Participants get to know the sound world of animals, discover different ways of sound communication with them and wonder in what ways they create animals. Workshop or the field handset takes place on a silent disco system. Using a portable transmitter carried in a bag by the mentor, the audio content is played to the participants via headphones. The mentor, who also has a microphone for direct communication with the participants, can stop the recording, and thus the implementation of the workshop, if necessary, and perform the planned tasks together with the children. An educational labbook in pdf format is available at this link.
Through the adventure workshop, the participants discover the sound world of different animals. Active listening is encouraged by questions, and upgraded by providing new information through interesting, activating tasks. During the workshop, participants learn about the differences between sound communication and sound creativity of different animal species and ask themselves about what animals communicate, why they communicate and when their sounds can be understood as an expression of sound creativity. Can humans also communicate with other animals through sound? Can we create sound art with them? The participants of the workshop get to know the pioneers in the fields of interspecific communication and interspecific art – how Jim Nollman played the blues to whales and what Bernie Krause, the pioneer of sound ecology, has discovered through decades of recording and listening to the same habitats. Participants are encouraged to think about animals as individuals and to question established ways of thinking about their lives, social contacts and creativity.
Uršek Slivšek
graduate psychologist (Leiden University, The Netherlands), has experience in research, creation, cognition, learning, pedagogy and activism. He has been a long-term collaborator with youth organizations (Socially Integrated, Association of Friends of Youth Moste-Polje) and academic organizations (Leiden University Pride, LU Green Office). He has led workshops for children with special needs, children from socially disadvantaged families and marginalized groups. His work is based on ethical principles of solidarity and understanding of psychological factors on individual development.
Mentor
Katarina Radaljac
activist and master of musicology, she dedicates her research to the music of non-human animals and interactions with them – connecting various scientific and artistic fields such as zoomusicology, applied ethnomusicology, interdisciplinary art, human-animal studies, animal ethics and others. In 2019, he successfully curated the first edition of the transcendental music cycle – animotMUZIK, and in January 2021 his second edition.
Colophon
workshop creators and mentors: Katarina Radaljac and Uršek Slivšek
coordinator of pedagogical contents: Irena Pivka
technical manager: Brane Zorman
Illustration: Nea Likar
photo: Sunny Stone
cover photo: A. t Photography
production: Zone, Institute for the Processing of Contemporary Art within the project konS – Platforms for Contemporary Research Art