Workshop: MIRACULOUS AGITATION

Coils Magnets Music

5 May 2009
9 May 2009

In cooperation with: echtzeithalle.de and schwerereiter.de Support: Department of Arts and Culture of Munich

Drawing the hidden music out of everyday objects. Coils are the very soul of electronic music. The Victorians made jump, Jimi Hendrix made them howl and this workshop hopes to make them sing. It guides articipants in creating and using electro-magnetic forces to create a type of 'acoustically synthesized' music from salvaged metal objects. We will explore how any object can be turned into a loud speaker and how the principal of feedback can make these objects vibrate with sound. You will learn among other things: How inventors, musicians and experimenters have used various objects as sound diffusers throughout the history of electronic music. How to stereoscopically eavesdrop on the inner of
workings of electronic devices. How to make a basic amplifier. How to create an electromagnetic field capable of resonating ferric metal objects. How to create cheap and effective contact microphones. How to adapt an
amplifier so that it becomes an expressive touch-controlled instrument, namely a 'crackle box'.

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With:
Dan Wilson

The creative workshop: Miraculous Agitation. Coils Magnets Music
With: Dan Wilson and Chris Weaver UK
Where: Munich. Schwere Reiter Halle. Dachauerstr. 114
When: May 5-9 2009 3-9 PM. Presentation May 9 at Materialausgabe 2009
Participation: ±15 places. Attendance is free. Electronic parts 30,-Euro
Registration: www.aa-vv.org/?av_02010101 by April 15 2009
Organized by: aa-vv.org
In cooperation with: echtzeithalle.de and schwerereiter.de
Support: Department of Arts and Culture of Munich
More: www.aa-vv.org/?av_0201

Day 1-5: Introduction to music made with similar techniques involving an
emphasis on coils. The relationship between music and electromagnetism.
Listening to different electro-magnetic fields. Demonstration of an object
being resonated. Demonstration of sympathetic resonance. How to read
electronic schematics. How to solder. Construction of simple audio
amplifiers. Feeding an audio signal into a coil. Adapting the amplifier
to create a 'crackle-box'. Exploring, personalizing and tailoring the
circuit to your own fancies. Miraculous agitation! Acoustic waveshaping.
Scavenger hunt trip. Using the coils and amplifiers to resonate junk
objects. Filtering sounds through the objects. Setting up. Recap and
rehearsal. Gala!

Dan Wilson is a composer, instrument builder and sound designer from
Hertfordshire with a BA and MA in Sonic Art, and whose interests lie
primarily in the use of electromagnetic agitation in new instrument design.
As of 2009 he features on SPNM's composer shortlist. As well as instrument
building, he is also a keen practitioner and theorist of mediadropping
the act of leaving homemade tapes or CDs in public places for people to
find). He was awarded the 2007 Arts Foundation electroacoustic composition
fellowship (nominated by the Ed Baxter of the LMC) which led to a
performance of his electromagnetic work 'Corrosion Suite' at the
Tate Modern in June that year. He has been featured in The Wire on
numerous occasions, in Unknown Public, in Nic Collins'
book 'Handmade Electronic Music', and in the groundbreaking 365 Days
Project MP3 series on Ubuweb. He is a performer in the
electroacoustic improve quartet Oscillatorial Binnage.

Chris Weaver is a composer and experimentalist, laptop and electronics
improviser from London. When not manning the helm at London's
Resonance104.4FM, he can be found alongside vocalist KJ Grant in
their frequent duo and sporadic guest-lead trios.
Occasionally he also turns up twanging rubber bands
and playing circuit bent casios in the group, Oscillatory Binnnage.

Some ideas on where to stay in Munich:
www.hoteltheresia.de/e_index.htm
www.euro-youth-hotel.de/
www.munich-info.de/hotels/hotel-pension-central/welcome_de.html
www.globalfreeloaders.com/memberlocations.php?city=munich&code=GM-02-883330

Get in touch: workshop[at]aa-vv[dot]org