The School of Sound International Symposium 2015

What is the School of Sound?

The School of Sound is a symposium created to encourage a cross-disciplinary approach to using sound in the arts and media. We explore what sound does, how audiences listen.
It is a place where for 4 days you can raise your awareness of how audio production works, how it conveys information and emotion, how you can work with it.
But how do you think about something so ephemeral? And how do you teach it? Sound always seems to be occupying areas of ambiguity – the emotional, the subtext, the intuitive, the borders between reality and fantasy, the conscious and the subconscious. And by their very nature, academia and professional practice shy away from ambiguity and cross-fertilisation, staying within their own boundaries. But interesting things happen when you start mixing them up!
For four days, out of your usual routine, you’ll be immersed in a world of imagination, invention and innovation. Listening to presentations from a diversity of incredible talents, you will be able to disconnect from your day-to-day work, taken out of your comfort zone, to reflect on sound as something that is profoundly complex, entertaining and important.

Why attend the School of Sound?
It is not an academic conference it is not about getting a job and it is not about hardware or software. The SOS provides a rare opportunity to hear and meet 20 creatives working at the highest levels of the arts and media speaking in detail about how they think and work.
And the SOS is not about just one area of sound production. It covers film, theatre, dance, games, installation, music and radio that will expand your thinking and increase your ability to work in diverse areas of media and the arts.
At the SOS you will mix with hundreds of like-minded people – professional practitioners, educators, artists and students – with whom you can network, exchange ideas and create collaborations.

The SOS is delighted to announce the first details of the 2015 programme.

Speakers include

- Choreographer SIOBHAN DAVIES in conversation with composer/performer MATTEO FARGION
- Opera and theatre director PETER SELLARS
- Sound artist and Foley specialist NICOLAS BECKER
- Artist, filmmaker and writer JOHN AKOMFRAH
- Installation artist IMOGEN STIDWORTHY
- Radio producer PIERS PLOWRIGHT
- Performance artist DICKIE BEAU
- Sound/music composer GERHARD ECKEL
- Filmmaker and composer NADIM MISHLAWI
- Sound designer RANA EID
- Interactive games sound designers MARTIN STIG ANDERSEN, JOANNA ORLAND with composer, audio director and consultant JOHN BROOMHALL
- and yoiker ÁNDE SOMBY …

with more participants to be announced in the coming weeks.

Registration is now open for the 2015 School of Sound. More info on: www.schoolofsound.co.uk