Choral, Public and Private Listener Responses to Hildegard Westerkamp's École Polytechnique

Hildegard Westerkamp's (1990) composition École Polytechnique is an artistic response to one of Canada's most profoundly disturbing mass murders, the 1989 slaying of fourteen women in Montreal, Quebec. Using the theoretical model, derived from Haraway, of the cyborg body, and analyzing the import of the mixed media (voices, instruments and electroacoustic tape) incorporated in the music, the authors examine the impact this work has had on some of those who have heard it and performed it, based on the responses of choristers and listeners in several studies. The authors explored how those who engaged significantly with the music, (including those who had no personal association with the actual events of the 1989 massacre), were able to make relevant connections between their own experience and the composition itself, embrace these connections and their disturbing resonances, and thereby experience meaningful emotional growth

Soundwalking and improvisation

Proponents of soundwalks have sometimes referred to the improvisational listening that is required in order to work with differing weather patterns, seasonal and other changes in the soundscape, as well as to shape the path of the soundwalker through the soundscape based on responses to auditory clues (see for instance McCartney 2005; Westerkamp 2006). However, public soundwalks are frequently conceptualized and planned in advance, with routes and activities laid out and adhered to by participants as a kind of score, circumscribing direct listening engagement with the soundscape. Similarly, audio walks, prepared headphone soundwalks and listening guides provide pre-conceived experiences for the audience. While listeners have been asked by soundscape researchers to think of the soundscape as a musical composition, what happens if we think of listening to the sound environment as an improvisational activity rather than as a composition? Does this not make more sense since the sound environment is never a fixed entity, never completely scoreable? Listening improvisationally makes particular sense for the mobile context of soundwalks, in which the motions of the soundwalkers create possibilities for changes of perspective through the space. In this article I wish to consider the various ways that soundwalking can benefit from improvisational thinking and practices during listening, framing of soundwalks, field recording, playing with recordings excerpted from soundwalks, playing with elements of soundwalks in improvisational movement, and inviting improvising musicians to create soundwalks

In and Out of Studio = Dedans et dehors du studio

In and out of the studio was a collaborative multimedia project which aimed to examine and document the working methods of several female sound producers, from a variety of media (such as radio, film sound, television, hypermedia, performance art) and in different institutional contexts. The website, which is compiled in this document, was one element in an effort to establish a greater sense of community among women sound producers who are separated by geographic space, occupation or disciplinary boundaries

In and Out of the Sound Studio Conference

From July 25 to 29, independent artists, professors and students from across North America and beyond delivered papers, gave lectures and performed their work in and around Montreal's Concordia University. The conference will included a number of concerts featuring the works of participants, and a keynote address by Hannah Bosma, who is researching women and electrovoal music in the Netherlands. The conference was part of In and Out of the Sound Studio, a collaborative multimedia project headed by Concordia professor Dr. Andra McCartney. The In and Out of the Sound Studio project attempts to establish a greater sense of community among women sound producers who are separated by geographic space, occupation or disciplinary boundaries. Along with the In and Out of the Sound Studio Web site (www.andrasound.org), this event aimed to make the working methods and philosophies of women sound producers accessible to emerging and established artists, as well as scholars in the fields of communication studies women's studies, cultural studies, media studies and music

Soundwalks

This document includes soundwalks done by Andra McCartney and others from 1997 to 1998

Letter from Yellowknife

Frozen Images/Single Shots: The tip of the iceberg

Gender, Genre and Electroacoustic Soundmaking Practices

This article is an exploration of how genres and practices of electroacoustic soundmaking are gendered, examining processes of gendering in language used in the early dichotomous categorization between musique concrète and elektronische Musik, then thinking about related arguments concerning abstraction, context, and compositional control in the writings of electroacoustic soundmakers including Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros, and several participants of the In and Out of the Sound Studio project. Analysis of their practices and ideas suggests different ways of conceptualising electroacoustic genres, their related practices, and roles of contemporary electroacoustic soundmakers (composers, artists, producers, mixers, audiences...), by examining the potentials of the concepts of empathetic knowledge and ecological thinking advanced by feminist epistemologist Lorraine Code.Cet article est une exploration des rapports sociaux de genre (« genrification ») dans les différents types et pratiques de création sonore électroacoustique, étudiant les procédés de « genrification » du niveau de langage utilisé dans les premières catégorisations dichotomiques entre la musique concrète et l’elektronische Musik,puis se penchant sur les arguments apparentés portent sur l’abstraction, le contexte et le contrôle compositionnel que l’on retrouve dans les écrits des créateurs électroacoustiques tels Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros et plusieurs participants du projet Dedans/Dehors du studio. L’analyse de leurs pratiques et de leurs idées suggère différentes manières de conceptualiser les genres de l’électroacoustique, leurs pratiques connexes et les rôles des créateurs sonores contemporains en électroacoustique (compositeurs, artistes, producteurs, sonorisateurs, auditoires...), en examinant les potentialités des concepts de connaissance compréhensive et de pensée écologique, termes proposés par l’épistémologiste féministe Lorraine Code