Sound Art workshop for college students

Yesterday I gave my first workshop as an artist, to a group of about ten first year Btec students at Northenden College.

The workshop focused on modifying and manipulating records. To begin with I played some sounds from some records I use in my live performances – tin foil record; records with acetate, tape, glue, etc.; half-and-half records – and showed the group some of my ‘sound object’ records – record with dust; latex record mould; record wrapped in audio tape. I also passed round some of my sketch books.

After the demonstration, each member of the class was given an LP to mutilate, alter or modify in any way they chose. The response was great: some used lighters to melt the vinyl; clay, plaster, oil-pint, masking tape, tin-foil and fabric were added to various records; and some records were deliberately smashed and rejoined with tape.

The group seemed to really enjoy playing back their records and took turns in an impromptue back-to-back DJ set / performance of noise, crackles and snippets of music. We ended on a short discussion about how the class felt the workshop had gone.