Becoming The Future, 2020.
Becoming The Future
The Cad Factory, Music NSW, National Museum of Australia, Manchester Metropolitan University, the NSW Department of Primary Industry, PhotoAccess, Sidney Myer Fund, Narrandera & District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank, and Create NSW are pleased to present Becoming the Future, an intimate seminar series that makes world leaders available to regional artists.
This program was the inevitable accumulation of the previous eight years of Cad Factory work addressing issues of access in regional NSW; access to new ideas, knowledge, experience and national/international thinking. Our program attemps to break down hierarchies of city/country by focusing the skills and attention of world leaders and peak bodies into regional NSW.
Becoming the Future featured Susan Rogers, Clive Parkinson, and Joni Adamson who are all recognised world-wide as leaders; they have had significant impact and contributed to their areas of expertise; and their work intersects with the work of the Cad Factory.
During 2019, Susan Rogers presented on music production and cognition, Clive Parkinson presented on arts and health, while Joni Adamson presented on Environmental Justice.
A series of projects was developed and delivered in 2020 springing from engagement with these world leaders and their contribution to new knowledge in our world.
Presenters
Joni Adamson is Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Department of English and Senior Sustainability Scholar at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University. She has lectured on the Environmental Humanities in Australia, China, France, Germany, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and across the US. She is the author and/or co-editor of many books and volumes that helped to establish and expand the environmental humanities and environmental studies, including Humanities for the Environment (HfE): Integrating Knowledge, Forging New Constellations of Practice (2016, Routledge); Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies—Conversations from Earth to Cosmos (2016, Routledge); Keywords for Environmental Studies (New York University Press, 2016); American Studies, Ecocriticism and Citizenship (Routledge 2013); and The Environmental Justice Reader (University of Arizona Press, (2002). Her groundbreaking monograph, American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice and Ecocriticism (University of Arizona Press, 2001) was published at the front edge of the environmental justice movement and helped shape transnational American Studies and the environmental humanities.
Michelle Barry is a professional producer/sound engineer/audio educator from Sydney. With a great love for music, Michelle started engineering in 1990 at Paradise Studios in Sydney. This gave her the opportunity to work with many independent Australian musicians of the time before refining her craft in studios in Australia, London and NYC. Highlights include working with the US indie artists Jessie Murphy, In The Woods, Julian Verlard and The Pierces; UK funk and RnB artists Junior and G-Nation; as well as Sydney Hip Hop artists Maya Jupiter and Ebony Williams, along with folk group The Charm and singer/guitarist Max Gencher.
Michelle founded Noisygirls, an initiative to showcase women working in Australian music as musicians, engineers and producers. Michelle shares her skills through teaching at SAE.
Clive Parkinson is the Director of Arts for Health, the UK’s longest established unit of its kind, based in at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2018 he established the Manchester Institute for Arts, Health and Social Change as a diverse collective of people and organisations committed to addressing the social determinants of health. He published The Manchester Declaration in 2019. In 2009 he was awarded an Enterprise Curriculum Fellowship to develop bespoke arts/health training and delivers this regularly for artists and health professionals. In 2016 he was made a Reader at the Manchester School of Art, focusing on Arts, Health and Social Justice and has been awarded a Visiting Fellowship at the University of New South Wales. Through facilitated networking, practical support, training on the ground and high-level political lobbying, he has succeeded in gaining strategic support and a greater understanding of the potency of the arts in the UK and internationally. As a visual and performance artist, Clive Parkinson has developed numerous projects within the health and arts sectors that have created change and new ways of thinking.
Susan Rogers is a record producer, engineer, mixer, and audio electronics technician, and has a doctorate in psychology (having studied music cognition and psychoacoustics) from McGill University.Susan began her music career as the live-in engineer for Prince from 1983 to 1988, including recording albums like Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign o’ the Times, and The Black Album. Her other studio sessions have included artists like Bare Naked Ladies, David Byrne, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Rusted Root, Tricky, Geggy Tah, and Michael Penn. She is currently the director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory and is a Professor at Berklee College.
Music Production for Women
Workshop with Susan Rogers
26 and 27 May 2019, 10am - 5pm
The Cad Factory Studio, Sandigo NSW
The Music Production workshop demonstrates how a producer and engineer think during a recording session. Lessons on arrangement, timbre, sound choices, performance, and artistic collaboration are explained in the studio as a recording takes shape.
This workshop is suited for people who have intermediate to advanced technical proficiency working in a recording studio. It is aimed at women wanting to develop their careers as a professional engineer and/or producer.
There are eight places available for this workshop, with four places prioritised for women living in regional locations.
You will be required to submit an Expression of Interest form by Thursday 18 April 2019, 5pm. You will be notified on Monday 29 April if you have been selected. Each successful participant will receive $200 towards the cost of accommodation and $200 towards their travel to Narrandera.
Music Cognition
Seminar with Susan Rogers
28 May 2019, 10am - 3pm
Narrandera Arts and Community Centre, NSW
The Music Cognition seminar discusses psychology for music makers. It will examine music from the listener’s and the record maker’s perspectives. Topics include music and: emotion, personality, preferences, creativity, aesthetics, health, and collaboration.
This workshop is suited for artists, musicians, engineers and producers who are interested in music, sound, neurology or perception.
There are twenty-five places available for this seminar, with fifteen places prioritised for artists living in regional locations.
You will be required to submit an Expression of Interest form by Thursday 18 April 2019, 5pm. You will be notified on Monday 29 April if you have been selected. Ten selected NSW regional artists will receive $100 towards covering their accommodation and travel costs.
Public Programs
Contemporary arts practice, health and social change
Seminar with Clive Parkinson
15 and 16 June 2019, 10am - 6pm
Narrandera Arts and Community Centre, NSW
This unique opportunity will be co-presented with the Cad Factory's Vic McEwan and allows for two days of intimate talks and exploratory sessions aimed specifically at artists wishing to work in the context of community, health and social change. This informative and practical two days will place ideas of social equality and wellbeing within an international context whilst offering practical advice to all attendees in terms of their own practice. You will be required to discuss your practice and future projects to the group.
This seminar will be delivered in a small group of up to 20 people, allowing the opportunity for deep and practical exploration of your practice. Twelve places will be prioritsed for artists living in regional locations.
You will be required to submit an Expression of Interest form by Friday 3 May 2019. You will be notified on Friday 10 May if you have been selected. Up to ten selected NSW regional artists will receive $100 towards covering their accommodation and travel costs.
Environmental Justice
Seminar with Joni Adamson
16 and 17 November 2019, 10am - 4pm
Narrandera Arts and Community Centre, NSW
Join the Cad Factory for an interactive workshop exploring how the concept of environmental justice relates to art practice in our time of ecological crisis. Engaging complex issues such as the role of different knowledges, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous systems, in environmental decision-making and how we might understand and respond to non-human needs and rights, this seminar is a unique opportunity to investigate how art might contribute to creating a more equitable, joyful and flourishing future. This workshop will be led by leading environmental justice scholar Joni Adamson, with the Cad Factory’s Artistic Director, Vic McEwan, and Kirsten Wehner, the Director of PhotoAccess, the ACT’s centre for photography, film-making and the media arts, linking Joni’s work to artistic and curatorial practice.
Artist Janet Laurence will share her past and upcoming art practices about how 'art can provoke its audience into a renewed awareness about our environment’.
George Main, curator at the Centre for Anthropocene Australia, National Museum of Australia, and author of Heartland: the Regeneration of Rural Place, will share ideas about the integration of the environmental humanities with curatorial practice.
This seminar will be delivered in a small group of up to 25 people. Fifteen places will be prioritised for artists living in regional locations.
You will be required to submit an Expression of Interest form. EOIs have been extended to Sunday 13 October. You will be notified on Wednesday 16 October if you have been selected. Ten selected NSW regional artists will receive $100 towards covering their accommodation and travel costs.
Introduction to Professional Recording Techniques
Workshop with Michelle Barry
Two-day workshop open to Women, Non-Binary and Trans Folx
30 November and 1 December 2019, 10am – 4pm
Participants will be introduced to equipment and setup of a professional recording studio: from microphone to digital audio and back to listener. By capturing an acoustic performance, the process of recording and mixing, and decisions on microphone choice and audio processing will be explored.
These workshops were open to women, non-binary and trans folx from across the country who wished to improve their confidence and technical skills in the studio. The aim of these workshops was to address the alarming statistic that estimates only 6% of professional producers and engineers are women. This percentage drops again for non-binary and trans producers/engineers.
Mixing Workshops
with Michelle Barry
Two-day workshops open to Women, Non-Binary and Trans Folx
27 June 2020 and 4 July 2020
25 July 2020 and 1 August 2020
15 August 2020 and 22 August 2020
These online music mixing workshops are designed to demonstrate the art of mixing and provide feedback for recording musicians. The tools of mixing and effects chains are explored, along with specifications for finalising your tracks to share or stream. Developing music producers are invited to share productions in a supportive environment with their peers. Mixing techniques will be tailored to the group's style and interest.
Each workshop will be held over two Saturdays with morning and afternoon sessions:
1st day morning session 10:00am
The tools of mixing, tips for what processing to use
1st day afternoon session 1:30pm
Sharing files, mix feedback, and group discussion
2nd day morning session 10:00am
Mixing a participant's track
2nd day afternoon session 1:30pm
Finalising your tracks and mastering considerations
Becoming the Future is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Becoming the Future is a partnership between the Cad Factory, MusicNSW, Narrandera & District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank, Berklee College, Manchester Institute of Arts, Health and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Primary Industries, Narrandera Fisheries Centre, National Museum of Australia, PhotoAccess and Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.
