Sound and Social Practice Pt. 1

As an artist working with our ability to listen. I recently transfered into a Project. For this Project i managed to secure funding from the European Social Fund. It was very impressive for me to find open ears to the subject of sound and social practice and was rewarded with a decent sum of money to create an audio-book with various parts of a community here in Weimar, the place i am living in at this point in time. There is a seperate Blog for this ( only in German though): www.unerhoert.blogspot.com
It is a magnificent opportunity and you will find my thoughts towards this subject as i go along doing the work.

alexandre

Re:organising -

i was thinking about this blog for a while and i came to the conclusion that its too much about
me personally. This is not what i want. My girlfriend told me thats what musicians do.. they seem
to want to publish everything about themselves and that is true to some extend. So i decided that the more diary like stuff - i can publish that under the myspace blog part. This blog is hopefully going to become more what the title promises: A blog about the art of listening. I still want to includevthe parts that tell a little about how I apply this professionallly. Its just that it is going to become, in need of a better word, a little more official. Whatever that might be ... We shall see : )

thanks for listening, blog !

Back after a while ...

I have been absent from these pages for quite some time. A lot happened in between, but first things first... Here are the fotos that i mentioned in my last post :

this is me on the right side playing with dr. jammm : )

whats new ?

hey hey hey.. so the installtion is runnig fine i heard from marcus. me, i had a flu
these days : ) a week after the opening i played a small gig of a kind of experimental music here in weimar with four musicians (trombone, voice, bass and guitar) at an andy warhol tribute night.. if i ever come across some pics in time i shall put them up here.. it was a lot of fun and a great night out...after which i fell ill.. i am happy to realize an opening of an exhibtion in one weekend and then play a gig at the next and still keep a decent level of quality if i pay attention to the feedback of people at both events.. the gig was paid as well, so that helped me finish the month : ))) so whats next ? my focus is slowly shifting to the project here in weimar: " Weimar West - (un)erhört".. yesterday we all met with the board of trustees who generously support the project and it went quite well.. it was great to be able to talk to people in that kind of position about the art of listening and to bring it to their attention.. they are only small regional board who grants money from the european social funds to projects in their region, but still it was quite a new experience and i was slightly nervous about it.. afterwards i noticed that there was not a singel need for this. the people from the board were actually quite human and friendly and curious about the work that i am doing.. they were also a bit impressed to find this kind of thing a part of their thing.. it was important for me to learn that its always best to speak straight up and not try to impress, but stick to whats the facts.. also there is no need to be shy about anything in front of these kind of people, but rather openness helps a lot and putting any prejudice aside.. i think that this way at least you will not get paranoid about them seeing you as weird....i will post a link to the project but bear in mind it is all going to be written in german, since it is project here in weimar and it communicates mainly to the people involved locally .. then also up next is one or two gigs in berlin at the end
of march... tell you more about it later ! bad news is.. merete and me did not get the residency at da kunsthaus kloster gravenhorst.. oh well.. we still have one more application out and will get together to send new ones out.. i also applied for a masters in fine arts in oslo and for a paid voluntary position at the zkm in karlsruhe.. just to have a go : )) at the minute i am very happy with freelance live, although its very tough some times.. anyways.. thanks for listening, blog !

best

alexandre

"Town Country House - a virtually real Soundwalk"

so here is a photo diary of the events..

i arrived in berlin on thursday. this is me on the way to takt..



the whole day i spent at takt.. so i had a picknick with neil mcintee,
who was a fellow artist from scotland..


this is how far i came on the first day, after i went
to stay at betty & joe's in prenzlberg (by the way, the
laptop shows meretes hand performing her everyday
wish on her sculpture "wishing well"..)..


this is joe, learning some image magic:


after a short night's sleep :


the next day i worked the whole day in takt again and was almost done
with the piece...here it is on the night of the second day..

...in the night i went to visit my old flatmate sarah and
her boyfriend patrick and their little son robin.. robin convinced me
to stay for the night so the next day so in the morning we took pictures together:




its amazing.. he said he wanted to take picures of light.. so i did the first one that
has the disco mirror ball in it.. the other one robin took himself.. it was so amazing
to see how unintentionally and through playing around with the flash he had actually
created exactly what he said he wanted to photograph.....

the next day i finished the piece of and merete came to berlin..
this is the piece, ready before the exhibiton.. pictures taken by merete.

you can see the sensor on the shelf, together with the laptop and the transmitter.
closer by are the headphones hanging next to a sheet of paper that had a
brief explanation written on it. you can also see on the floor that i had
an area defined that people could use to wander throught he four individual
soundscapes that i had composed for the installtion.

this is a closer view of the shelf and the components that partially
make up "town country house - a virtually real soundwalk" ..


and another one:


i was overwhelmed by the amount of people who turned up... this
is a picure taken shortly after peak time:


...lots of friends turned up.. wonderful surprises.. this is rainer heesch,
who i lived with in england... i had not seen him since 3 years..


and this is me with uli bentele, who i went to school with from 1st til
7th grade and who i had not seen since 1999..


me and betty, who i stayed with on thursday, who i have known
for 10 years at least..

after all this self-related issues.. here is an image of the piece of
miguel and stefan.. a device that listens to your breath and
controls a database of sounds, all related to sex, masturbation and
intercourse..


and last but not least some impressions from people listening to the piece:




on the last image you see elke, who together with her boyfriend
phillipe put merete and me up for the night : )

the piece is still up until the 31st of march.. you can drop by takt
gallery every thursday and sunday.. have a listen and tell me what
you think .. : )


thanks blog for listening and watching !!!

alexandre

Opening at takt.

i cant believe.. its done. i call the piece "town country house - a virtually
real soundwalk" .. it came to me while working in the workshop in coudraystr..
the presentation was ace and it gave me great confidence that robin minard
really liked the piece and said i should not worry.. then i went to berlin on thursday to install the piece. i thought it would take little time but actually it was a lot more time consuming
than i thought. when it was done i felt quite good. i also proved mzself right by giving myself
enough time that it is important to make sure ou have enough time when you set something
up that has to work and look right... tomorrow i shall post some lovely images of the different
stages and also some pictures of the piece in action and the opening itself.. this was a little
crazy for me, since all of a sudden i met people that i hadnt seen in years !! anyways.. i shall
leave you with me as a happy man for now.. this picture was taken by merete in front of
the gallery just after i finished the piece and we went out for a meal

.. thanks for listening, blog !
alexandre

A day in Q3

these are some images of today:


this was the initial set up.. you can see the soundbeam sensor and on the floor is the soundbeam box and the laptop and further back is the transmitter for the wireless headphones..



this is the frontal view.. same stuff ..



hello.. this is me checking with headphones on .. "merete can you see me ?"



in the end i rearranged everything for a presentation tomorrow.. i will show the piece to colleges at the colloqium of composers at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music Weimar..



...and a final close up of the sensor ... you cant see him on these
images , but thanks a lot to hanns holger rutz for being a genius on implementing
more realistic algorithms in this installation and for generally
having a very productive day ... thanks for watching, blog !!!!

alexandre

installation at takt berlin

hey.. this week is all about the installation in berlin.. last week i was taking some pretty good recordings which i worked into a pure data patch.. means i developped a software application in an open source audio tool for the installation. .. what is the piece about ? as you can imagine it is
a piece about listening.. very very simple.. the idea is to project four phongraphic images into space.. you can hear these images through wireless headphones and walk throught them, slowly listening how the images change into one another.. this is done with a soundbeam sensor, a wireless headphone and a laptop computer.. this is the flyer for the show:


today im moving into a space kindly provided by the SeaM Weimar to test the sensor.. exciting.. while my enthusiasm for my work grows my bank account gets smaller and sometimes i wonder how everything will turn out and when i can stop thinking about how
it is possible to survive.. once the project in weimar west gets going i will be busier doing more
paid work again, which will do me good... for now this is purely for the love of it and that is exciting, but i also love getting paid for what i do : ) best not to worry, there are projects coming, applications pending and life to be lived !!! just have to be good with where i put the monkeys.. sorry if i bothered you with this, just had to get it off my chest .. : ) so. thats it for now.. for all the other listeneners who are in berlin, come to the show !!!!
thanks blog for listening !!

alexandre

hey blog,

things are starting to roll slowly.. i started the first phase of a project called weimar west
(un)erhört.. basically its a project that i came up with and developped it together with an urban planning office and a kind of neighbourhood centre and includes several
local institutions (e.g. youth club, box club etx... ) and a local school to create an
audio/listening book about this part of weimar called weimar west... it is amazing that this is possible and about to happen ! im so happy.. also about the support i get from everybody in weimar west. amazing ..

all the applications are sent...now its looking forward to an answer and develop new ones soon !
first though i have to concentrate on an exhibition i will be taking part in on the 17th of february..
in berlin.. yes ! it is happening. i got the eflyer today, so it is definetely going to happen..
will update some pics soon, if i understand how to do this with this blog.. more in the pipeline..
ah, before i forget.. roger hill and i were turned down by the arts council.. there was not a
public benefit and wide enough appeal in our application.. also the financial planning was not
sufficient enough.. maybe it helps somebody who writes an application for them.. i have one
successful one, if youre interested in reading it.. well .. have to do boring things now..
thanks blog for listening !!!

alexandre

piano pieces on myspace II

i just added piano piece nr.4 on myspace. it is the last piece of the
piano cycles...

tara, blog

alexandre

Dear blog,

uffiduffi, the proposal is almost done .. i have to fine fine fine tune it and then it only needs
a budget and schedule. the schedule itself is almost done as well. its quite a bit of work this proposal.. it took me more than a week just to fix the written part. this is five pages.. not even..i think its worth it... i could not have made it without the help of elke, though. elke gehweiler.. she is a friend who lives in berlin with her boyfriend phillip and justus, the dog. they are lovely and she is crazy about words so she knows a lot about how to put them together, thank god ! .. i will let you know when i hand it in.. oh, i also did a quick run on a proposal for a residency in schöppingen in germany: http://www.stiftung-kuenstlerdorf.de .. there deadline was yesterday..(their website is helpful if you are looking for artist's residencies in germany, not as good as the goethe institute, but still very, very helpful) .... it felt good to send something on its way.. i like the excitement to wait for the results of a residency or a grant. i also noticed that it is quite good always to have at least two applications on the go. this means while you are waiting you write new ones and if you do not get one, than it does not matter, because you still have at least one more out. so you can always look out for better news. last year, in 2006 i wrote nine proposals. the result is one
got through and i can do a major project, which is nice and with another one i got invited with my partner merete röstad to an idea's weekend at this place gravenhorst, which is why i am writing a second proposal.. so the rate for me is 1.5 out of 9. i had to learn to get rejected and see that its a lot of hard work that you dont get paid for. at least you get better at writing, structuring your thoughts, talking and writing about your artwork.. and you get through it also lets you do wonderful things. fair enough so far.
i also realised that the more attention to detail you give to a proposal, the more likely it is that you are accepted. this means by making it look professional. so the person gets all the information right there...also if you have an idea, that seems strong, but is not planned exactly to the very least detail.. and as for residencies i think
it also has to do, if you feel that there is something that you can give, as a friend of mine pointed out.. there is still a lot more to it, but this is what comes out of me.. dear blog, i
got completely distracted here.. i thought i would talk to you about listening art.. instead
i go on about proposals... oh well.. just cross your fingers for me, that it will go well..
thanks for listening, blog !

alexandre

next post

i have to concentrate on the proposal for the next couple
of days, so i will not be posting any news.
the next post will be about the subject of listening art
itself..

take care

alexandre

what do i do ?

so what do i do these days ?

i am writing an application for the Da Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst (http://www.da-kunsthaus.de). Together with my Partner
Merete Rostad i am working on a Proposal for their Residency Programme 2007.
We already got through to the second round and get a little money to write a second,
more detailed proposal. More later.

Then i am working on a piece for an exhibition in Berlin in February 2007. Location
and dates to be confirmed on this site.

I am also working with little children once a week at the Music and Art School in Jena.

Last but not least i managed to raise a substantial sum to fund a project to make an
audiobook with the community of people in weimar west, a part of the city of weimar where
i live these days... detailed information when the thing gets going ..

Together with Live Artist Roger Hill i proposed a collabourative project in Liverpool to the
Arts Council of England and now i hope to raise money to take the piece to Germany..

Last but not least i am hoping to put in more proposals for this year to the Sonic Arts Expo 2007 and a Residency Programme in Germany..
So I guess my Goal for 2008 is to bundle my energies and focus and less projects ?

Anyways.. wish me luck and i keep you up to date with any new developments !!

alexandre

modes of uses

last night i thought of two things:
1) using this blog as my diary and documentation, so in a year
i can look back at different thoughts.. i think i will also put different blogs up for the different
pieces im working on to be able to put down more general information..
2) i also want to start posting information on the professional side of things:
how does it anctually work to make a living as an artist.. in my case a sonic artist/listening artist/musician and what not.. more and more i discover that this is rarely discussed publicly and i think thats not very healthy.. so little by little i will share my experiences with this blog and gather useful information, so that hopefully in 2 years or so if someone comes across this blog they will get an idea where to start and what can be involved..

(to the readers information. i am currently in the process of establishing myself as an artist.. its very exciting and you can read more soon about where i am right now.. i also hope that this blog will help me to get rid of this worries, just by having somewhere to put them...)

alexandre

piano pieces on myspace

i am currently putting myself into myspace.. had
an interesting comment from phil morton (google for
frakture & liverpool to find about more about this artist's
activities): what does it mean to be on myspace ?
do we know ? i guess for many its fun, and all about representing
themselves.. dont know what it is going to be for me.. but i
find it strange somehow that its all about showing how many
friends you have and how cool you are.. i decided to use it as
a tool to make my doings listenable to a wider audience...
so today i added three pieces i did last year.
you can listen to them at www.myspace.com/alexandredecoupigny

love

alexandre

welcome,

i want to use this blog to write about my acitivities and adventures in the world of listening art. furthermore it wants to inform you about the art itself. listening art as i understand it, is where all sound and music related art meet: sound art, sonic art, electro-acoustic music and many many more.. it is basically all art that we can hear. it touches as such many other artforms like installation art, performance, theatre, live art etc..

image to the right created by andrea acosta