Schedule

Tuesdays, September 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th
1pm - 3pm EDT (NY time) // 7pm - 9pm CET (Berlin time)*
*EMEA-friendly time zone

Description

This course combines intuition, queer theory, and music production to explore sonic fictional worlds and energize the creative process. We will investigate ways to hack flow, while challenging and critiquing dominant production standards to engage in playful and imaginative sound exploration.

Using sound as a queer and feminist autoethnographic device, we will draw on our bodies and environments to reimagine and reclaim an authentic and playful creative practice. The course will highlight works by pioneering and contemporary theorists and musicians for inspiration. We will also discuss the barriers faced by gender-diverse artists, collaboratively imagining and creating queer/feminist alternatives in a supportive atmosphere.

Throughout the course, participants will develop a portfolio of exploratory works, receiving conceptual and technical feedback each week. Some experience with Ableton Live or a similar DAW is recommended but not required.

This course will take place virtually via Zoom. All sessions will be recorded and made available to participants.

Please note: ticket registration closes 30 minutes prior to event start time.
Syllabus
Week 1: CONNECTION → Hearing The Self and Environment

In the first week, we will focus on using the body and immediate environment as gateways to possibility and creativity. By moving away from conventional song structures and production techniques, we will center our body's situated knowledge and the surrounding soundscape. This approach will help us challenge our expectations, bringing presence, connection, and imagination to our creative practice. We will begin to dissolve our sense of self, exploring sensing and perceiving as modes of interrelated ways of being. Additionally, we will explore experimental vocalization techniques and possible uses of technology, including field recording and microphone placement, to deepen this practice.

Week 2: CHAOS → Destruction!

This week, we will explore the value of destruction and chaos, inviting the possibility of surprise into our creative practice. By deconstructing normative structures that don’t serve us and relearning a childlike, intuitive approach, we will unravel ourselves and our creations to build something new from the rubble. By resisting order and subverting expectations, we will use technology as a collaborator to discover facets of possibility and surprise. Rooted in musique concrète, we will experiment with techniques like disintegration loops, time warping, and granular delay to access an aural pluriverse from a single sound.

Week 3: COLLAGE - Reconstruction!

Branching off from last week’s exploration of chaos, we will examine the other side of “solve et coagula” — or deconstruct to reconstruct — by collaging a new work. Focusing on our sound sources and their dichotomies, we will discuss methods for developing a dialogue between source materials that is old/new, filthy/pristine, hi-fi/lo-fi, biological/technological, self/other, and more. This approach will help us create uncanny textures, surprising contrasts, and delightful similarities. We will also address the ethics of sampling and ownership, and explore techniques for honoring and/or transforming the original sound to make it our own.

Week 4: COLLABORATION - Becoming Together ⚘⚘

In the spirit of creating and evolving together, we will explore the vast possibilities of collaboration and its subversive potential. We will examine communication between past and future selves, across species, and a holistic, creative interdependence. Emphasizing collectivization and an abundance mindset, we recognize that our survival depends on these principles. How can we navigate a shared collaborative process more graciously, and what benefits arise from working together to discover new ways of being, thinking, and growing?

Hardware & Software Requirements

• Ableton Live 11 (Standards) or 12 (Standard, Suite, or Trial)
• Computer with the latest Zoom update
• Headphones or studio monitors
• A second screen (optional but recommended)

Please email us at hi@soundial.org with any questions about the equipment list.

Instructor Bio

Madelyn Byrd (they/them) is a Berlin-based musician, researcher, and curator. They have produced critically acclaimed albums, mixes, audiovisual works, collages, poetry, and social-praxis experiments. Madelyn holds a master’s in Neuroaesthetics from Goldsmiths, where they researched the impact of collaborative imagination on measures of connection and hope in social praxis art. Fostering dialogues between humans, non-humans, and new technologies, Madelyn’s overarching research integrates possiblia’s emotional and theoretical nodes to prefigure unconventional ways of being. 

Slowfoam is Madelyn’s all-encompassing sound project they DJ, produce, and perform under. Slowfoam traces the peripheries of ecology and technology, presence and possibility, and more-than-human connectedness. A tapestry of artefacts - drones, glitched-out textures, field recordings, obfuscated words, glossy sound design, off-kilter polyrhythms, electro-acoustics, and sparkling ephemera - convey a genre-defying paraworld. Their carefully crafted aural environments plunge listeners into paradoxical pools of deep meaning and obscurity, bubbling with transformative potential and the magic of the in-between.

Slowfoam is a former resident at Internet Public Radio, where they curated their monthly show, Our Tomorrow. They have released music on Jungle Gym Records (Los Angeles, USA), Lillerne Tapes (Chicago, USA), and Mappa (Lučenec, Slovakia) and Somewhere Press (Glasgow, SL), with whom they released Transcorporeal Portal, their debut LP in March 2024. Their music has yielded features on Bandcamp, Electronic Sound Mag, First Impressions, Pitchfork, Boomkat, The Wire Magazine, and Futurism Restated.

https://madelynbyrd.com/
@slowfoam
https://slowfoam.bandcamp.com/music
https://soundcloud.com/slowfoam
Contact
hi(at)soundial.org
Website: soundial.org
Instagram: @sound.ial
Cancellation Policy

Ticket holders have the option to cancel their reservations and receive a full refund if they do so at least 48 hours before the event starts. However, please note that any cancellation requests made within 48 hours of the event start time or after the event has already begun will not be honored.

If you're unable to attend but have a friend who'd love to take your spot, you can transfer your reservation to them before the class begins.

To request a cancellation, please send an email to hi(at)soundial.org with the subject line "Cancellation Request." In the email, include the following info:

• Your full name
• Date and time of the scheduled event

For eligible cancellation requests, we will initiate a refund to the original payment method used during registration. Please allow a processing time of 5-10 days for the refund to be processed.

Soundial reserves the right to cancel or reschedule events if necessary. Despite our best efforts, unforeseen circumstances such as technical issues or unavailability of instructors may arise, requiring adjustments to the event schedule. We will make every effort to notify you promptly and provide alternative options or refunds as needed.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in these situations!