murmer: Sound as Space / Sound as Language workshop December 8, 2010

This workshop is taught by sound and performance artist Patrick McGinley (aka murmer).

Sound as Space / Sound as Language

This workshop focuses on sound as transmitter of nonverbal information, whether as a tool for communication or as a description of physical or imaginary space. We will focus on sound’s ability to define/describe space, and on our ability to resonate, alter, or create space by using sound. We will also explore animal communication and group activity. A strong focus will be placed on environmental listening, and the development of the ear toward detailed sonic perception. Using small acoustic objects and the space itself, we will experiment with methods of group nonverbal sonic communication, with giving our location a voice, and with creating new spaces toward an understanding of sonic scenography. The workshop will open with an extended listening session, after which participants will work through a series of sonic games and be asked to bring objects to use in the later stages.

Patrick McGinley (aka murmer) is an American born sound and performance artist who has lived and worked in Europe since 1996. From 1996 until 1998 he lived in Paris, where he studied theatre, and began his sound experiments in the context of those studies. Moving to London in 1998, he began a collection of found sounds and found objects that would become the basis of all his work. He has composed works for several theatre performances, including the works of his own company, as well as performing live soundworks for others. In 2002 he co-founded framework, an organisation that produces a weekly radio show on london’s Resonance104.4fm. His work concentrates on the framing of sounds from our environment which normally pass through our ears unnoticed and unremarked, but which out of context become unrecognisable, alien and extraordinary: Crackling charcoal, a squeaking escalator, a buzzing insect, or one’s own breath.

Official Website: http://www.uniondocs.org/sound-workshop-with-patrick-mcginley-aka-murmer/