STUDIOS

Such an understanding of art, which derives from its relationship with the perceived qualities of ordinary experience, would make it possible to identify those factors and forces that favor the normal transformation of ordinary human activities into aesthetic values
J. Dewey, Art as Experience

These words of John Dewey applied to the world of sounds are in line with John Cage’s idea of how this world worked. He promoted the idea that everything is music and every object can be an instrument. Everyday activities point us to a continuous and never ending music composition. We stop listening to it only when we direct our attention away from it. This, together with a phenomenological approach to the auditory world, best describes the Lab’s attitude.

The Lab specializes in sharing knowledge from the field of subjects included in the curriculum of Institute of Photography and Multimedia, such as:
- Audiosphere
- Sound Recording Techniques

Audiosphere Lab is an experimental sound studio stimulating and encouraging students to create their own projects within the broad spectrum of the art of sounds. Sound is seen as a constant element of our surroundings. Both: sound consciously perceived, having certain values and qualities ascribed to it, and sound subliminally interacting with our nervous system as vibration. The world of Audiosphere encompasses both those categories of sounds and makes them both the focus of research conducted in the Lab.

Perception of sounds has evolved over centuries. Until shortly before the 1950s there was a distinction between musical and nonmusical sounds. Today noise, hum and their derivatives are considered just as interesting as sounds generated with instruments and are used for different kinds of spatial auditory projects: from audioperformance, sound objects and installations to multichannel gallery studio compositions.

The Lab with its sound perception enhancing exercises helps to deepen understanding of the idea of sound, its build, physical qualities and to consciously manage sound structures and auditory qualities. As a result of such exercises students are able to create audio works using modern techniques of recording and generating sounds. These creations then have a visual layer added to them. During live performances students transform soundscapes and their environment with the use of new media.

The focus here is activities and lectures expanding auditory perception and knowledge of sound as our surroundings, consisting of soundcapes and sounds conceived, composed and generated electronically or acoustically. The education is to be utilized in artistic projects. Emphasis is placed on practical realisation of auditory ideas generated during classes, in the form of audioperformance (applicable to visual arts, music: new or experimental) presentation, multimedia show or radio play. To ensure diversified experience, the curriculum includes cooperation with schools and institutions representing other branches of work with sounds. Classes co-organized by Film School cover field recording. We can use anechoic chamber of European standard at Lodz University of Technology and students can display their work at festivals such as Musica Privata or on Radio Kapital.

Broad range of teaching methods includes:

- lectures open to discussion
- group listening and discussion of chosen works
- common practice of chosen methods of Deep Listening
- practice in conducting sound activities outside the Lab (Lodz University of Technology, Film School, cultural institutions)
- practising modern acoustic sound generation techniques
- practising modern electronic sound generation techniques
- sound seminars in artists’ workshops in Lodz
- public display of students’ works in the form of audioperformance, installations, objects at international festivals (Fotofestival, Musica Privata) or radio play (Radio Kapital)