Miraculous Agitation - Coils Magnets Music

A creative workshop in Munich by Dan Wilson and Chris Weaver

Drawing the hidden music out of everyday objects. Coils are the very soul of electronic music. The Victorians made them jump, Jimi Hendrix made them howl and this workshop hopes to make them sing. It guides participants 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.

Vergroot

Image of the AA-VV Solar Circuits workshop, taken from their website . -

What you will learn

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'.

Aims

The aim of the workshop is to get the participants quickly to the point where they have two adaptable instruments (a cracklebox and essential a DIY ebow to be focused on using these tools to pull out a wide soundscape from discarded objects. Each participant would be an 'island of sound' in the space, surrounded by the junk that they were using their newly constructed instruments to transform into a harmonic sound environment! Because we are using the junk objects as loud speakers all over the space allowing the public to see exactly what is going on soundwise.

Tutors

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.

Information and registration

Register by April 15 2009 by visiting the AA-VV website.

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
Organized by: AA-VV. Visit the AA-VV AA-VV website] for all info.