Sound Recording in Fluid Environments

Instructors: Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon

Dates: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
+ Saturday, October 30, 2010, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

135$ + 30$ for materials (Plexiglas, jacks, piezo, etc.)

This workshop will take the form of listening to sounds in fluid environments using hydrophones. The hydrophone is a recording device capable of picking up acoustic signals in fluid environments comparable to a microphone in a gaseous milieu. Three-quarters of the planet is under water, a source of great fascination for all of us. This world, which seems to us to be “full of silence”, is anything but silent and is in fact, home to a dynamic acoustic environment.

Course Outline:
A quest in search of sub-aquatic sounds. Domestic and marine sub-aquatic environments seen from the point of view of their sounds. Listening to the elements. Ambient noises generated by motorised marine traffic—pleasure crafts, oil tankers, cargo ships, sea-doos and by earthquakes, ice breaking up, waves, lightning hitting water and drops of rain hitting the surface of the ocean. What are the sounds generated by swimmers in a public pool, the sounds of water filters and fish in an aquarium, the noises created by washing dishes in a sink, by washing your body in the bath, of rain in a barrel, of the underwater environment of a sewer or a port?

We all know, empirically at least, that we can hear under water. But because we do not live with our heads under water, our ears are less adapted to the sounds of the sub-aquatic milieu, which seems alien to us, or at least unfamiliar. As a result, the discovery of the acoustic signals of oceans, lakes, rivers and domestic and urban environments mentioned above bring to the fore social baggage with potential metaphors to be explored by our aerial ears.

Playful gestures with fluid matter. Recording micro events. Listening to these phenomena and obtaining a sensorial experience. Listening to human interactions under water. Building home-made hydrophones. Mono and stereo recordings. The specificities of these micro events. Moving back and forth between the documentary aspect and the human imagination. An intuitive cartography.

Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon:
Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon are a duo of multidisciplinary artists who live and work in Montreal. They work in the fields of sculpture, kinetic installation, electronic art, sound art and performance. Animated objects and their aural components have been part of their work of artistic enquiry and creation since their very first installation. They are interested in listening as a form of resonance in itself (within resonance is its source and its reception alike), in sounds and noises generated by acoustic and other sources, in their propagation, in the effect they have and in the “things” and “empty spaces between things” that make up our field of perception.

Through a meshing of fleeting tensions between sight, touch and hearing, the duo creates installations which endeavour to make visible and audible the anecdotal elements of our everyday microcosm. The spatial environment and the motility or immobility of bodies which pass through both comes into play in their work. They inhabit space through sound and movement, bringing to light encounters between various elements and materials.

Their work has been shown both within Canada and abroad.

Here is an article about the workshop, written by a participant in the spring of 2010 on the artengine.ca website.

++ Men are very welcome on a space-available basis.

Information / Registration / Membership: 514 845-0289 | ateliers@studioxx.org