WHAT IS THIS?

The Toronto Biennial and Hart House are seeking undergraduate students to participate in an experimental music and sound-art workshop organized by multidisciplinary artist and musician Christopher Willes, in collaboration with artist/DJ Akash Bansal. Participants will experience a facilitated process to collectively remix rare vinyl recordings of avant-garde music from the 1970’s in Toronto, and in doing so create new sonic artwork together. The result will be shared in an open rehearsal/performance event presented as part of the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art on November 7th.

We are seeking six first and second year undergraduate students to participate. Participants should have a keen interest in experimental music and performance, and/or collaborative, interdisciplinary, and experimental forms of art making. A formal background in music or proficiency with a musical instrument is not required.

WHEN & WHERE
  • Wednesday, October 30, 12 – 3pm: Workshop #1
  • Thursday, October 31, 12 – 3pm: Workshop #2
  • Friday, November 1, 12 – 3pm: Workshop #3
  • Thursday, November 7, 3 – 4pm (Workshop #4)
  • Thursday, November 7, 5 – 7pm: Concluding Public Event

All events will take place at Hart House, located at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus.

Learn more about the Concluding Public Event: Six Turntables.

* Participation in the performance event and at least three workshop dates is required.

ABOUT THE PROCESS

The workshops are co-facilitated by artist/musician Christopher Willes and artist/DJ Akash Bansal. In each session a group of young artists are brought together to listen to, reflect on and remix recordings of 1970’s “Canadian” avant-garde music found in the Toronto Reference Library’s vinyl record collection and the Canadian Music Centre. Drawing techniques of early electronic music, sonic meditation, turntablism, and Fluxus event scores, the workshops explore practices of collective listening that treat records not as commodity objects but as shared experiences.

The sessions will involve hands-on, creative approaches to sound-arts practice. We will explore the use of turntables as creative instruments, create graphic scores, develop improvisations and collaborative and experimental music making systems. Using custom made vinyl records as our raw materials–– onto which the artists have pressed archival recordings––participants will be guided to develop ways of physically transforming fragments of the collection into new sonic compositions together. In this concluding public event, the group will stage a sound performance/installation that shares aspects of the process, enacted through a series of listening exercises using six turntables and a mobile loudspeaker system.

ACCESSIBILITY

Participants will be using their hands to manipulate audio devices (turntables and amplifiers etc) during sessions. Chairs will be provided, and accommodations will be supplied by those who request it in consultation with the organizers. The process will be facilitated in English, and involve listening to sounds, discussion, writing, and drawing.

The facilitators of this project recognize that processes of artistic creation and learning are not distinct from issues of social justice, democracy, and community cohesion. Therefore active listening, care, consent, and responsibility to the group are values that we will continuously work to centre throughout the project. We commit to fostering a space that follows principles of anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, and inclusion.

All sessions will take place at Hart House. All events are supported by Toronto Biennial of Art and Hart House staff. The sessions will follow all public health guidelines and protocols for COVID related health and safety.

APPLY HERE
Deadline: October 4, 2024

Applications involve sharing the following:

  • Name
  • Contact
  • Age & Pronouns
  • Program of study
  • Are you available for all the workshop dates?
  • Tell us a bit about yourself and/or artistic background / interest (max. 300 words)
  • Favourite web link (something that shares your aesthetic), and tell us a bit about why you shared this (max. 50 words)
  • Optional: link to artistic project you created or contributed to, and tell us a bit about why you shared this (max. 50 words)
  • Optional: Do you have any accessibility needs you would like to share?
  • Optional: Do you have any food allergies or preferences you would like to share?

Please feel free to write with questions: Roxanne Fernandes, Public Programs, Production Manager, Toronto Biennial of Art, rfernandes@torontobiennial.org.

ADDITIONAL INFO

This workshop will be considered as a Co-Curricular Record (CCR) activity for UofT student participants. All participants will also receive a $250 honorarium for participation in the workshops and performance event. 

We encourage those individuals of non-conforming gender and sexual orientations, individuals with disabilities, Indigenous people, people of colour, and all groups protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code to apply. Accommodation will be provided for those who request it, organized in consultation with the Toronto Biennial of Art and Hart House.

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

Christopher Willes is an artist, musician/composer and facilitator based in Toronto and Montreal. His interdisciplinary work focuses on practices of listening, exploring their intricacies and effects across a variety of art forms and socially engaged activities. He makes performances, music/sound, exhibitions, recordings and publications, print and web-based works, while also organizing community arts projects, workshops and other experimental gatherings. His work has been presented in Canada, the USA, UK, Europe and Japan.

Recent projects include Resonance Gathering (2023), a collective publication on the work of celebrated avant garde composer Pauline Oliveros, and MANUAL (2022), a one-on-one performance that is staged covertly in public libraries and which continues to tour internationally. He is also an associate artist and artistic producer of Public Recordings, a collectively run non-profit organization in Tkaronto-Toronto that develops interdisciplinary performance works by a team of artists. With Public Recordings, he devised What’s Collective?, an itinerant workshop about collective practices that has been shared in Ontario, Quebec, and Scotland.

Christopher studied Music at the University of Toronto and holds an MFA from Bard College.He is a MacDowell Fellow (USA), and an affiliated researcher at the Milieux Institute of Concordia University. Christopher is currently completing studies in Conflict Mediation at the University of Waterloo, and he brings this learning to his work as a facilitator.

Akash Bansal is an artist from Toronto. Rooted in cinema, sound and poetics, they practice in multi-dimensional forms. They work as a curator, DJ, sound artist, dramaturge, filmmaker, (story) editor, writer, production coordinator, sound technician and facilitator. Their work examines borders— both real and imagined, between people and places, and especially those within ourselves. Over the years, they have worked with countless organizations including The Music Gallery, Standard Time, Toronto Dance Theatre, TO Love In, MOCA, Nuit Blanche, Toronto Public Library, The Ace Hotel, Art Spin, Seance Centre, Swimmers Group, The AFC, SummerWorks and more. In 2017, they completed a BFA Double Major in Screenwriting and Poetry.