Workshop

CAMP is a residential arts facility in the French Pyrenees. It's a place where great art is made, new movements are formed, new ideas are explored and groundbreaking people are nurtured. CAMP is located in Aulus les Bains, the last village before the France/Spain Pyrenean frontier chain. The location is spectacular - we are nestled at 750m above sea level, surrounded by snowcapped peaks over 3000m high, ancient forests and cascading waterfalls. There are eagles, lammergeiers, vultures, ibex and bears. Walk out of the residency, and within ten minutes you are completely alone in one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Europe. Aulus les Bains is also a spa village - there are hot water springs, and a thermal spa in the village to take advantage of the healing and relaxing properties of the water.
    
Workshop dates: 25/08/2021 - 29/08/2021
    
Lead by two of the most influential figures working in electronic music and sound today, this workshop focuses on exploratory relationships between landscape and sound through a series of evolving performative, geometrical, time-based systems and structures. These will include location recording exercises, listening, sound synthesis, the placement of sound within the landscape, durational performances, discussion and analysis, as well as documentation of the workshop and its outcomes. Emphasis will be given to consideration of spatial audio techniques including multi-microphone and multi-speaker methodologies. We'll be working at CAMP, in the studios and recording spaces, as well as out in the epic Pyrenean landscape, in the forests, meadows, high plateaus and rocky peaks of the Pyrenees, exploring the soundscapes of rivers and lakes, glacial valleys and towering cirques.

Mark Fell is a UK-based multidisciplinary artist. Recognised as being "one of the most compelling and influential electronic artists in the world" (South Bank Centre), his practice draws upon electronic music subcultures, experimental film, contemporary philosophy and radical politics, and typically explores issues such as time-perception, technology, cognition, and collaborative process. Over the past 30 years Fell's output has grown into a significant body of work: from early electronic sound works and recorded pieces, to installation, critical texts, curatorial projects, educational systems and choreographic performances.
                   
In 2017 Mark curated a major exhibition of sound art for V-A-C foundation (Moscow) "The Geometry of Now", and led a British council research project to India to study Carnatic music composition and emergent electronic arts (with AC Projects Glasgow). Serralves Foundation (Porto) premiered "Intermetamorphosis" (2017), collection of works by fell which included new commissions as well as a retrospective pieces. In 2018 he completed two large scale multi-spatial sound works: "Protomusic#1" for Sage Gateshead, forming their flagship contribution to the Great Exhibition of the North; and "Frameworks" at Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice). 2019 saw two new performative pieces including "Hominin" (Rewire, Den Haag) and "Against Method" (Pirelli Hanger Bicocca, Milan), as well as the solo exhibition "The Concept of Time is Intrinsically Incoherent" (Focal Point Gallery, South End on Sea). Drawing from sacred geometries to programming structures, these works underlined Mark's particular interest in non-linear systems and structures, and our complex inter-relationships with them.

The diversity and importance of Mark's practice is reflected in the range and scale of institutions that have presented his work, including: VAC Foundation Palazzo delle Zattere (Venice), Hong Kong National Film Archive, The Baltic (Gateshead), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Laboral (XIxon), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Royal Festival Hall (London), The Serpentine (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Whitechapel Gallery (London), The Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Barbican (London), Raven Row (London), Seville Biennale, The Australian Centre For Moving Image (Melbourne), Artists Space (NYC), Moma (NYC), Issue Project Room (NYC), Corcoran (DC), Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (NY), Lampo/Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago), Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (Karlsruhe), Pirelli Hanger Biccoca (Milan) among others. Mark's work is in the collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna) and has as been recognised by ARS Electronica (Linz). He has worked with a number of artists including: Yasunao Tone, Laurie Spiegel, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Okkyung Lee, Luke Fowler, Peter Gidal, Terre Thaemlitz, John Chowning, Ernest Edmonds, Peter Rehberg, Oren Ambarchi, Carl Michael Von Hausswolff and Mat Steel (as SND). Mark is currently guest professor of media art at Die Staatliche Hochschule fur Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG).

Carl Michael von Hausswolff lives and works in Stockholm. Since the end of the 70s, von Hausswolff has worked as a composer using recording technology as his main instrument and as a visual artist using light projections, film/video and still photography as well as other media. His interests spans from social environmental issues and political statements to abstract penetration and supra/sub-reality. He has exhibited at dOCUMENTA (Kassel), the biennials in Venice, Moscow, Liverpool, Istanbul, Sarajevo etc and in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Nicosia, Kaliningrad, Tokyo, London, New York, Philadelphia, etc. His music has been played in festivals such as Sonar (Barcelona), CTM (Berlin), L'audible (Paris), el niche Aural (Mexico City), MUTEK, (Montreal) etc. and released works on record by labels like RasterNoton (Berlin), Touch (London), Laton (Wien), iDeal (Goteborg) and MonoType (Warszaw).

His audio compositions from 1979 to 1992 consist essentially of complex macromal drones with a surface of aesthetic elegance and beauty. In the early 2000's, Carl Michael boiled away even more ornamental meat from the bones, producing pure, intuitive studies of electricity, frequency functions and tonal autism within the framework of a conceptual stringent cryption. Lately he has also developed a more conceptual form of audio art overlooking subjects such as architecture and urbanism, rats and maggots. He has created a series of social platforms, places where people can meet and consume. His "Thinner- and Low Frequency Bar" was used at the Momentum biennial in Moss, Norway, Prato, Italy and London and his "Glue- (Tobacco-) and High Frequency Lounge" was used in Geneva and in Prato. These works show Hausswolff's critical view on the society's hypocritical treatment of drugs and addiction. The audience could sniff the highly toxic substances thinner and contact glue while smoking cigarettes and getting penetrated by the either low or high sine wave tones.

Carl Michael recently curated the 12th part the sound-installation FREQ_OUT in Vienna and collaborates with artist Leif Elggren, film-maker Thomas Nordanstad, EVP re-searcher Michael Esposito and recently launched new projects with composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, composer/artist Mark Fell, musician Jim O'Rourke, author/model Leslie Winer and as Dark Morph (with Jonsi of Sigur Ros). He has earlier collaborated with Pan sonic, The Hafler Trio, Organum and PHAUSS.

CAMP is a residential arts facility in the French Pyrenees. It's a place where great art is made, new movements are formed, new ideas are explored and groundbreaking people are nurtured. CAMP is located in Aulus les Bains, the last village before the France/Spain Pyrenean frontier chain. The location is spectacular - we are nestled at 750m above sea level, surrounded by snowcapped peaks over 3000m high, ancient forests and cascading waterfalls. There are eagles, lammergeiers, vultures, ibex and bears. Walk out of the residency, and within ten minutes you are completely alone in one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Europe. Aulus les Bains is also a spa village - there are hot water springs, and a thermal spa in the village to take advantage of the healing and relaxing properties of the water.
    
Workshop dates: 07/04/2021 - 11/04/2021
    
Mountain filmmaking has exploded in the last decade - not just in popularity, but also in style, focus and scope. The well-told story of human vs. nature on the hostile mountain, with human returning enlightened, has been replaced by more nuanced conversations about human interaction with mountains; documentaries on environmental issues, social and humanitarian causes, poetic studies of landscape and more.

This workshop will combine the epic backdrop of the Haute Pyrenees mountains with the expertise of one of the most acclaimed directors of mountain documentary film working today, Jennifer Peedom. We will work through every aspect of documentary filmmaking, from story to sound to camera, towards the production of a short piece of documentary footage. Working out in the epic landscape as well as here at our excellent facilities, we will explore the mountains, delve into the histories and lore of the region and its people, and absorb the stories and visual beauty of this extraordinary place.

Over five full days, we will cover:

• The importance of story structure - character, conflict, stakes. Using diverse examples from Jan's cinematic output, we will work through a wide variety of  different styles of storytelling
• The Art of Interview - we will explore the technical side of interview, before going out into the field and gathering spoken histories. For those not interested in interview, we will explore incorporation of poetry or other spoken text into documentary work.
• Shooting the film - starting with basic technical discussion and description of techniques, we will progress to exploring and shooting the location.
• Sound & music - we will explore the basics of sound and music, and how they enhance drama and image. This will include practical field recording sessions out in the landscape.
• Editing - we will be joined by Christian Gazal, who edited Sherpa and Mountain, for a day of focused tuition on putting it all together.

Jennifer Peedom is a BAFTA nominated Australian filmmaker, known for her intimate and compassionate portraits documenting stories from the epic to the everyday, often in extreme situations. An experienced climber, Jen has worked as a high altitude director on several expeditions including Discovery Channel's six-part series "Everest - Beyond the Limit", and her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries "Miracle on Everest" and "Solo", the story of Andrew McAuley's attempted solo kayak crossing from Tasmania to New Zealand.

Jen has developed a strong friendship with Sherpa people over almost two decades of working in the Himalayas - connections which were key in the production of her 2015 film "Sherpa". Centred around Phurba Tashi, a Sherpa who has made 21 Everest ascents, the film explores Sherpa culture and their spiritual relationship with the mountain, as well as the heavy work and risks Sherpas take in making multiple ascents to take equipment and supplies up the mountain and make the climb possible for foreign climbers (the film tragically witnesses the 2014 Everest avalanche). "Sherpa" won the 2015 Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, premiered internationally at the Telluride Film Festival, screened at Toronto Film Festival and received a BAFTA nomination in 2016 for Best Documentary.

In 2017 Jen directed "Mountain", a collaboration the Australian Chamber Orchestra with script by Robert Macfarlane, narrated by Willem Dafoe. "Mountain" explores high peaks around the world, revealing the relationship between humans and mountains across time. It screened theatrically in 27 countries and went on to become the highest grossing (non-IMAX) Australian documentary of all time, also winning 3 AACTA (Australian Academy Awards) in 2018.