Krzysztof Topolski / sound workshops, concert and Common Sound Workshop presentation

Artistic meeting involved holding of a series of sound workshops with the participation of the local community. The final result of the workshop was the creation of a radio play, a sound installation, a performance. All inhabitants were invited to take part in this workshop, with a focus on immigrants, including those from Poland. Workshop included “acoustic ecology” and “deep listening.” Courses were held for realization of field recordings, also taking into account music and spoken history: stories and statements of the inhabitants. Artist practiced sound walks in the surroundings. Courses were held in electronic music too (recording, editing, sound production, composing a song with the help of a computer). Part of the workshop were integrative courses in improvised music and percussion workshops. He dealed with the search for characteristic local sounds, local audiospheric nature, leaned on theme of water. Particularly important was the significance of natural environment for life of inhabitants, contact with nature, silence as an important part of human existence, specific living and social conditions. He conducted joint field studies on local audiospheres and on the audiospheres of private life. The field recordings were carried out in the workshops with traditional air microphones and a hydrophone for recording underwater sound or contact microphones that record the internal vibrations of physical objects and convert them into sound. It was a search for new sound material of sound interest, combined with a reappraisal and expansion of concept of music and its connection with space, architecture, urbanity, sociology, life sciences or politics and ecology.

Krzysztof Topolski – sound artist, drummer, author of projects in the field of music and sound art. He deals with field recording, acoustic ecology and acoustic landscape. Creates sound installations. In his work, key terms are noise, soundscape and groove. He is interested in exploring the field of percussion and live electronic, improvised and electroacoustic music, composes on the computer, realizes projects on contemporary music, acoustic ecology and sound art and leads workshops. He’s acting like an asshole. He’s a member of Synchrotron band. He was curator of the sound education project Ucho w Wodzie (sound activities on Sobieszewska Island in Poland), initiator and curator of the sound art festival Soundplay and the series of workshops Dźwiękowiska at Center For Contemporary Art “Łaźnia” in Gdańsk. As a sound artist and educator, he collaborated with the most important cultural institutions in Poland. He conducted workshops, performed concerts, participated in exhibitions and festivals.

Residency's finale took place on 28 April 2023 in Egilsstaðir.