20 cm of Sound

Concerts: Negative Friend and Palmovka

Do you have a musical instrument up to 20cm in size? Are you interested in making your own instrument or do you collect them? Come show off at Berlinskej Model at the first of a series of workshops entitled Sounds & Crafts. Whoever would like can introduce their instrument and say something about it, but it’s also enough to just come with your instrument and present it to others through a system of interconnected headphones.

Sounds & Crafts

Sounds & Crafts, the name of the workshop and concert series, comes out of the English phrase “Arts & Crafts” from the end of the 19th century put forth by John Ruskin and William Morris. In the same way that they wanted to influence industrial production with fine arts, so too can we approach sound experimentally rather than merely classically (academically). After all, music is not created only by those who precisely are able to play an instrument, but also by those who are fascinated by sound and have decided to work with this form in a manner distinct from the classical one. In doing so, they are able to perhaps enrich this old approach with something new.

These individuals come out of a line of visual artists, designers and perhaps people who are interested in creating electronic instruments or their collection. The paraphrase on “Arts & Crafts” is therefore very loose since most of these artists/musicians are politically against its commodification. In radical cases they may not even record and only improvise during live performances. Of course this means that this experimental/radical music may be “sold” for example, to films or commercials, losing their origin and authenticity and becoming mainstream.

The series of workshops Sounds & Crafts aims to present a wider audience with various approaches and forms in working with sound and is generated from through concerts, lectures and workshops during which the visitor is able to “feel up” and listen to instruments which are not readily available and perhaps make some of their own instruments.

The program will also include the meeting of collectors of old analog instruments or musicians active in the field of electronic music. We are also, thanks to our wide range of contacts, connected to a variety of audiovisual artists. In this way, we are not limited only to sound but are also involved in its connection with a visual component (VJing or open source programs such as Max MSP).

We would like to create a dialogue between DIY creators and musicians, music theorists and visual artists. As a result the workshop is not limited only to artists but is available to the wider public as well as experts in the field. We would like to demythologize the problematics of experimental work and connect visitors to a discourse on this topic. “Whatever experiment, I know just what I’m doing” John Cage Bring your cables and headphones!