Video | Chris Watson and Sir David Attenborough in conversation

Calls of the Wild: Chris Watson and Sir David Attenborough in conversation from Forma Arts & Media on Vimeo.

From 29 May to 5 September 2010, co-producers Sound and Music and Forma presented Chris Watson's sound installation Whispering in the Leaves in the Palm House at Kew Gardens, part of Kew's Summer Festival.

Chris Watson is a renowned sound recordist and BAFTA winner for his work on the BBC documentary The Life of Birds. In this video he talks to long-time colleague Sir David Attenborough about their experiences sound recording in the wild. The talk was held on 10 August at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and was kindly chaired by Richard Ranft, Head of the British Sound Archive.

Please note this is an excerpt of a 1.5 hour talk.

www.whisperingintheleaves.com

www.davidattenborough.co.uk

www.chriswatson.net

Soundwalkers - Raquel Castro

Soundwalkers from raquel castro on Vimeo.

There are some fundamental principles regarding the construction of an acoustically healthy society, one where we can exist within the sounds of life. Respect towards voice and words, sonic awareness, the awakening of the sense of hearing. To preserve the sounds that tend to fade out, while remaining open to the sounds that spring out of each technological stride. To build an aural idiom that interprets its own symbolism. To accept the silence, enforcing it in the due moments. And, above all else, to listen.

Kjell Bjørgeengen & Keith Rowe: Porto VI 6.44-10.44 (Excerpt)

Watch an excerpt from a collaborative video by Kjell Bjørgeengen & Keith Rowe

Kjell Bjørgeengen & Keith Rowe: Porto VI 6.44-10.44 (Excerpt) from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

Porto VI 6.44-10.44 was made by Kjell Bjørgeengen and Keith Rowe during a residency at Porto's Esquilo Records in 2007. The video was produced from Bjørgeengen's audio oscillators and Rowe's audio outputs converted into a video signal.

Kjell Bjørgeengen and Keith Rowe will both be taking part in the Cut & Splice: Transmission festival in London, 4–6 November. Click here for more details.

The Wire Salon

Environmental Agents: The Art Of Field Recording

Lee Patterson recording in Dunadd, West Scotland, 2007

An evening devoted to listening to and talking about field recordings. The panel included Justin Bennett, Peter Cusak and Lee Patterson.

Listen to the October 2010 edition of The Wire's Salon

DYNASTY

1 exhibition, 2 venues, 40 artists, 80 projects: «Dynasty» is the outcome of an innovative joint venture involving the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC and the Palais de Tokyo.

Robin Meier et Ali Momeni

Robin Meier and Ali Momeni both apply the rules of music composition to the confines of art and science. Their collaboration focuses particularly on the interactions between man and the machine. Even though their work integrates high-tech procedures, it resonates nevertheless with the purest traditions of the arts. Trained as a musician, Robin Meier studied composition in Switzerland and electroacoustics at the National Conservatory in the Region of Nice. Since 2004, he has pursued a degree in cognitive philosophy at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). Ali Momeni is, as he holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.
Robin Meier was born in 1980. Lives and works in Paris. Ali Momeni was born in Isfahan, Iran, in 1975. Lives and works in Minneapolis, USA.


For Dynasty Robin Meier's and Ali Momeni's work at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris /ARC combines electromagnetic waves with astrological rituals, echoing Raoul Dufy’s La Fée Electricité [The Electricity Fairy], which showed the impact of a growing urban electrical distribution on society. At the Palais de Tokyo, Meier and Momeni propose Truce: Strategies for Post-Apocalyptic Computation, an original reading of the works of Gabrielle Gibson and Ian Russel. These scientists from Greenwich University discovered a humming modulation in mosquitoes during copulation. The artists propose here to regulate this behavior by inviting three live insects to reinterpret a traditional Indian song.

Chris Watson

I have only just discovered Chris Watson and what a pleasure it is to find someone who is so passionate about sounds. In todays society we are constantly being bombarded with sounds, noise pollution as it is called, and we have learnt to cut out all these unwanted sounds to try and focus on the task at hand. However we have forgotten to listen to things attentatively for their rich sonic qualities and this is what Chris manages to do to show us the beauty of everyday sounds from the microscosm to the sound of an Adult Cheetah Resting By Beobab Tree.

The Wire Salon: We Hear A New World: Microphony, Technology & The Rise Of Sound Art

Artist/writer Salomé Voegelin, author of Listening To Noise And Silence (Continuum), Helen Frosi, curator of the Soundfjord gallery, and critic/sound artist Will Montgomery discuss the new philosophies and practices of 21st century sound art.

Listen to the September 2010 edition of The Wire's Salon