Sound is an interesting thing. Sounds can evoke emotions like happiness, anxiety, hope, and calmness. But what I find most interesting is how sound can evoke memories. One of my first memories of sound is my Mum playing the organ at church, laying down on the wooden pew and feeling bass in my whole body. Strong memories of family, connection and childhood – all from sound. In the latest episode of sustain, we are talking with Monica Sand – an artist and researcher based in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Monica has a long history of working with sounds and space. And most recently a project in Gothenburg exploring art, buildings, and human bodies as carriers of cultural memory. Today we chat about sound, memory, art, science, buildings, and bodies.

Bio

Monica Sand, artist and researcher with a PhD in artistic research, from the School of Architecture, KTH, Stockholm. Sand holds a position as Research Adviser at the Artistic Faculty, and affiliated researcher at the Academy of Music and Drama, at Gothenburg University. From 2011 until 2019 she was coordinating research at ArkDes, Stockholm. At KTH and during a postdoc at Konstfack (University College of Arts Crafts andDesign, Stockholm) she produced courses, walk-shops and lectures based on art and artistic research projects with a focus on collective actions in public space. Earlier art work took place in collaborations with different physics laboratories in Sweden and at CERN, the largest particle laboratory in Europe, Geneva: In between art and science and Acting Physics

Links

Playing the Space https://playingthespace.wordpress.com/

Matter Matters – Art, Buildings and Human Bodies as Carriers of Cultural Memory

https://playingthespace.wordpress.com/2023/12/18/en-bage-genom-tiden/

Matter Matters Sound Archive by Louisa Palmi https://palmi.org/The-Sound-Archive

Important message to the public, VMA: https://soundcloud.com/lur_arkdes/sarafranceschi-elegi-short

Forest Improvisations in the Uppsala Cathedral:

https://vimeo.com/55853657

City Experiments with students in an exhibition hall: Färgfabriken

https://vimeo.com/149003424?from=outro-embed

It sounds simple, but what is noise? Is it unwanted sounds? Is it a set of frequencies? Or is it something that is always around us but something we don’t usually notice? Today we talk with Felipe Vareshi about their compositions and performances that give voice to the quietest and most hidden forms of noise pollution that affect us as individuals and as groups coexisting within urban spaces. We talk about sound, noise, listening, and the potentials of sound as a medium for “possible” futures and of the artist as the enabler for these kind of possibilities.

Bio​

Felipe Vareschi is an Experimental Electronic Musician, Performer and Mastering Engineer based in Berlin. Their work explores the way people interact with each other through objects, with a particular focus on the interactions between individuals, technology and nature.

Felipe Vareschi is developing a new musical language where interactions between electronics, sound objects, performers, and installation sites mimic social interactions and human-object networks. Inspired by the physical and imaginary sounds of everyday life, Felipe aims to empower listeners to value and participate in the soundscape around them and embrace the noise of interconnected life.

Links

https://www.felipevareschi.com/

https://www.vareschimastering.com/

https://www.instagram.com/frmvar/

Your host

Steve Williams / drusnoise https://instagram.com/drusnoise

https://sustain.fm

So what is trash really? What is waste? How do we cut down how much we throw away? And what happens when we throw things away? Is that really the end of things? Many groups like Bye Bye Plastic and Clubtopia are thinking about questions like these; how to reduce waste in clubs and festivals, get rid of plastic water bottles and so on. But a different approach is to completely rethink the idea of waste and trash. Today I talk with Veerle Pennock and Etta Harbar from Utrecht in the Netherlands. They are live performers, teachers, makers, and hackers exploring the crossover between e-waste, art, music, and instruments and I am happy to talk more with them about their work and approach to sustainability. And we hear a recording of their heavy-hitting noisy trash music live at Voltage Control Amsterdam.

Show notes and links

Performance recordings featured:

Modulation, 16.07.2023, de Nijverheid Utrecht, NL

Voltage Control Amsterdam, 21.01.2024, Paradiso Amsterdam, NL

Parallel Problems https://www.instagram.com/parallelproblems/

Veerle Pennock https://veerlepennock.com/

Elektrotek https://www.instagram.com/elektortek/

Etta HarBar https://www.instagram.com/ettaharbar/

Acid Solder Club https://www.instagram.com/acidsolderclub/

Intergalactic Cyber Trash Collective https://www.dbstudio.nl/event/expo-opening-wreckage/ Voltage Control Amsterdam https://www.instagram.com/voltagecontrolamsterdam/

Modulation Utrecht https://www.instagram.com/modulationutrecht/

Bye Bye Plastic Foundation https://www.instagram.com/byebyeplasticlife/

Clubtopia https://www.instagram.com/clubtopia