Workshops | Joel DeStefano

Please contact me if you're curious about any of these workshops.

Listening Lab

What does it mean to “listen”?

This workshop explores ways of looking (or hearing) our way into this question and the unique ways sound mediates our experience of the world.

Goals:

-Develop more critical awareness of sounds, how we perceive them and their emotional and physical effects

-Develop skills to imagine sounds, hear them in the mind and to communicate them clearly and accurately

-Become more aware of sound making and the interrelationship between internal thought, perceived sound and the acoustic environment in which they are created

-Stretch aesthetic and creative boundaries in order listen critically.

Each workshop section is based on a specific topic, which may include:

Soundscapes/Environmental Sound

Language

Physical Acoustics

Recording technology

Notation

Sound Sculpture

Radio

Foley

Instrument Building

Software

Etc..

Each section will be taught through: directed listening, ensemble exercises, a demonstration and talk, experiential inquiries, technique, and creative/generative work.

Workshops can include any number of sections. 5 hours/section. In workshops longer than 4 sections, we'll work on original individual and ensemble sound-works with a recital demonstration at the end.

Adaptable for ages 10 and up. Max group size 10 participants.

Collaboration & Play

We’re going to get thoughtful and rigorous about playfulness.

We're going to enter a space with others and make something, from scratch, with no plan on what we'll be making or how we'll do it.

We’re going to explore working as a group to find innovative solutions and how we can organize our creative endeavours in non-hierarchical and non-coercive ways.

We’re going to think about ways we approach the material we work with, what meanings it holds for us, and how we can unravel, increase, change and develop the activity of making meanings as a group.

Our focus will be on the qualities of our exchanges and the process of making things together rather than achieving a specific outcome. We’ll strive for discovery.

Typically a 1 day workshop. 6-8 hours with a lunch break.

The morning session consists of ensemble work, trust exercises, open ended game playing and a discussion of collaborative methods

Participants will be introduced to a series of prompts they can select from.

The afternoon session begins with a discussion of our prompts, their affect, material, and function. The remainder of the workshop is spent creating things together, trading work and sharing ideas.

Adaptable for ages 10 and up. Max 20 participants.

Aural Histories

Your story in sound

These are 1-1 sessions where we discover your stories and their connection to place through the medium of sound.

We'll start with a preliminary conversation where we'll find out more about events and places that hold significance for you. You'll be sent an email with custom made prompts for journaling and pondering upon. When you're ready we'll schedule 3 onsite interviews and recording sessions at locations that pertain to the stories we've unravelled.

You'll receive easily sharable e-copies of the audio recording, written transcript, and subtitled video.