Pablo Diserens is currently the digital resident of TBA21’s Ocean-Archive and ocean comm/uni/ty. In the time during which Pablo will become a critter of the Ocean Archive’s digital ecosystem, they will foster communal sonic sensitivities and intertidal dwellings through a constellation of creative happenings, workshop, and storytelling. With the practice of field recording and attentive listening at its core, the residency’s tentacular project will aim to offer multifarious ways of engaging with aqueous environments.

LISTENING SESSION

~ listening session of the communal sound piece (APRIL 11th, 2023 - 19:00 CET)
As part of their Ocean-Archive digital residency, Pablo Diserens invited the ocean comm/uni/ty to submit sounds from various aqueous environments. More than 30 submissions were received and woven into a long-form sound composition that navigates between the multiplicity of the water cycle as a sounding body. During this online meeting, we will listen to, discuss and title the piece collectively. This will also be a space for creative thinking, feedback and questions. 

> Zoom link (only operational on April 11th, 19:00 CET ~ free to join)
~ requirements: please join the online workshop with a pair of headphones, earphones or speakers, and from a quiet environment.

OPEN CALL for submission

~ send sounds from aqueous environments to Pablo (Deadline ~ FEBRUARY 19th, 2023)
As part of the residency, Pablo Diserens invites the ocean comm/uni/ty (and external oceanic enthusiasts) to a synchronized aqueous listening, sound gathering and composition. This open call aims to collect sound recordings from various wet ecologies while stimulating listening and field recording gestures regardless of any previous experiences. To engage in a collective liquid attuning, you are all invited to venture outside in quest of sonic and watery encounters, and make sound recordings.

In resonance with Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice and Rachel Carson’s exploration of the intertidal zone in The Edge of the Sea, this project proposes a focus on attentive listening as a way of engaging and existing with the water cycle. You are encouraged to listen to the ocean, ponds, rivers, glaciers, and the broader water cycle of which they are a part. Listen to the continuous movement of water and the environments it creates, the species it harbors, its fauna, flora, phenomena, geologies, and technologies. Find the sounds that articulate and describe these zones and encounters — sounds that affect you — and record them.

Pablo will then proceed to manipulate and weave the collected material into a long-form sound piece that navigates between the multiplicity of the water cycle as a sounding body. Finally, Pablo and the ocean comm/uni/ty will listen to, discuss and title the piece collectively during an online meeting in the spring of 2023. After that, the communal creation will be made available publicly on the Ocean-Archive.

By stimulating shared listening and attuning practices, Pablo aims to develop a sense of interconnectedness by blurring the boundaries between species as well as environments. Here, experiencing aqueous biomes both individually and collectively acts as a way of rethinking our relationships with the world. Despite these being mostly solitary experiences, Pablo believes that field recording and attentive listening are communal and environmental practices that form gateways for earthly synchronicity and world mapping in time and space. Thus listening in turn can become a political act that sparks emotional bonds with the world and its biotic communities.

> practicality
There is no particular level or previous experience needed, nor quality standards to respect. You can record with any sound recording technology you have access to (i.e. your phone, computer, microphones, field recorder, etc.).

> details
• Submission: 1 to 3 sound recordings (each between 3 and 15 minutes)
+ short descriptive text describing the sound source(s) + pictures (optional)
• Formats: WAV files ideally — but AIFF and MP3 work as well + PDF or body of email + JPG
• Submission deadline: February 19th, 2023 → via Wetransfer (or the like) to diserenspablo[at]gmail.com
• Each partcipant will be credited + the final piece will be shared under Creative Commons on ocean-archive.org
• You’re invited to join the ocean comm/uni/ty to have easy access to udpates related to the project

WORKSHOP

~ Briny Listenings: field recording and ecoattuning (JANUARY 26th, 2023 - 18:30 CET)
As a complementary happening to support their open call, Pablo Diserens will give a workshop on field recording and ecoattuning methodologies. The workshop will present various microphonic technologies and techniques, as well as ways of rethinking our place in an environment in order to attune to it and its soundscape. They will share influential field recording practitioners' frameworks and how their ideas have informed the discipline. Pablo will also discuss their field experiences while sharing some of the sonic encounters they’ve made in marine and aqueous ecosystems. This might also blossom into a playground for acoustic discoveries and curiosity as they share sounds that some might have never heard. 

ABOUT

~ Pablo’s residency project
Watch an introductory discussion between Pablo Diserens and Fiona Middleton




~ TBA21 & the ocean comm/uni/ty
TBA21–Academy is a contemporary art organization and cultural ecosystem fostering a deeper relationship to the Ocean through the lens of art to inspire care and action. Within TBA21’s digital ecosystem, the ocean comm/uni/ty is a meeting place for diving deep and crossing disciplines. The plaltform offers a space for researchers of all stripes, artistic/creative practitioners & ocean lovers to exchange and seek inspiration; to share and promote their work; to spark and maintain collaborations.