The audiovisual installation Onomatopoeia brings together two artists who work for the most part in Eastern Europe and who have specific approaches to landscapes, sounds and images. So called “location filming” involves observing and reflecting on events in a recorded space and time, observing what induces and affects spontaneous interventions, and using sound and image as evidence. John Grzinich's video series "Location Sound Films" takes as its starting point the concept of site-specific activity and proceeds to integrate contemporary sound recording practices that blur the boundaries between performance, field recording, improvisation and documentation. With the site as the prime focus, the artist, as actor and instigator, uses sound to investigate the characteristics of a specific context and his place in it.
Various techniques are used to make those recordings, some more obvious than others. The technique depends upon the type of sound to be captured (for example stereo condenser microphones, or contact microphones). Videos are mostly documenting scenes from Grzinich's workshops New Maps of Time realized between 2009 and 2012 in several places, including Prague.
The audio installation MAYSEA by the Polish sound artist and musician Marcin Dymiter is based on language analysis: the audio/onomatopoeic aspect - in this case the sound of the sea as we imagine it. The basis of the project is to find audio documentation that could answer two questions: What sound does the sea produce? What sounds does the word “sea” evoke in your mind?
Dymiter visited several towns in Poland, situated both on the coast and farther inland, and compared impressions of the sound of the sea. An attempt to refer to the real sound of the sea increases the complexity of the entire sound project. However, the project is primarily about stimulating the sense of the listener's imagination.
An important element of Dymiter's sound activities is his long-term interest in “urban sound mapping”. The presentation of the Prague Sound Postcard Project is the result of his residency at the Skolska Open Studio funded by Visegrad Artist Residency Program. The process of intensive mapping - subjective audio recording and re-contextualizing the sounds of several quiet Prague locations, could contribute to a better understanding of Prague's aural geography. In this particular case Dymiter focused on several green areas and city parks in Prague. Further development of the concept (for example, relocating, transmitting the recorded sounds into a new context) is part of this work in process.
For the opening at 7.30 pm screening of the black and white film by John Grzinich: Sound Aspects of Material Elements, produced between 2006 and 2009,Concept, sound, camera, editing: John Grzinich
Collaborative recordings made with: Patrick McGinley, Jim Haynes, Toomas Thetlof, Maksims Shentelevs, Kaspars Kalninsh, Eamon Sprod, Hitoshi Kojo, Evelyn Müürsepp.
The film is possible to see as well in the installation on monitor.
Bio:Mixed-media artist, John Grzinich has worked primarily with sound composition, performance and installation since the early 1990s, focusing on site-specific and acoustic sound activities. He is a program and media lab coordinator for MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, an international artist residency centre and project space in southeastern Estonia.
http://maaheli.ee/main/
Marcin Dymiter aka Emiter is a musician, improviser, composer and sound artist who combines field recordings, acoustic instruments and electronic sound. Emiter moves within electronics and improvised music. He uses and connects lo-fi/hi-fi, as well as sounds commonly known as interferences. He creates sound installations, radio auditions and soundtracks for films, performances and public spaces.
In the framework of the exhibition project the workshops of John Grzinich and Evelyn Müürsepp, Udo Noll, Els Viaene, organized in cooperation with Soundexchange and Sounds of Europe networks.
about the work:
John Grzinich: Location Sound Films
selected workshop and project films 2009-2012
1. "Islands" 14:20
- made during the New Maps of Time workshop in Istanbul Turkey, February 2010
2. "4 Minutes of Sound" 4:14
- made during the New Maps of Time workshop in Prague Czech Republic, October 2009
3. "Listening People, Sounding Places" 8:06
- made during the Urban Sound Ecology Workshop in Łódź Poland, April 2012
4. "Suspension Bridge, Princes Island" 8:39
- made during the New Maps of Time workshop in Calgary Canada, April 2010
5. "Torun Sound Locations" 16:55
- made during the New Maps of Time workshop in Torun Poland, April 2011
6. "Vienna Sound Locations" 10:00
- made during the New Maps of Time workshop in Vienna Austria, August 2011
7. "Animate Structures #4" 15:10
- made during a visit to the California Headlands, April 2010
"Sound Aspects of Material Elements by John Grzinich is a highly unique film, an elegant collection of location sound explorations captured over a three-year period. Empty landscapes of blowing grass and drifting clouds, slight manipulations of abandoned and natural objects, solo engagements with architectural structures,
duos and occasionally larger groups of participants “playing” found materials. In each case, all sounds are sourced within a location, augmented and activated through simple acoustic techniques - tubes, wires, mallets and contact mics. Each 'situation' becomes a kind of instrument, each 'place' is approached as a rich source of sonic matter. This film finds itself between ‘sound art’ and cinema. Unlike most movies, the film follows strict limitations in using only location-based, real-time sound capture. On the other hand, there is strongly disjunctive relationship between
what we see and what we hear because of the predominant use of unusual miking techniques. The shots themselves are often medium to long, and place the objects or figures within the landscape - desolate Estonian fields, ramshackle barns, windswept telephone wires, nighttime fires, abandoned and corroded metal tanks or
girders. The sounds, however, are not only of, but inside the location being shown. We hear into spaces and materials through the careful use of contact mics or the placement of microphones inside containers, tubes and vessels. These decisions amplify, magnify and distort the sonic landscape in relation to what is seen. It can
feel like existing on two levels at once. Sound Aspects of Material Elements doesn’t illustrate, interpret or elaborate upon sound with image, it just shows - demonstrating the elements at play in a particular arrangement or situation. At the same time, the links between sound and image are more than just causal. They are the result of careful exploration, fine-tuned framing, and a delicate balance of the haphazard and the instigated." (Seth Nehil)
"One way to describe John Grzinich's film Mimema would be 'hypnogogic drone poem cinema'. Watching sleeping floaters dream in the eye of the camera. The sound and visual elements work together in such a way, that it's difficult to keep from falling under its hypnotic spell. Very rich and deep. Meanwhile, Sound Aspects Of
Material Elements is a unique cinematic documentary experience that says much without uttering a word. For the less initiated, it not only teaches sound appreciation in an inspiring way, but also demonstrates where sound sources found in much of today's field recording-based sound art compositions initially come from. Certainly a landmark moment for and/OAR and one of the most prized releases in the label catalog." (Dale Lloyd)
