Please note: this workshop is now full.
Join internationally renowned sound artists, Chris Watson and Tim Shaw, on a practical field recording workshop to collect sounds of nature and wildlife from the Fellfoot Forward scheme area.
This very special event will take place on high moorland near Talkin and Forest Head. Exact location here. Please note we will provide a different meeting point location.
Activities will include sound walking, recording techniques, microphone placement, environmental listening, and extended field recording approaches. Through different recording activities the artists will collect the diverse sounds from the different ecologies of this area. Listeners will be able to explore using air pressure microphones, hydrophones, contact microphones, parabolic reflectors, bat detectors, and geophones.
Participants will gain hands-on experience of the craft of field recording, location sound, and new ways of listening to our shared sound-scapes. It will include an afternoon/evening workshop on Thursday 4 May, starting at 2pm, and a (very) early morning dawn chorus workshop Friday 5 May, ending 9am.
Breakfast will be provided to all participants following the dawn chorus workshop on Friday 5 May. If you require overnight accommodation between Thursday 4 and Friday 5 May, we will be able to provide a nearby community hall or similar (in/near Talkin or Castle Carrock), at no extra cost. You will be required to bring your own bedding, sleeping bag/mat etc.
No previous experience is required. Bring your own recording equipment, if you have it.
We are able to offer this event at a heavily reduced rate (£20) through project funding. Places will be prioritised for artists and practitioners based in the Fellfoot Forward scheme area.
Itinerary:
Thursday 4th May
2pm – Participants arrive at location (to be confirmed) for intro and demonstrations
4pm – All participants take a mini bus to the main location for a sound walk
6pm – Dusk recording in secondary location
8pm – Break, return to base. Participants can return home or use provided shared accommodation
Friday 5th May
2.30am – Leave accommodation by minibus up to main location
3am – Be at main location ready for dawn chorus recording
7am – Breakfast at Hallbankgate Hub
Chris Watson
A freelance composer and sound recordist, Chris Watson has a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals and habitats from around the world. He specialises in creating spatial sound installations which feature a strong sense and spirit of place. His television work includes many programmes in the David Attenborough ‘Life’ series including ‘The Life of Birds’, which won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ in 1996, and as the location sound recordist for the BBC series ‘Frozen Planet’, which also won a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Factual Sound’ (2012). Watson has recorded and featured in many BBC Radio 4 and World Service productions, including ‘The Wire’ which won him the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Broadcaster of The Year Award (2012). His music is regularly featured on the BBC Radio 3 programme ‘Late Junction’. He has also worked extensively for RTE Radio 1 on series such as ‘Sound Stories’
Tim Shaw
Tim Shaw, originally from Cumbria, is an artist working with sound, light and communication media. Presenting work through performances, installations and sound walks, Tim is interested in how affective environments can be constructed or explored using a diverse range of techniques and technologies. Working with field recordings, electronics, video, synthesis, sound objects, self-made hardware and DIY software his practice creatively appropriates communication technologies to explore how these devices change the way we experience the world. He presents work in galleries, forests, warehouses, caves, public spaces, festivals, museums, through residencies and cultural events both nationally and internationally. Tim is a Lecturer in Digital Media at Newcastle University and the co-curator of the Walking Festival of Sound.
Image credit: (c)Kate Humble
