SSTRAPP Summer Jam is a full ten days of sonic and somatic experimentation. This is the first ever summer jam; the hope is that it will be an annual event. The program is completely open for you to schedule. We’ve got loads of great plans and projects but the program itself will be scheduled collectively, developing over the 10 days as we share and explore. We’ve called it the summer jam because it is an attempt to improvise together not just musically, but in the co-organisation of this collective project. It’s a jam so it’s most fundamentally joyful and playful, but this does not stop it from also being critical. Good improvisation doesn’t spring from the assumed freedom or spontaneity of the given, it is a matter of careful attention to the social and material conditions, and the construction together of an ensemble that share certain constraints of operation in dealing with those conditions. The ensemble is yet to be assembled, and we do not yet know what it will be. So bring your thoughts, desires, wishes and wants, and join the future ensemble.
As usual we’ll have the synth lab set up, with loads of amazing synthesizers, samplers, effects pedals and other audio equipment that you can use, and all the incredible sonic ingenuity and wisdom of Maeve to help realize your most outrageous musical fantasies. We’ll be continuing previous discussions on synthesis, noise and commotion, delving further into phenomenology and its critique, embodied listening, auditory neuroscience, sound studies and whiteness, the queer voice and other politics of musicking. We’ll do stretching and flexing, vocal and movement work, deep screaming, and fascia release work.
We’ll have at least two special SSTRAPP broadcasts on Domes FM, so bring your usb sticks and be ready to play some tracks, spit some bars on the mic, or dance until your legs turn to jelly. We’ll have sound walks and sound baths, listening sessions and field recording expeditions, composition and mixing tutorials, and we’ll work together in small groups to explore various practical and theoretical ideas, directed towards the construction of diagrams, installations, and group performances.
We’ll take deep dives into certain audio hardware and software possibilities, with tutorials and working groups on the DJ controller, Max MSP, and whatever piques your curiosity. We’ll have two whole weekends dedicated to performances, music and dancing. We will no doubt see the return of SSTRAPP favorites like the megaloop, auditory world-building, hoover symphonies, dome sonifications, and voice-modulated hyper/sludge karaoke.
We know that SSTRAPP participants have developed their own sonic and somatic skills and knowledge, and we want to make the space available so that we can collectively share and benefit from it. If you’re interested in sharing and you’d like to present your research and/or practice please get in touch and we can add your intervention into the program. We’ll also self-organize around theoretical and practical interests, so let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll try to make it happen.
There’s ample space and equipment at BOARC for everyone to collectively pursue their sonic and somatic dreams. If you can come for the full two weeks that’s great as it gives us time to really drill down into things, but if you’re pressed for time or money you’re welcome to come for just parts. If you’re interested in coming and want to know more get in touch at sstrapp@proton.me
The price of participating in the summer jam is as follows:
Full participation 18th-28th July (9 nights) – £400
Five days participation with accommodation (4 nights) – £200
Or at a daily rate of £45 (minimum stay 2 nights)
The price for full participation without accommodation is £250
Five days participation without accommodation is £125
Or a daily rate of £25
This does not include food, which we’ll self-organize at a cost of £12 per day (optional).
SSTRAPP will be making some bursary places possible please get in touch to discuss if you would need financial support in order to attend.
In advance of the summer jam we’ll be setting up a working group to help plan its organization and facilitation. This will mostly involve help with co-constructing the schedule and making it happen, and organizing food and cooking, but also setting up equipment and rooms, as well as more social aspects. We’ll organizeyt an online meeting to give us the opportunity to think through how we can co-create a space supporting open experimentation but also enabling depth of enquiry. Please let us know if you’d like to join, your thoughts and ideas are welcome and needed.