This weekend is the sonic.focus conference at Brown University in Providence RI. I will be on a panel as well as performing.

The description on the sonic.focus website

sonic.focus is a project that examines complementarities and antagonisms between sound and image in contemporary culture. Starting with film & video screenings on October 20th and 27th, the events will culminate in a conference and performance series to be held at Brown University on November 3 and 4, 2006.

This program is prompted by the emergence over the past decade of an auditory culture that parallels the dominant visual culture. Among the phenomena that signal this emergence are: the increasing presence of sound in visual arts exhibitions and venues; the proliferation of visual and media practices in which sound is central to meaning; and the development of a body of theory that examines the nature, history, and circulation of sound as a useful social or conceptual model.

The aim of the conference is to foster a fruitful dialogue among theorists and practitioners working at the intersection of the visual and the sonic arts. Keynote speakers will include David Toop, Diedrich Diederichsen, and Douglas Kahn. Panels will include presentations by Christian Marclay, Renee Green, Stephen Vitiello, Steve Roden, and others. Finally, two nights of performances will include appearances by artists such as Tony Conrad, Robert Lippok, AGF & Sue C. and David Shea.

sonic.focus is organized by Tony Cokes, Roger Mayer, and Christoph Cox

—————

The panel discussion i am participating in is Saturday Nov. 4
11:30-1:00 Christian Marclay, Michael Bell-Smith, Daniel Perlin, AGF/Sue C.

and the performance is that night of the 4th as well:
8:30-midnight
Daniel Perlin, Art Jones, Philip Sherburne, Tony Conrad
If you are in the area, or not, it looks to be a really great conferece, with some serious heavy hitters in the area of sound art practice and theory…

my old professor neil lazarus used to love to pull some real bourdieurian
moves,arguing that every claim or individual could some how be situated.

But what about music and sound?
I always felt that there was some predictive character to music, like attali writes in noise, that music is a mirror of society, and anticipatory.
Maybe a distorted mirror? How do we situate a sound if it is a reflection, a predictive inverse of our own images..

I am not sure that this conference coming up,
called architecture and situated technologies
will directly address this, but there are some excellent speakers and presentations planned…

a blurb:

Architecture and Situated Technologies

A 3-day symposium bringing together researchers and practitioners from art, architecture, technology and sociology to explore the emerging role of “situated” technologies in the design and inhabitation of the contemporary metapolis.
the lineup is large, but it includes these folks:

Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Usman Haque
Natalie Jeremijenko
Karmen Franinovic
Anne Galloway

organized by:

Omar Khan
Trebor Scholz
Mark Shepard
Oct 19 and 20
The Urban Center
457 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10022

Oct 21
Eyebeam
540 W. 21st Street
New York, NY 10011

think it’s best to try to register in advance, so sayeth the voices from the site…

In the the interior of the northeast of Brazil, there is a region known as the sertão. It is very similar in geography to the semi-arid deserts of California. When it rains, it is very fertile. However, there are areas that see little to no rain for 2 or 3 years at a time. Secas (droughts) drive many out. However, countless millions stay as well, learning to live with almost nothing.

The music from this region is diverse, but some of the oldest non-indegenous music comes not from west africa (as in the case with axé or afoxé, or some characteristics of samba) but from the north of africa and the middle east, from the moors and sephardic jews who were the among first settlers in Brazil.

Basic sustenance in the northeast has long involved cattle.
The cattle call is called an aboio (pronounced “ah-BOY-o” (boi means cow)).
The scale is said to be moorish, and can be better understood in terms of its tonal center, its maqam, or “place”, than its defined rhythm. Some maquam that have distinct scales for particular emotions are, for example, “Saba: sadness and pain. Hijaz: distant desert, Sīkah: love.”

I do not know what maquam the aboio comes from. We could analyze it, but perhaps much is lost in translation from old world to new, from arabic to portuguese, and over time.
When I asked Sr. Manoel from Natal, who is a marrano jew (a new christian who has come forth to declare his/her jewish heritage), he said he heard a lament, a longing, saudades, in the aboio. He also said he heard hope.

The aboio is still used every day in Brazil.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (28)