Collective Sound Improvisation: Intuitive Practices, Sound Semantics and Ecology
As an integral part of the Fifth International Conference on Semiotics of Culture and Visual Communication, EMPACT, and the 3rd MediSouP festival ‘Standing. Soundscapes of Resistance,’ are organising a performance on collective intuitive sound improvisation. The performance, open to conference attendees and the general public, will take place on Friday, June 28th, in the rural village of Agios Ioannis Pitsilias in the Limassol District. It will be under the direction of Professor Theodoros Lotis, an expert in the field and a faculty member at the Music Department of Ionian University.
The performance will be the result of a full day scheduled workshop with selected sound artists from the island. In response to the conference and MediSouP festival theme, and aligned with EMPACT’s exploration of the empathy-sustainability relationship, the workshop will experiment with ways in which the concept of resistance to ecological destruction can be sonically signified and inspired. By creating multifaceted and multisensory connections with the village of Agios Ioannis, the sound artists will be guided to explore collective intuitive and empathetic improvisation practices, as well as experiment with sound semantics. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will prepare to present the result at a collective intuitive sound performance. This event, open to the public, will take place at the schoolyard, with the mountain providing a scenic backdrop.
Conference participants are welcome to attend the concert.
Theodoros Lotis
Theodoros Lotis composes electroacoustic music, soundscapes, music for instruments and computers, music for dance and installations with a cross-platform and cross-media approach. He studied the guitar, flute, music analysis, electroacoustic composition and fine arts in Greece, Belgium and the UK. His music has been performed at festivals and conferences in Europe, Australia, America and Asia, and has received a number of awards and distinctions at Bourges, Sculpted Sound Composers Competition, Metamorphoses, Luigi Russolo, CIMESP and and Jeu de temps / Times Play. He has completed a Ph.D. in Music at the City University, London, thanks to grants from the British Academy (Arts and Humanities Research Board), and the Foundation A.S. Onassis. Theodoros Lotis has been teaching electroacoustic composition and analysis at Goldsmiths College- University of London, the Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and Universities in Europe and America as invited composer. He is Professor at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. He is a founding member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology. His music has been released by Empreintes Digitales (www.electrocd.com). https://www.theodoroslotis.com/
Dimitris Savva
Dimitris Savva is an electroacoustic, soundscape and multimedia music composer, a live-electronics performer, and an educator. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (with distinction) in music composition from Ionian University, a Master’s degree (with distinction) in Electroacoustic Composition from the University of Manchester, and a PhD degree with a fully funded scholarship from the University of Sheffield. His electroacoustic compositions have been featured in 86 international music festivals, including In Sonic 2017: Immersive Future (ZKM Center for Art and Media), Cube Fest 2019-Sound in Focus III (Moss Art Centre, Blacksburg), ICMC 2014 (Athens), and New York Electroacoustic Festival 2021. Several of his compositions have won prizes in competitions such as Metamorphoses 2012, 2014, 2018, Iannis Xenakis 2018, and SIME 2019. Ten of his works have been published on collective records, including Metamorphoses 2012-14-18-20, Anthology of Contemporary Music from Greece, and CIME 2020.