Dariusz Brzostek: Field Recording as the Technology of Self: Acoustic Ecology and the Ethics of Care
12.00—13.30 Lunch break
#4 Sound and education: sound literacy — Listening as an important part of upbringing and education. Sound activism.
13.30 Csaba Hajnóczy: Teaching Acoustic Ecology
14.00 Roberta Busechian: Sound art educational: An analysis of a sound art educational project to introduce sonic activism to school students
14.30 Martin Flašar: Teaching Silence: Listening long before music
15.00 Šárka Zahálková: Sound as a Way to Memory
15.30 Nathan Wolek DeLeon Springs: Listening at the intersection of geophony, biophony, and anthrophony
@ Public Hall Hraničář 19.00—23.00 AV performance
Martin Zet / Barry Wan / Boštjan Perovšek / AVA Kolektiv / Jan Sůsa / Slavek Kwi
5 / 10 Day 3 @ Faculty of Art and Design
#5 Context as one of the parameters of sound interpretation — The importance of the social context for our ability to listen and understand sound.
10.00 Martin Nitsche: Phenomenological Approaches to Sonic Experience
10.30 Raquel Castro: Aural identity, neighborhood and community
11.00 Jozef Cseres: John Cage’s Sound Ecology and Its Consequences to the Aesthetics
11.30 Irena Pivka: Sound Ecology within Contemporary Art Practice
12.00 Július Fujak: Sonic Photography as a Trace of Kairos
12.30—13.30 Lunch break
@ Public Hall Hraničář
13.30 CENSE meeting – planning next agenda
16.00 Exhibition guided tour
19.00 Afterparty
Photos from the Conference
Location:
Ústí nad Labem
Photographer:
Sára Chalupová
