when: MONDAY May 8
where: Lizzie's place, (email for details)
how: house is equidistant from Pentagon City / Crystal City metro stops (an 8-10 minute walk), so get off wherever you feel the spirit moves you to.
questions: call Lizzie: (email for details)
WHAT? please join us for an evening of listening together to audio, art, music, game sound, found sound, collage, stories and more (or less depending...)
All are welcome, Please consider bringing food or drinks to share, and a friend. If you'd like to share audio please limit clips to 6 minutes or shorter.
Looking forward to listening with you,
-DCLL
APRIL HIGHLIGHTS
The April DCLL was at Ginger and Teague's place. Thanks for hosting.
We started the night going around mentioning the memorable food combinations that probably shouldn't exist (or that other people thought shouldn't exist) which we have dabbled in.
Lilian- Multi-media artist: Her grandfather used to eat sardines with berry jam. Her piece
Kaleidoscope featured @ art-o-matic. Check it out (apologies for late notes...).
Nathan- haas been hanging at Rhizome and:, Twizzlers and guacamole- it was a dare
Steve M- Passover delicious food with dry dusty flavorless cake
Jenny- Kyrgyzstan dried (chalky) cheese balls and chocolate
Claudia- Columbian hot chocolate and mozzarella cheese (immersed), morning breakfast, dip the bread into it.
Rene- portland ice cream shop with olive oil ice cream. - insurance appraiser.
Jocelyn- broccoli dipped in water
Lizzie- freshman in college roommate took anthropology of cooking, feeding crickets and so she booked crickets into cookies. Cricket Cookies (faux Cambodian)
Teague: mom got on a health kick, brewer's yeast with orange juice.
Ann- Salty licorice
Discussion swirled around the upcoming audio field trip (now completed).
Advice about external microphones:
iQ-6 plug in
transom.org/tools
history of transom as a name- to get someone to hear your work you had to throw it through the transom...org founded PRX.
Audio of the night:
Nathan- Tim Hecker is an ambient artist (as described by Nathan) came through NTS radio – a 1-hr radio show of original work and remixes, ambient artist- mixed it with an interview with Fugazi and added ambient feature. Music of the Air is one piece that is recognizable within it.
Featuring saw-tooth synth
What does it mean to be an artist, composer , musician? Definitions of these are complex and interpreted differently by different people. Music creation can be similar to painting a scene or when a feeling becomes recognizable as a genre or established after a time.
Harmony and Ultraviolet album is a great one.
Jenny (sp?) – shared her first ever audio piece featuring musician Sam Guilford. She recorded on her phone, what would you do to make it better?
- mic yourself
- hold mic at the chin to cut down on p-pops.
- Music is sounding great, great nice and quiet room
- enjoyed the laughter together- warm and friendly.
- Good clarification between mandolin and violin composition explainer.
- Love the easter egg moment
- “I just finished writing and recording a pair of lobsters” could be a terrific opening line
discussion of how to boost one-voice if the level is low
How important is that kind of adjustment?
Also talked through tools for plowing through tape- time cues and/or talking about the best tape and creating a list of “must-haves” to shape the story.
Jocelyn- shared a pilot for a new series she's working on.
Big questions to explore:
how much to let the central figure tell the story
will there always be a few questions that you ask everyone in each episode?
What about having every fourth show live- to have audience reaction
How do we tackle Bigger issues- like power dynamics within smaller stories
what are the responsibilities of the producer/host to protect a guest from revisiting difficult moments?
Lizzie noted:
-framing maters- from an intro or the central figure themselves Sets a context
Animate the story with video! idea....from Nathan.
Youtube series could be great with that.
Lizzie – shared a personal interview with an unidentified person. And asked us to listen for where is it boring? Where does it draw you in?
Helpful questions to be sure the tape answers:
Who is this character? Is he redeemable?
What's at stake?
And we need clues to keep us interested?
Where is the turn in the story? And where are we headed to?
Lilian- shared her work which was/is featured at art-o-matic
art-o-matic 7th floor , video installations and light-based work, projection of kaleidoscopes on rotating table on the floor. Kaleidoscope of humanities past. This was her first sound art piece (after attending a workshop presented by DCLL members at Washington Project for the Arts years ago- so cool!).
Questions discussed:
How much do you need to distort someone’s work to use it as your own?
Does the answer change for an Installation? For work that lives online? for work that is for sale?
--
DC Listening Lounge began in the fall of 2004 by like-minded audio enthusiasts as an informal place to listen, experiment and learn more about the art and craft of sound. We continue to meet once a month in DC living rooms to share and listen to one another's latest audio finds- and to continue an ongoing conversation about sound and creative storytelling.
We always welcome curious visitors, eager listeners, and sound enthusiasts of all stripes and types. To join our mailing list or learn more about our monthly meetings, email us at dclisteninglounge@gmail.com