Performances
Learning Through Listening
World Listening Day Soundwalk and Screening
July 15 @ 7pm Online Event and July 18 @ 7pm In-Person Event
Warbler’s Roost, 3785D Eagle Lake Road, South River
General $12, Advance Registration Required
NAISA's contribution to World Listening Day 2023 features a SOUNDwalk exploring the mid-summer soundscape of Deer Lake in Lount Township (22 KM west of South River) as well as a screening of Listening (with Hildegard Westerkamp) by filmmakers Mike Hoolboom and Heather Frise and Accidental Wilderness by media and sound artist Alëna Korolëva.
The online presentation will include a Q&A with the artists. Hundreds of organizations and thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day since its inception in 2010. The annual grass roots event is about engaging with important questions related to listening, ecology, and the future. Visit the World Listening Day website to host a World Listening Day event in your home region.
World Listening Day Soundwalk and Screening
July 15 @ 7pm Online Event and July 18 @ 7pm In-Person Event
Warbler’s Roost, 3785D Eagle Lake Road, South River
General $12, Advance Registration Required
NAISA's contribution to World Listening Day 2023 features a SOUNDwalk exploring the mid-summer soundscape of Deer Lake in Lount Township (22 KM west of South River) as well as a screening of Listening (with Hildegard Westerkamp) by filmmakers Mike Hoolboom and Heather Frise and Accidental Wilderness by media and sound artist Alëna Korolëva.
The online presentation will include a Q&A with the artists. Hundreds of organizations and thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day since its inception in 2010. The annual grass roots event is about engaging with important questions related to listening, ecology, and the future. Visit the World Listening Day website to host a World Listening Day event in your home region.
Program:
I. Listening (with Hildegard Westerkamp) by Mike Hoolboom and Heather Frise
A short biographical video of iconic Vancouver composer and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp. She was the only woman to participate in the original version of the World Soundscape project that not only brought new ears to city life, but laid the foundation for noise bylaws/pollution standards, radically upending traditional notions of music, the role of the composer, and found new uses for the portable tape recorder. In addition, Hildegard has brought the art of sound walking to groups around the world, and in these face-to-face encounters she has formulated a deep feminist ecology rooted in the body. This experimentalist short offers a place for the viewer to listen, conjuring the space of listening as the necessary precondition for personal and societal change.
A short biographical video of iconic Vancouver composer and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp. She was the only woman to participate in the original version of the World Soundscape project that not only brought new ears to city life, but laid the foundation for noise bylaws/pollution standards, radically upending traditional notions of music, the role of the composer, and found new uses for the portable tape recorder. In addition, Hildegard has brought the art of sound walking to groups around the world, and in these face-to-face encounters she has formulated a deep feminist ecology rooted in the body. This experimentalist short offers a place for the viewer to listen, conjuring the space of listening as the necessary precondition for personal and societal change.
II. Accidental Wilderness by Alëna Korolëva
A selections of pieces from Korolëva's album of field recording-based compositions will be presented. The pieces grew from listening to the sounds of the ever-changing boundary between the city of Toronto and Lake Ontario. The waterfront is a transition zone where sounds of animals, plants, people, machines and water meet and overlap.
The title "Accidental Wilderness" refers to the transformation of a wasteland into new natural habitats. This happened in Toronto as wildlife reclaimed islands of construction garbage which had been dumped into the lake. Over the years the site became a lush green park, a home and meeting place for many different species. The coastline of Lake Ontario is forever chaging because of climate change and colonial interventions.
There are many kinds of creatures living on the waterfront of Toronto, it is a densely populated place with much more biodiversity than surrounding areas. This transition zone between the city and wildlife is a complex and fluid boundary, hosting not only varieties of native species but also acting as an international hub for migratory birds.
The city borders look concrete but they are a temporary arrangement, and colonial domination can be not only stopped but reversed. Borrowed/stolen land one day can be taken back. Will the city be consumed by the rising water levels or will the lake recede due to droughts? There is no way to predict the future, but new condo towers and “revitalisation” projects just a few steps from a colossal body of water seem the result of wishful thinking.
A selections of pieces from Korolëva's album of field recording-based compositions will be presented. The pieces grew from listening to the sounds of the ever-changing boundary between the city of Toronto and Lake Ontario. The waterfront is a transition zone where sounds of animals, plants, people, machines and water meet and overlap.
The title "Accidental Wilderness" refers to the transformation of a wasteland into new natural habitats. This happened in Toronto as wildlife reclaimed islands of construction garbage which had been dumped into the lake. Over the years the site became a lush green park, a home and meeting place for many different species. The coastline of Lake Ontario is forever chaging because of climate change and colonial interventions.
There are many kinds of creatures living on the waterfront of Toronto, it is a densely populated place with much more biodiversity than surrounding areas. This transition zone between the city and wildlife is a complex and fluid boundary, hosting not only varieties of native species but also acting as an international hub for migratory birds.
The city borders look concrete but they are a temporary arrangement, and colonial domination can be not only stopped but reversed. Borrowed/stolen land one day can be taken back. Will the city be consumed by the rising water levels or will the lake recede due to droughts? There is no way to predict the future, but new condo towers and “revitalisation” projects just a few steps from a colossal body of water seem the result of wishful thinking.
Soundwalk - Human-generated sounds and Insect sounds
Aug 15 @ 7 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River
General $12, Advance Registration Required
As the soundwalk on July 18 focused on the sounds of birds and other animals this one in August will consider human generated sounds and the sounds of insects. Using an improvisatory exploration of the exhibition at NAISA as a starting point, the soundwalk will consider how the layout of South River shapes its acoustic character and how the natural areas accessible to the village have changed since the spring.
Aug 15 @ 7 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River
General $12, Advance Registration Required
As the soundwalk on July 18 focused on the sounds of birds and other animals this one in August will consider human generated sounds and the sounds of insects. Using an improvisatory exploration of the exhibition at NAISA as a starting point, the soundwalk will consider how the layout of South River shapes its acoustic character and how the natural areas accessible to the village have changed since the spring.
Installations
The Sensation of Distribution
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
June 15 to September 4, 2023.
Opening Artist talk on June 15 at 1 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
The Sensation of Distribution is a reprise of Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters’s 2019 work, The Distribution of Sensation, which they created while artists in residence at The Bentway, a large, urban public space situated under an elevated highway in downtown Toronto. The Distribution of Sensation was a sound sculpture composed of PVC pipes installed around The Bentway that invited visitors to listen through the natural resonance of the cylinders, creating a series of musical experiences across the site. Mimic the plumbing infrastructure of the site, the installation was meant to create aesthetic slippages that might potentially lead to confusion as to what exactly functioned or counted as art.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
June 15 to September 4, 2023.
Opening Artist talk on June 15 at 1 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
The Sensation of Distribution is a reprise of Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters’s 2019 work, The Distribution of Sensation, which they created while artists in residence at The Bentway, a large, urban public space situated under an elevated highway in downtown Toronto. The Distribution of Sensation was a sound sculpture composed of PVC pipes installed around The Bentway that invited visitors to listen through the natural resonance of the cylinders, creating a series of musical experiences across the site. Mimic the plumbing infrastructure of the site, the installation was meant to create aesthetic slippages that might potentially lead to confusion as to what exactly functioned or counted as art.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
Secret Reception
By Kristine Diekman, Ben Pagac and Tony Allard
June 15 to September 4, 2023. Open 10 am to 4 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Opening Artist talk on June 15 at 1 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
Pay by Donation
Secret Reception combines art and bioacoustics to creatively engage the public in questions about sound reception in more-than-human worlds. This sonic art installation offers new paradigms for hearing through the design of haptic objects and tactile interfaces that use vibration to transmit sonic information. Drawing on scientific research that examines how insects detect sound through body parts, we transpose insect hearing to the human listening experience using sonic impulses that emulate the way insects receive them.
By Kristine Diekman, Ben Pagac and Tony Allard
June 15 to September 4, 2023. Open 10 am to 4 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Opening Artist talk on June 15 at 1 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
Pay by Donation
Secret Reception combines art and bioacoustics to creatively engage the public in questions about sound reception in more-than-human worlds. This sonic art installation offers new paradigms for hearing through the design of haptic objects and tactile interfaces that use vibration to transmit sonic information. Drawing on scientific research that examines how insects detect sound through body parts, we transpose insect hearing to the human listening experience using sonic impulses that emulate the way insects receive them.
Secret Reception from Kristine Diekman on Vimeo.