SCSE member Alan Nakagawa was awarded a $20,000 mid-career artist fellowship from the California Community Foundation. We are very proud of Alan for this well-deserved recognition.

In the program, Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology members Jay Needham and Eric Leonardson perform Chronography: Animal on Friday, July 27, in the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), at 603qm Alexanderstr. 264283 Darmstadt (Atelier Elektronik).

This event happens within the Soundscape Composition program featuring Hildegard Westerkamp, and is organized in cooperation with the 46. Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2012 (46th International Summer Course for New Music 2012) and The Global Composition: Conference on Sound, Media, and Environment.

Chronography: animal is a live electro-acoustic work based on field recordings that Jay Needham gathered in Antarctica in 2009. For this work, antique gramophone horns have been re-purposed and are now used as amplified instruments, percussive bells that resonate, clang and chime. It is the traveling of these sound machines into the wilds that initially fascinated Needham and eventually lead him to create sound sculptures that often times blur the line between musical instruments and scientific apparatus. For listeners, the work is intended as an audible exploration, a pseudo–scientific demonstration where the sounds of ship propellers, penguin colonies and ice fractures gather to express an epistemology of field recordings and the role that sound technologies have played in exploration and musical performance. Chronography: animal is conceived of as a bridge to connect practices of improvised music and sound art that evokes a sense of place.

The program

Hildegard Westerkamp: Kits Beach Soundwalk

Jay Needham: Chronography: animal (Uraufführung)
A live sound art work for re-purposed gramophone horns and Antarctic field recordings
Performers: Eric Leonardson, Jay Needham

Hildegard Westerkamp: Gently Penetrating beneath the sounding surfaces of another place

Hildegard Westerkamp: Attending to Sacred Matters

The Global Composition conference chairs are Claudia Söller-Eckert and ASAE member, Sabine Breitsameter. The full conference program is posted at http://www.the-global-composition-2012.org/programme.html

In addition to updates from ASAE chapters and WFAE affiliates, outgoing ASAE President, Eric Leonardson provides the WFAE President’s Report. Topics includes the WFAE Newsletter, publication of Soundscape: Journal of Acoustic Ecology, The Global Composition Conference in Darmstadt, upcoming World Listening Day, and a salute to outgoing WFAE President Nigel Frayne.

to celebrate different ways we can focus on our soundscape (sonic environment);
to raise awareness about the acoustic ecology movement, including ideas regarding how noise pollution can be reduced; and
to introduce new educational initiatives and community events related to listening and acoustic ecology.

Participation in the 2012 World Listening Day focuses on the aforementioned goals, which could include listening parties, listening to one’s soundscape in private, private or public soundwalks, public forums about acoustic ecology, and more. What would you like to do on the 2012 World Listening Day?

Visit the World Listening Project website for more information: http://www.worldlisteningproject.org/?p=1551

We are looking forward to your artistic, scholarly or scientific proposals for our event:

The Global Composition
Conference on Sound, Media and the Environment
Darmstadt/Media Campus Dieburg (Hochschule Darmstadt), July 25-28, 2012

Info: http://www.the-global-composition-2012.org/index.html
Call: http://www.the-global-composition-2012.org/call.html

Contact: fabienne.rudolph@stud.h-da.de

Deadline for submission: March 30, 2012
Notification: April 20, 2012

Proposals are invited for roundtable discussions, workshops, papers/posters, applied and artistic contributions, relating, but not limited to the conference’s main focus. The conference’s official language will be English.

Providing a specially positioned “Next Generation”-thread, the conference is very interested, to create a forum for young scholars, scientists, artists as well as for students, and encourages them to send in their proposals. Please send abstracts for roundtable discussions, papers/posters, workshops & proposals for compositions or other artistic contributions by March 1, 2012.

As keynote presenters we expect Bill Fontana, R. Murray Schafer, Hildegard Westerkamp et al.

The conference venue is located near the Frankfurt airport in beautiful historic surroundings, with attractive landscapes, very good wine, culinary highlights, and good conditions for exchange and conviviality. All this makes, too, a central starting point for your summerbreak, be it locally, nationally or internationally.

We hope to welcome you in summer on our Media Campus Dieburg of Hochschule Darmstadt.

Best,
Sabine Breitsameter

The conference is supported by  the “Understanding Canada”-programme/Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Embassy of Canada Berlin,  in collaboration with Darmstädter Ferienkurse/Darmstadt Summercourse, Cork Institute of Technology/School of Music, Ireland and endorsed by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

Project Direction:
Sabine Breitsameter
Professor for Sound and Media Culture
Media Arts and Sciences
and
Claudia Soeller-Eckert
Professor for Basics of Media Design
& Interactive Media Design

Postal address:
Hochschule Darmstadt
Faculty of Media
Haardtring 100
64295 Darmstadt

Visitors’ address:
Mediencampus
Max-Planck-Str. 2
D-64807 Dieburg

The American Society for Acoustic Ecology welcomed two new regional chapters to its national organization in 2011, the Colorado Society for Acoustic Ecology (ColoSAE) and the New England Forum for Acoustic Ecology (NEFAE).

ColoSAE was formed in July 2011 to represent ASAE in the state of Colorado. Michael Komatsu Doherty serves as its Chair and representative to the ASAE Board of Directors.

NEFAE was formed in September 2011 and Jed Speare serves as its Chair and representative to the ASAE Board. NEFAE members have affiliations with the New England Phonographers Union (NEPHONO) among other regional arts organizations, music series’ groups, and universities. The chapter has an interest in bringing acoustic ecology to different New England locations through concerts, events, forums, and discussions. For more information, contact Jed Speare at jed@mobius.org.

Every ASAE chapter offers local and regional representation for acoustic ecology in the United States. If you live in Colorado or the New England and want to join ASAE, we encourage you to visit the websites of these chapters and their chapter representatives know. Links to all eight ASAE chapters are listed here. Annual membership to ASAE begins and ends with the calendar year, and includes many benefits:

• Membership in the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology
• Annual subscription to Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
• Reduced admission to WFAE and ASAE-sponsored conferences and events
• Connection to a community of local, national, and international “ear-minded” people, resources, and activities

Joining ASAE is easy, visit the ASAE membership page to learn how.

Listen to some ColoSAE sounds on SoundCloud: Latest tracks by ColoSAE

Listen to NEPHONO sounds on SoundCloud: Latest tracks by nephono

In addition to updates from WFAE affiliates and members, this newsletter comes with news that Nigel Frayne has been nominated as WFAE President alongside our own ASAE President, Eric Leonardson as WFAE Vice President through July 2012, after which Eric will take up the reigns as President of the WFAE. Congratulations to both!