In January 2018 London College of Communication’s Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice research group will present Large Objects Moving Air 2018 – a one day conference exploring the presence, agency and materiality of air from the microscale to macroscale, through both literal and figurative interpretations.
What comes to mind when one thinks about air? Air is everywhere and nowhere. It is a carrier of frequencies, energies, vibrations, toxins, pollutants and blast waves. It supports life and is a site of communication. It is clouds and The Cloud. Who owns it? Can it be owned? Who or what are the agents in the transmission and circulation of air? How does it circulate and what circulates within it?
The conference will include a range of prestigious and influential speakers, including keynotes J.R. Carpenter , Laura Cannell and Chris Watson.
The theme of the conference relates to works that reflect (but are not limited to) the following areas around the literal / metaphorical / abstracted examples of the movement of large bodies on a range of scales:
- Meteorology
- Acoustic ecology
- Nuclear culture and the military industrial complex
- Protest movements, propaganda and the voice
- Media Infrastructures
- Technocapitalism
- Bass and soundsystem culture
- Unsound / Infrasonics / Ultrasonics / EEG
- Atmospherics
J.R. Carpenter
Artist, writer and researcher
J. R. Carpenter is a Canadian-born UK-based artist, writer, performer, researcher, and maker of maps, zines, books, poetry, short fiction, long fiction, non-fiction, and non-linear, intertextual, hypermedia, and computer-generated narratives. Her pioneering works of digital literature have been exhibited, published, performed, and presented in journals, galleries, museums, and festivals around the world.
She is a winner of the CBC Quebec Writing Competition (2003 & 2005), the QWF Carte Blanche Quebec Award (2008), the Expozine Alternative Press Award for Best English Book (2008), the Dot Award for Digital Literature (2015), and the New Media Writing Prize (2016).
Laura Cannell
Musician, Specially Commissioned Bass Recorder Performance for LOMA
Laura studied at the London College of Music graduating with 1st class honours (Performance) and for her Masters at the University of East Anglia. She is the founder member of the innovative folk and early duo Horses Brawl have performed at the UK’s top music and arts festivals for nearly a decade.
She has appeared live in concert on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 6Music including performances on Late Junction, The Early Music Show, Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone and In Tune. She has also appeared on ITV, Sky Arts and BBC Four. She has released five albums to critical acclaim and was described as “A Virtuoso Magpie Musician” by The Times.
Chris Watson
BAFTA award-winning sound recordist
Chris is an English musician and sound recordist specialising in natural history. He was a founding member of the musical group Cabaret Voltaire, and Watson’s work as a wildlife sound recordist has covered television documentaries and experimental musical collaborations.
Chris is one of the world’s leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and for Touch he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. His sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined Tyne Tees Television. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio,
Chris specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.
Other speakers at Large Objects Moving Air will include: Fari Bradley, Angus Carlyle, Robert Curgenven, Julian Day, Sasha Engelmann, Matthew Flintham, Michael Guida, Sebastiane Hegarty, Hanna Husberg, Tim Meacham, Christian Mieves, Daryl Palmer, Sharon Phelan, David Prior & Frances Crow (liminal), Deanna Radford, David Strang, Julian Weaver and Anna Wolfe-Pauly.
Buy tickets for Loma 18 or find out more about the conference on the website.