The Global Composition: Conference on Sound, Media and the Environment :: July 25-28, 2012 :: Darmstadt/Media Campus Dieburg (Hochschule Darmstadt), Frankfurt, Germany :: Call for Submissions — Deadline: March 12, 2012.

The sonic environment is an indicator for the quality of life: One crucial aspect, however, remains open and leads to a multitude of questions: Is this, what our hearing is exposed to, satisfying and enhancing our individual, social, functional, biological, economical, aesthetic and existential needs and endeavors? If not, which concepts exist to “orchestrate” everyday life’s cacophony? Which methods exist to successfully evaluate the quality of soundscapes? Continue reading

Interference Journal is a journal that looks at the role of sound in cultural practices. The first issue is now live and can be viewed at here.

The title of the inaugural issue of Interference – An Ear Alone is Not a Being: Embodied Mediation in Audio Culture – acknowledges acoustic practices that involve not just the ear but a corporeal body that senses, resonates, transduces and responds to sound, and furthermore, seeks to emphasize the legacy of this embodied listening subject in the practices, media, and conceptual frameworks that make up audio cultures. ‘Embodied mediation’ presumes a reciprocal process: the texts in this issue explore not only how listening experiences and acoustic practices are shaped by corporeality, but also attend to the many ways in which those processes work upon that body, through psychophysical affect and the representation and encoding of listening subjects in acoustic performances, technologies and cultural artefacts. — From “Editorial” by Rachel O’Dwyer

2011 World Listening Day :: JULY 18 :: The World Listening Project (WLP) and Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE) invite you to participate in the 2011 World Listening Day on Monday, July 18.

Here are several possible ways to participate:

Organize a soundwalk :: Organize a performance event that explores soundscape and how we can listen to our sonic environment :: Participate introspectively by simply paying attention to your soundscape :: Facilitate an educational event that relates to acoustic ecology, field recordings, or a similar topic ::

The level of participation in 2010 was amazing. We would like to see if we can double or even triple the number of participants worldwide this time. Continue reading

Artist-technologist Honor Harger listens to the weird and wonderful noises of stars and planets and pulsars. In her work, she tracks the radio waves emitted by ancient celestial objects and turns them into sound, including “the oldest song you will ever hear,” the sound of cosmic rays left over from the Big Bang. Related.

The American Society for Cybernetics has great pleasure in announcing a conversational conference on the theme of LISTENING :: August 9 to August 15, 2011 :: Richmond, Indiana. USA :: Sign up deadline: May 10, 2011 ::

We regard listening as the key act that turns talking into conversation. However, we use these words metaphorically, and not just literally: we do not mean to concentrate on the aural senses, but on the idea that it is the recipient who gives meaning to what they hear. This is how they release the potential in a statement made by another into conversation, whether the conversation is in words, acts, gestures, or indeed any other medium of communication. This can lead to the development of understanding of the other so important in human relations (perhaps specially in fields such as psycho-therapy, management, education and music). Continue reading

Looking at Music 3.0:: February 16 – June 6, 2011 :: The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Media Gallery, second floor, The Museum of Modern Art :: the third in a series of exhibitions exploring the influence of music on contemporary art practices, focuses on New York in the 1980s and 1990s. In this dynamic period, imaginative forms of street art spread across the five boroughs, articulating the counter-culture tenor of the times. As the city transitioned from bankruptcy to solvency, graffiti, media, and performance artists took advantage of low rents and collaborated on ad hoc works shown in alternative spaces and underground clubs. Appropriation, also known as remixing, thrived. Continue reading

Listening! by The School Of Sound :: November 25, 2010 :: Doors open at 7pm, Listening! begins at 7:30 sharp :: at The Horse Hospital, London Colonnade, off Russell Square, Bloomsbury London WC1N 1JD :: £5 entry at the door ::

It is rare to listen as a group. Whether at a concert or the theatre, in a cinema, facing some sort of screen or out on the street, we have images to keep our hearing company.

This is an opportunity for an audience to listen, together, without pictures. To immerse themselves in unfamiliar worlds and strange stories; to confront unexpected emotions, feelings, impressions; to share the unseen with those around you - all through sound. Narrative, abstract, radio, sound art - Listening! extends from documentary to the surreal, focusing particularly on the voice. Continue reading

World Listening Day Silent Soundwalks :: July 18, 2010; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm :: Greenlake Park (@ Boathouse on south end of Greenlake), 5900 West Green Lake Way N, 98103, Seattle, WA.

In honor of the first World Listening Day, the Seattle Phonographers Union invites the public to participate in a series of soundwalks. This event is FREE to the public; all are welcome. Throughout the day, SPU members will guide participants on silent walks around the lake, focusing attention on the diversity and complexity of the local soundscape. Continue reading

Here we go for Placard’s 8th edition, third try out of a non-stop three month streaming headphone festival. Placard is a headphone concert festival, playing with concentration, intimacy,time warp,and teleportation.This year it goes on for 97 days non stop, in different cities. It functions under a mode of open program,open for headphone rooms to create performance spaces where performers are welcomed to perform. Both the headphone room ‘owner’ and the performers use the inscription site to self organize the global program. The placard ‘owner’ receives in his room performers who have submitted a inscription via the site , and streams the shows to the other headphonerooms either passive listeners or waiting to perform.The site is designed to simplify communication inbetween the performers and the organizers, using automatic emails notifying of incoming inscriptions , accepted deplaced or refused perfomances; also notifying performers of the creation of headphone rooms in their city. Continue reading

The American Society for Acoustic Ecology presents Listening for the Future Symposium :: July 9-11, 2010 :: Chicago, IL :: Hosted by the ASAE’s Midwest chapter and the World Listening Project this conference is the first of its kind in the United States.

Event Highlights: July 9 - ‘Citizen Sound’ symposium (5-7 p.m.) opens with a wine and cheese reception, introductions to each of the ASAE chapters, and presentations by leaders in Chicago’s cultural and advocacy scene at Columbia College, 33 E. Congress Parkway, basement lobby and room # LL11. Featured guests include Lou Mallozzi, Executive Director of Experimental Sound Studio and architect Graham Balkany of the Gropius in Chicago Coalition. A media lounge, where guests can sample CDs and peruse publications by participants, performers and ASAE members, will be open all night. Following dinner at a local eatery, we’ll be treated to a concert (8:30-10:30 p.m. - $10) featuring ASAE member composers, performers and special guests. Continue reading