What’s that noise? Listening Queerly to the Ultimatum Festival Archives

The SpokenWeb Podcast

SUMMARY

Have you ever heard a sound on a recording and weren’t sure if it was intentional? That’s what happened to the Listening Queerly research team when they were listening to a recording of the Ultimatum Festival (Montreal, 1985). This team works under the direction of Dr. Mathieu Aubin as part of a SSHRC-funded Insight Development Grant. They’ve been working with a series of recordings of the Ultimatum Festival, which are part of the Alan Lord audio collection, a collection currently being digitized and catalogued by SpokenWeb (Concordia). The Listening Queerly research team – Mathieu Aubin, Ella Jando-Saul, Misha Solomon, Sophia Magliocca, and Rowan Nancarrow – first attempted to confirm who they are listening to in their selected audio file for this ShortCuts by cross-referencing with other recordings of Christopher Dewdney, Tom Konyves, and bill bissett, but then, as the team re-listened to this recording, they focused more and more on the rhythmic thumping sound throughout this clip. What is the cause of this sound and its effect on us as listeners?

Listen to this episode of ShortCuts to hear how, even if a sound is an unintentional sound caused by the recording equipment, it still affects our interpretation of the recording.

This special episode of ShortCuts is produced by Ella Jando-Saul, with contributions from Mathieu Aubin, Misha Solomon, Sophia Magliocca, Rowan Nancarrow, and James Healey.

EPISODE NOTES

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that’s every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.

Series Producer: Katherine McLeod

Host: Hannah McGregor

Supervising Producer: Kate Moffatt

Audio Engineer / Sound Designer: Miranda Eastwood

ARCHIVAL AUDIO

Notes for the audio in folder U-2-2:

U-2-2. 0000 Christ 3-4 Christopher Dewdney suite. 0400 1-2 Tape. 3-4 Voix - débute vers 875. Tom Konyves 8,45. Fin 8 1225. 0000 genital of mover [?]. Tom Konyves 5-6 - bande. 7-8 - voix. 0250 Bill Bissett. Partie 1 pistes 1-2 voix [illegible]. Partie 2 vx 34.

Notes on label for “BRAVE NEW WAVES. CBC Stereo 93.5 FM. ‘ULTIMATUM”:

U-BNW-T5. CBC label has fallen off (included in separate bag with board for temporary preservation) — Handwritten notes on reverse: “Tape 5 Tape out. 1. Christopher Dewdney Runs: 23:50. 2. Tom Konyves 21:30. 3. Bill Bisset - Runs 20:25. Tech: Yves Lepage.”

SHOW NOTES

bissett, bill, Christopher Dewdney, and Tom Konyves. U-2-2. 2 May 1985. Folder 2, Deliverables, Audio-Deliverables, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

bissett, bill, Christopher Dewdney, and Tom Konyves. U-BNW-T5. 2 May 1985. Folder 2, Deliverables, Audio-Deliverables, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Those interested can find more information about these recordings in the following documents:

bissett, bill. Participant acceptance form. AL-Folder2-img003-04, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

bissett, bill. Letter to Alan Lord. AL-Folder2-img195, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Konyves, Tom. Sketch of stage setup. AL-Folder2-img186-187, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Lescaut, Roxa. "Le Premier Festival de Poésie urbaine de Montréal." interModule 2. AL-U85-img029-32 and 035-38, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.