Critical Analysis and Contextual Awareness in Improvisation and Contemporary Music and Sound Arts
exploring Sound Arts and Acoustic Ecologies and Acoustic and Electronic Anthropology

with Prof. Dean M Roberts
on saturday 11 march 2023 at Casa Morra Napoli

the workshop is conducted in English - subscription € 10,00

The workshop is designed for students or practitioners or curious participants any age from 18 to 100 years old. This is strictly NOT fixed to any genre or musical technical experience, does NOT require any musical experience, just purely an interest in sound, social participation, and experimentation.
It is based on a concept of collective improvisation. Participants could be instrumentalists, electronic experimenters, poets, actors, filmmakers, students engaged in performance art and sound studies, or anyone curious for a workshop in collaborative experimentation in sound...
The starting point of the workshop is the screening of the film Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present which is a great stimulus for possibilities of exploring sound as a medium and the many aspects of the social connections in artistic activities that maybe use sound as an exploratory artistic medium, experimental music and beyond music, film, dance, theatre, radio and broadcasting arts...
Participants are encouraged to bring a portable recording device, such as a field recorder, headphones and if possible, a speaker device and any instruments. It is encouraged to also bring along a portable Bluetooth Speaker, not any specific quality...
Following the film screening and discussion, it is given a cue to explore the local sonic environment and documenting sounds of their/each "sound walk". Maybe some people wish to bring an instrument and record themselves playing, or forming a group to improvise, it is encouraged to walk the streets, parks, forests, galleries etc. and explore the sonic experience. (Reference to R. Murray Shaefer's philosophy of sonic experience of living is provided)
During the workshop, there are some guided tasks, for example the group are encouraged to participate in a group vocal exercise based on composer Pauline Oliveros instructive score as well as the graphic score Treatise by composer Cornelius Cardew, which is a fundamental 'Visual Score' for improvisors.
The workshop culminates in a meeting at the end of the day. The group assemble in an indoor space and collectively simultaneously play back the audio diary they have individually collected in the afternoon. The point of reference is John Cage's philosophy of randomized and semi organized noise as music, R. Murray Shaefer, and the score of the concept of All Cracked Medias by Dean M Roberts, the multiple sound sources are unleashed and combined without any prior planned relativity.

Dean M Roberts (NZ/DE) is known as one of New Zealand’s leading practitioners in the field of contemporary music, practicing since the mid-1990s to present, He has produced a number of albums and works to critical acclaim.
Roberts is a professor of Critical Studies and Contextual Awareness in Contemporary Music and Sound Arts at the dBs University in Berlin, University of St. John and St. Mark’s UK and is a participating partner in The Institute of Speculative and Critical Inquiry: Collaborative Experimentation in Sound: Berkeley University in Portugal.
Over the past three decades Dean M Roberts has held positions as a professor in sound studies, acoustic ecology and intermedia arts at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, and has lectured at Auckland University of Technology, Victoria University Wellington, Bard College New York, Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, Harvestworks New York, Museums Quartier Vienna and STEIM institute Amsterdam.
As a producer of more than 20 albums, his 1999 album “The Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema” was described by the Wire Magazine UK as “A tremendous achievement where everything fits, less of an attempt to blend genres than a demonstration of how for the truly imaginative, genres remain utterly meaningless.”
His landmark experimental record “All Cracked Medias” was voted 1# album of the year by journalists in Italian Blow Up Magazine and subsequently launched a career of visibility in Italy up to this date, where his performances are rare but revered events.
Known as a musician and published music writer, Roberts is also a trained practicing academic and teacher in the fields of music, experimental cinema and intermedia arts and education methodology.
This is a project devised over some years working with the Institute for Speculative and Critical Inquiry.
In 2023 he is offering content filled participatory workshops in partnership with some select institutions in Italy during the period of February, March 2023.
https://deanrobertsmusic.bandcamp.com/
https://deanroberts.org/

Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present
a documentary film by Tyler Hubby

the projection is open to everyone and starts at 12:00am

Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present is a non-fiction film examining the pioneering life and works of filmmaker, musician, artist and educator, Tony Conrad.
Tony Conrad (USA 1940-2016) was one the great American artists of his time, yet to the world at large he remains criminally under appreciated. Since the early 1960s, Conrad’s films and compositions have been the stuff of legend for artists and musicians everywhere. He performed in and recorded the soundtrack to Jack Smith’s legendary Flaming Creatures; he laid bare the paradigms of cinema with The Flicker, a film composed of only black and white frames. His powerful and startling drone compositions still have the music establishment scratching their heads; his early work with La Monte Young and John Cale played a role in the formation of The Velvet Underground; as an early adopter of activist public access television he democratized the emerging medium of portable video for ordinary citizens. His vast, fifty-year inter-disciplinary repertoire inspired and confounded generations of artists, collaborators and fans. In his later years he continued to perform and make work that pushed the boundaries of reason for which he has finally begun to receive worldwide attention.
Utilizing intimate footage of Tony Conrad and his collaborators shot over the last twenty-two years, as well as his own archive of recordings and films, Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present mirrors Conrad’s own playfully radical approach to art making. The non-linear structure allows Conrad to wildly free associate his streams of consciousness, revealing an honest and humane way of navigating a remarkable, creative life.
http://www.tonyconradmovie.com/