Andra McCartney on soundscapes

Andra McCartney is a multimedia soundscape artist, composer, performer and poet. Currently she is working on 'Soundwalking Home', a series of soundwalks through neighborhoods in which she has lived, and a soundscape documenting the Lachine Canal region, near Montreal. McCartney's installations have been shown at Maid in Cyberspace Encore (Montreal), KAAI Modern Fuel Gallery (Kingston, Ontario), miXing Women In Sound Art Festival (Chicago), The Kitchen ... Her writings have been published in Leonardo Music Journal, MusicWorks ... She has collaborated with visual artist P.S. Moore, championed the work of soundscape composer Hildegard Westerkamp, and she is actively involved with the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. She lives in Montreal and is teaches at Concordia University, Montreal.

McCartney talked about her work with soundscapes, with lots of recordings of bells, trains, boats. She prefers in-ear binaural mics, although occasionally uses a hand-held stereo mic when she wants to make it clear to folks she is recording.

Giant Ear))) webradio: Inside/Out NYC

Since May 2005, the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE) has presented Giant Ear))) each Sunday on free103point9 Online Radio, webcasting field recordings, interviews, and compositions by sound artists and anyone who could get their hands on a recording device. "Inside/Out NYC" presents New York City sound works culled from approximently two years of Giant Ear))) shows. NYSAE is a membership organization that advocates listening and promotes public dialog about the urban sound environment. Members Andrea Callard, Jonny Farrow, Edmund Mooney, Andrea Polli, and Andrea Williams produced this CD.

OPEN CALL: Giant Ear)))

Giant Ear))) is a webcast produced by the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology. It can be heard from 7-9 p.m. ET every Sunday at www.free103point9.org. Shows feature a wide range of field recordings, interviews and compositions based on field recordings. One of the February shows themes is "Urban Rhythms." Please submit your field recordings (or compositions based on field recordings) of naturally occuring rhythms in your city's soundscape (long or short) via an upload service to jonnysounds@gmail.com or mail to:
Jonny Farrow, Giant Ear)))
C/O Production Resources, Inc.
50 West 17th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Deadline is Friday, February 8.

OPEN CALL: Field recordings for free103point9 Online Radio

free103point9 Online Radio is seeking field recordings and acoustic ecology tracks for airplay. free103point9 Online Radio airs a "Field Recordings" show every Sunday at 10 a.m. ET, and also incorporates submitted performances throughout regular programming. CDs, LPs, and other formats sent for airplay will be stored in the Wave farm Study Center Library and available to the public. In addition, free103point9 is planning a series of field recordings performances in the summer of 2008 and looking for possible performers and presenters.

Please send recordings for airplay consideration to:
free103point9 Wave Farm
5662 Route 23
Acra, NY 12405

OPEN CALL: Field recordings via telephone

Bldgblog is looking for field recordings by phone. So if you're anywhere that seems sonically interesting over the next few weeks – a waterfall, a migratory bird preserve, a shuddering freight elevator, the Cornish coast, a screeching Red Line train, the International Space Station, a secret meeting between Bush and Ahmadinejad – feel free to give us a ring: +1 (206) 337-1474. You'll be connected to a voicemail account where you can simply hold your phone up high – and proud – and record whatever it is that you're listening to. Meanwhile, feel free either to leave a brief explanation of what it is we're hearing, or even call back and explain what sounds you've left for us to sort through. And then the best of the best will be played live on the radio in New York City – and podcast round the world – via DJ /rupture's weekly radio show on the incomparable WFMU, 91.1-FM.

The basic idea, if you're curious, is to open up the artistic possibilities of field recordings to anyone with a telephone – whether that's a mobile phone, a public phone, or even a phone attached to the wall in your kitchen. The results should prove that you can acoustically experience a landscape through the telephone. Tele-scapes. As it is, mobile phones in particular present us with an untapped microphonic resource; these roving recorders encounter different environmental soundscapes everyday – the insides of lobbies and elevators, cars stuck in traffic, windy beaches – yet we're so busy using them for conversation that we overlook (overhear?) their true sonic possibilities. The telephonic future of environmental sound art is thus all but limitless – and putting some of that on the radio is just fun.