“vinyl crackle expresses a time out of joint. no longer an illusion of presence.. where the mediation is being foregrounded…A signifier of another time, a time beyond the present….” —Mark Fisher, 2011 

If the phonographic crackle is the index of time itself, what does it mean for us to listen through YouTube’s codec; to the resonance of YouTube’s time?

Jon Smeathers in collaboration with 𝔈ℭ𝔅 Mixtapes & Soft Centre is proud to present Lost Futures of Me At The Zoo* (LFMZ).

LFMZ is a 4-hour workshop that will speculate on YouTube as a sonic performative tool. The workshop will include testing YouTube’s potential as an exclusive interface to create mashups, algorithmic dj sets and envision mixtapes/collages from the rhythmic currents of YouTube’s tempor(e)ality.

LFMZ will use theoretical frameworks created by Mark Fisher and Wolfgang Ernst as a means to analyse how we engage with Youtube in order to create new directions in sound collage and technocratic practices. The workshop will also explore listening and sound production techniques through the distortion of YouTube’s codec and provide opportunities to participate in group exercises, discussions, readings and short performances. Recordings and data will be compiled during the workshop and released as part of the Soft Centre program. 

LFMZ is open to all disciplines and age groups. No technical skills are required to participate. Anyone who is interested to explore the possibilities of sound collage, the boundaries of one’s aural capacities and an ‘out of joint thinking-through-sound’ is welcome.

Requirements**
Laptop
Headphones

The workshop is limited to 30 places and bookings are essential.

* Me at the zoo is YouTube’s first published video on the 24th of April 2005 by YouTube’s co-founder Jawed Karim under the username jawed. At the time of writing this, it has accumulated 114,512,402 views. 10 million comments, 42 million likes and 120 thousand dislikes.

** We understand that not all have access to this kind of equipment. So, if you are interested in participating but don’t have access to the above requirements, follow the link to register and contact us and we will organise an alternative for you. Your presence, interest and participation is the most important to us.

While rooted in distinct sound ecologies, salllvage, Rully Shabara (Indonesia), and Rami Abadir (Egypt) draw on place, folklore and ‘traditional’ music modalities to create source material for their unique writing processes. Naarm based community organiser, artist and DJ, Anuraag Bhatia, will moderate a roundtable discussion, touching on alternative approaches to deep listening, field recording and sonic storytelling.

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