Tomorrow and Saturday (March 6-7), “noise-makers” and appreciators in Southern California descend on the Goethe Institute LA to attend Noise and the Possibility For a Future, a conference that centers around all-things cacophonic. Co-presented by The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, the program includes performances, lectures and discussions with topics ranging from “black noise” to performances of works by 12-tone composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), who was known for his dissonant and asymmetric compositions.
The conference is co-curated by artist Warren Neidich and CalArts Composition Program Co-chair Ulrich Krieger, who presents the opening talk Noise–A Definition at 10 am Friday.
More about the conference from Neidich:
Noise usually gets a bad rap. It is appreciated as something offensive, rendering systems inefficient and therefore requiring control or mitigation. However, noise has another side, more positive and emancipatory. This ‘other side’ is the focus of this conference which understands it in an expanded form. It asks instead whether it might be considered as something liberating. Could we think of it rather as a mode of production beyond capitalism’s capacity to recuperate its alterity for its own purposes; a sublime place of freedom?
Other participating musicians and artists include Victor Albarracin, Andrew Berardini (Critical Studies MFA 06), David Burrows, Luciano Chessa, Mathieu Copeland, D.J. Spooky (aka Paul Miller), Corey Fogel (Music MFA 04), Simone Forti, Paul Hegarty, Sarah Kessler, Gregory Lenczycki, Mattin, Daniel Munoz, Renee Petropoulos, former faculty David Schafer, faculty Marcus Schmickler, Susan Silton, Gabie Strong, Karen Tongson, John Wiese (Art BFA 01) and Susanne Winterling.
On Saturday, the conference concludes at USC’s Ramo Recital Hall with an evening concert featuring Schoenberg’s landmark piano opus Drei Klavierstücke, performed by pianist Aron Kallay. The concert is being held in conjunction with USC’s The Schoenberg Soundways project, which includes five miniature delivery trucks blaring Schoenberg pieces around the USC campus this week. RSVP for the Saturday concert here.
View the entire weekend schedule. Read more about the conference on its event page.
Event Details
Noise and the Possibility For a Future
March 6-7
Goethe Institute LA
5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100, Los Angeles
Free, limited seating. Attendance is first-come, first-served.