Sound workshop photos

Exposition !

On Tuesday (29th) we went to Yverdon-les-bains to take part in a sound workshop led by the school, and were booked to stay in the Hôtel de la Source for the whole week, the breakfast oh my, I think I may have eaten well over my fair share of croissants… Me and Chels were kitted out with the sofa bed, right next to the kitchen, sharing with two other girls, and i swear every channel on the tv was broadcasting I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, much to my horror. The first couple of days were spent wandering around the city - my plan for the workshop was to focus on the water systems within the area - so I followed rivers or streams that I came across, and luckily one of the rivers leading into Lake Neuchâtel had frozen in parts at its banks, and so i was there for a good half hour playing and poking away at the ice trying to see what unusual sounds may occur. Further down to the lake there was some nice sloshy/bubbly noises being made naturally. 

The second night there we went to the infamous thermal baths, coincidentally located at another hotel 2 minutes around the corner. It felt like we were cheating on our hotel, but the baths were amazing… the Thursday consisted of editing the sounds together and figuring out how to place our speakers in the space we’d chosen. Our ideas ended up working pretty well together and we played it numerous times throughout the night, and there was a pretty decent turn out from visitors! About an hour prior to the opening we all went out in to the town square to hand out some more flyers, and lo and behold, the local christmas market had just opened, so there were plenty of people to entice, that is however until an ice sculptor caught everyone’s attention and drowned out any nearby conversations. The final exposition was a success! Complete with vin chaud.

Soundfiles 1

long weekend

on friday we caught the train to Yverdon Les Bains, where we took part in a sound workshop in this beautiful old building in the town. It’s probable that i interpret things in an entirely different way to the french speakers, as at this place there were many video installations of which were explained to us (in french) and so my sight became the only sense in which i could try and understand it by. That and the few hints other classmates would drop to me, and the odd random words i could pick out by myself (I’m learning slowly i promise)

We used mics to walk around the town and record the sounds, venturing everywhere from the nearby church to a water fountain situated in a roundabout. Then we handed them all in, had lunch, and on return to the workshop found that the mics had each all been fitted to a speaker. There was a countdown to switching them on and hearing the playback which was pretty unnerving because i could tell they must all be switched on at exactly the same time however they were counting down in french and did at least 2 warm ups, in which i almost pressed play. luckily for me i held on

hearing back all the sounds from the day was surprisingly magical, bringing the outside world inside and letting it flow through all the crevices of the old building. Car engines and exhausts had the most dominant noise, and then a recording of a man who had been playing pipes in the town square took over

A little network of sounds on a sunny friday from a small town near the swiss-french border, who knew it could open up a ton of possibilities and ideas