Another month, another set of weekly One-Minute Vacations, courtesy of Aaron Ximm‘s quietamerican.org site. Each Monday, more or less, Ximm posts 60-second audio snapshots recorded around the world and contributed by a growing assortment of volunteers. Highlights in July included a thunderstorm caught on tape in northern Italy (MP3) by Joseph Young (“using Soundman OKM binaural microphones and a Sony MZ-N707 minidisc recorder,” he reports) and an extended scene at a temple in Nara, Japan (MP3), courtesy of Ari Noguchi, who writes … well, he describes the scenario at length on Ximm’s site, but it’s probably preferable to listen to it through at least once before having what actually occurred spelled out for you. While the thunderstorm is self-evident, the Nara sequence is not. Both are elegant real-time sound events with the shape, in retrospect, of compositions. (The Nara is also unique in that it’s one and a half minutes in length.) These One-Minute Vacation entries are worth checking out regularly, and Ximm has added a podcast feature for those looking to access them automatically. One thing of interest about the entries is that while they seem to pass so quickly as to evade attention, they last much longer if you watch the seconds tick by on your MP3 player. Of course, better yet to close your eyes and drift away for a minute. More info at quietamerican.org/vacation.html.
Current Activities
Upcoming
• February 5, 2020: The first session of the 15-week course I teach at the Academy of Art about the role of sound in the media landscape.
• April 15, 2020: A chapter on the Disquiet Junto ("The Disquiet Junto as an Online Community of Practice," by Ethan Hein) appears in the forthcoming book The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning (Oxford University Press), edited by Stephanie Horsley, Janice Waldron, and Kari Veblen. (Details at oup.com.)
• December 13, 2020: This day marks the 24th anniversary of Disquiet.com.
• January 7, 2021: This day marks the 9th anniversary of the start of the Disquiet Junto music community.Dates TBA
• There are entries on the Disquiet Junto in the forthcoming book The Music Production Cookbook: Ready-made Recipes for the Classroom (Oxford University Press), edited by Adam Patrick Bell. Ethan Hein wrote one, and I did, too.
• At least two live group concerts by Disquiet Junto members in the San Francisco Bay Area are in the works for 2020.
• I have liner notes for a musician's solo album and an essay in a book about an art event due out. I'll announce as the release dates come into focus.Ongoing
• The Disquiet Junto series of weekly communal music projects explore constraints as a springboard for creativity and productivity. There is a new project each Thursday afternoon (California time), and it is due the following Monday at 11:59pm: disquiet.com/junto.
• My book on Aphex Twin's landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, was published as part of the 33 1/3 series, an imprint of Bloomsbury. It has been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018).
disquiet junto
Background
Since January 2012, the Disquiet Junto has been an ongoing weekly collaborative music-making community that employs creative constraints as a springboard for creativity. Subscribe to the announcement list (each Thursday), listen to tracks by participants from around the world, read the FAQ, and join in.Recent Projects
• 0456 / Line Up / The Assignment: Interpret a painting by Agnes Martin as if it were a graphic score.
• 0455 / Inner Invertebrate / The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?
• 0454 / Lsoo Vneg / The Assignment: Encode the name of someone you love into a piece of music.
• 0453 / Dial Up / The Assignment: Imagine the technologically mediated First Contact through sound.
• 0452 / Let's Scream / The Assignment: Get cathartic. Be resilient. Turn your scream into music.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 456 consecutive weeks to date.