The collective Escoitar.org will collaborate in the development of an audio-guide of the Cimadevilla (a district in the city of Gijón) based on GPS technology. The system (PDA, hand-held computer connected to several satellites) can be used by local residents while they walk through Cimadevilla and listen to real and fictional stories, and acoustic experiences associated with the place. This system can precisely locate the user, and tell you stories related to this specific space.
The idea behind Escoitar.org’s /No Tours/ workshop is to rediscover the city while analysing the value of sound as a form of engaging with today’s society. Focusing on the listening experience and the problems historically affecting sound, this workshop will examine the composition of a sound cartography of Cimadevilla made during a sound-walk with GPS technology. The workshop will conclude with the production of a work to be included in the exhibition /El Pasado en el Presente./
Escoitar.org is a cultural association from Galicia linked to a research group at the University of Vigo, whose priority goal is the promotion and encouragement of the sound phenomenon and active listening. This collective also promotes Aural Studies in Spain, a new field of knowledge which explores societies through the sounds it produces and
listens to. Anthropologists, musicologists, engineers and artists are involved, among other activities, in the preservation of sound memory, the acknowledgment of intangible cultural heritage, the encouragement of listeners’ involvement in the composition of the sound heritage and the field works, recording and contextualization of environmental sounds in the country.
Escoitar.org has worked all over the world offering their particular point of “hearing” (view) about sound experience and the potential of sound as a witness of history. One of their lines of works with the greatest impact is research into some of the hidden aspects of sound, and particularly of sound technologies of social control (and acoustic weapons). Escoitar.org has recently collaborated with the National Music Library of Mexico and ZKM (an art centre located in the south of Germany engaged in new media and digital culture).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Chiu Longina, anthropologist, sound artist and acoustic spaces creator, is also a member of the production team of IFI, the sound art festival held in Pontevedra, the collective SINSALaudio from Vigo, the association Alg-a and the Centre for Experimental Creation in Cuenca. Chiu Longina is also co-editor of the network projects
Mediateletipos.net and Artesonoro.org.
Juan-Gil López Rodríguez is musicologist who collaborates in the projects Mediateletipos.net and Artesonoro.org. He is involved in several research projects in the field of ethnomusicology and contemporary music.
Enrique Tomás is an engineer and composer of interactive sound systems interested in sound art and computer music. He has participated in festivals such as Ars Electronica, Sonar, Observatori, to name a few, and currently works in Futurelab and Ars Electronica.
This event is organised by LABoral in collaboration with Fundación Municipal de Cultura of Ayuntamiento de Gijón.