Creative Field Recording: Practicing Knowledge Through Sound

I’m super excited to lead this 3-day workshop at Uniondocs in Brooklyn, NY from February 14-16, 2020.  I have been involved in several of these in the past and they’re truly amazing events. Uniondocs has a great nurturing community and participants tend to keep in touch and share projects long after the workshop is over.

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In 1992, the anthropologist Steven Feld coined the term acoustemology, a combination of acoustics and epistemology to argue for “sound as a way of knowing.” In doing so it inquires into what is knowable, and how it becomes known, through sounding and listening.

In this three-day intensive workshop, lead instructor Zach Poff will use field recording to explore sound as a way of knowing that embraces phenomenology, relationality, and reflexivity. We will practice knowing through sound, listening with an ear toward the relationships between humans, non-humans, and processes that surround us. We will practice knowing with sound as we contribute our own gestures back into the network of sounding subjects through domains like radio, sound art, music, and film.

This workshop features listening sessions, hands-on recording demonstrations, introductions to novel sensors like contact microphones and hydrophones, and participatory and performative group work. Each session is anchored by a presentation from an invited guest artist: Viv Corringham, Bonnie Jones and Monteith McCollum.

Sound disrespects boundaries and connects disciplines so this workshop is open to anyone with a passion for sound: filmmakers, sound artists, podcasters, musicians, writers, or simply curious listeners.

Participants will get in-class experience with an array of professional recording equipment, but it will be beneficial to bring your own. Each day will conclude with opportunities for participant work-in-progress critiques.