Thank you MASSmcr for inviting me to present my PhD project as part of the ‘Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces’ webinar series. You can watch the recording of my talk above.

Abstract

Countersilence is a sound and media project which aims to express the relationship between the self and the city through a digital soundmap informed by psychogeography. The research questions asked are: How can soundmaps be used as creative digital medium to map personal narratives of the city? How can psychogeography be used as artistic strategy to express one’s relationship with the city? The project is based on ‘practice as research’ as the act of listening and understanding the relationship to place in an embodied subjective process. I will assemble a creative toolkit that will combine soundwalks, field recordings and electronic music as sonic practices, digital soundmaps as creative medium and psychogeography as artistic strategy. This creative toolkit will be tested and qualitatively evaluated through my reflective practice to critically examine how soundmaps and psychogeography can be used as creative tools to express the relationship between the self and the city.

Bio

Markus Hetheier is an electronic music producer, sound artist and doctoral researcher. When wearing his electronic music hat, he is performing under his stage name Industries that links the post-industrial past of his German hometown to Manchester. Here, he started producing and releasing his electronic music following his studies at the School of Electronic Music in 2018. His music explores and subverts musical structures and ranges from field recordings, distorted sounds to harmonic melodies and large beats. As a sound artist he has an interest in soundwalks and field recordings and collaborates across disciplines and media. His sound work ranges from sound art, audio-visual collaborations to workshops and podcasts. He recently started his practice-led PhD at the Manchester Metropolitan University where he is working on a sound and media project which will explore the relationship between the self and Manchester through soundmaps and psychogeography.

FLUFF is a brand new night of queer electronica live in Manchester. The event is organised by Norrisette and me. We want to create a platform for queer electronic music producers in Manchester to perform their music to a live audience (all welcome). For this first instalment, we invite Dayzee Chain and CHAINES to perform alongside us. This will be a relaxed, social space where people can mingle and chat before, between and after the sets, meet friends, make new connections. There will be a bar on the night that also serves soft drinks. The event is free, but we suggest a donation of £3 on the door. Please speak to us if you want to get involved for future events. Click here to access the Facebook event.

I have not posted much about my practice-based PhD at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) within the Manchester Metropolitan University on here although you can see some updates on my socials. After my Summer break I came back to Manchester and set up my new studio space in the old Cornerhouse building. I also laid out my plan for Year 2 in which I will focus on exploring sonic practices (soundwalks, field record and electronic music), think about how to present the results through a digital soundmap and reflect on how this creative process expresses my relationship to Manchester through sound. This will feed into my work as electronic music producer and will therefore intersect with forthcoming music releases and mixes, so watch this space.