LSM Research Seminar – Marie Thompson

Screen Shot 2013-10-30 at 18.55.47

Blog Post by Dr Dean Lockwood:

Staff and students from the Lincoln School of Media (including Audio Production) welcomed Marie Thompson for the LSM Research Seminar series which took place Wednesday, 30th October.

Marie is an artist and researcher based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is currently a PhD candidate at Newcastle University, based in the International Centre for Music Studies. Her thesis uses a Spinozist notion of affect to critically rethink the correlation between noise, ‘unwantedness’ and ‘badness’, so to more fully allow for the use of noise as a musical resource. She is the co-editor of the collection, Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013). Marie is also regularly audible as a noisemaker and improviser. She plays individually as Tragic Cabaret and in the band, Beauty Pageant. Here is Marie’s abstract for her talk for our research seminar:

‘Rethinking noise, rethinking noise music: Affect, relationality and the poetics of transgression’:

‘In this paper, I outline a relational, ethico-affective approach to noise that works to disrupt the definitive correlation between noise, ‘unwantedness’ and ‘badness’. Rather than defining noise as a type of sound, or a subjective judgement of sound, noise is posited as a productive, transformative force and a necessary component of material relations. This approach to noise, I argue, is advantageous: firstly, because it allows for the noise that occurs out of (human) earshot, insofar as it no longer relies upon a constitutive listening subject; and secondly, because it allows for noise’s capacity to be good as well as bad, generative as well as destructive. A greater space is thus made for noise’s positively productive capacity, which has been readily explored within the arts.

In the second half of this paper, I discuss how a relational, ethico-affective approach to noise provides a means of (re)conceptualising noise music that moves away from the language of failure, taboo and contradiction. Rather than approaching noise music in terms of transgression, which is underlined by a dualistic conceptualisation of the relationship between (wanted, ‘good’) music and (unwanted, ‘bad’) noise, I suggest that noise music can be understood as an act of exposure, in that it foregrounds the presence of noise that is always already within the technical-musical system.’

Guest Lecture – Grant Bridgeman 2013

Screen Shot 2013-03-11 at 16.50.19

Grant Bridgeman is a familiar face around the university these days. He comes in to deliver workshops, masterclasses and lectures for our level 1 and 2 students.

In these sessions Grant draws on his experience and expertise to cover many aspects of working with audio for film and TV. This covers location sound recording, sound design, foley and sound effects capture, workflow and expert Pro Tools tuition in all aspects of audio post-production (track laying, dialogue editing, dialogue replacement and mixing etc.).

However, at level 3, Grant’s lecture covers the many aspects of his job other than the sound bit. In his Everything But The Sound lecture, Grant explains the day to day activities of the freelance audio professional. From filling in tax returns, to invoicing clients, to repairing kit, to archiving and accounting, to maintaining contacts and CV information. All the stuff that a student about to leave university needs to know, including some of the more difficult aspects such as no sick pay, no annual leave and sometimes wondering where the next job might come from.

Despite all this, it’s obvious that Grant loves his job and he’s a very enthusiastic lecturer. In fact, once he gets going, he’s very difficult to stop! We could definitely have done with an extra hour for this session. 🙂

Grant’s last job was as the sound recordist on ITV’s Mr Selfridge. For an interview with Grant about his experiences on this job please click here.

Track included on Andrew Weatherall’s Masterpiece compilation

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce that one of my tracks has been used on Andrew Weatherall’s Masterpiece compilation. Andrew is a DJ and producer I have a great deal of respect for and whose work I have followed for a very long time.

Andrew Weatherall’s history goes back far to the beginning of the British acid house scene, having swung gigs for himself at Danny Rampling’s legendary Shoom night off the back of the sort of sounds Andrew showcased on “that” compilation for Nuphonic – entitled 9 O’Clock Drop. Subsequently, his connections with the original Boys Own record label (and fanzine) led to artist releases, remixes and a string of legendary London clubs such as Blood Sugar, Circulation and of course Sabresonic (where the fledgling David Holmes cut his teeth). It was through Primal Scream though that Andrew firstmade his name. As the producer of Screamadelica he took The Primals, twisted them (best not to ask how) and in turn created the hybrid of narcotically-challenged rock and acid house now seen as a generation-defining release.

You can check out the compilation here

New Releases

Things have been going quite well this year on the release front, with my latest single on Foto Recordings being supported by Dj’s right across the board including X-press 2, Steve Bug, Ame, Chris Duckenfield, Chicago Damn, Harri, Catz n Dogz, Rub n Tug, Jim Stanton (Horse Meat Disco) Milton Jackson, Claude Von Stroke and Jacques Renault. You can check all my releases out here .

I have also recently signed to The Unity Agency

The Lincoln Sound Theatre is open

[imagebrowser id=6] The Lincoln Sound Theatre

Officially opened on 6th APRIL by TREVOR DANN – new Visiting Professor.
This new facility is now ready to welcome students.

The brand new Dubbing Theatre comprises a large Control room with projected High Definition pictures and 5.1 sound system, a Foley room (Sound Effects and footsteps), a Commentary/ADR room and a computer room. We are running Pro Tools  with the Digidesign 003 control surface, with pictures front projected onto a suspended screen. The work started in September 2010 and we have tried hard to make it as professional, creative and practical as possible. It has kept myself and many others in the faculty, occupied for most of Semester A.

A big thank you to Matthew Croft, VC Mary Stuart, Sarah Barrow, and to Dean of Faculty David Sleight – this new build had their full backing and support, and I would like to extend a big thank you to them for that.
[Chris Hainstock]

Also hank you to :
Craig Bratley, Mark Aldridge, Andrew Armstong, Steve Kirby, David McSherry, Bryan Rudd, Geoff Thompson, Ronnie Fowler, Sarah Barrow, Quadrant, & Apple!


The bespoke desk built by Paul Dalton, houses the mic pre-amps, and headphone amps, along with Mac screens and PC screens. Audio Visual installation was by Quadrant, and employs HDMI and Fibre Channel cabling to connect the computers, tv screens  and the control systems.

This theatre will provide for the first time full sound mixing to picture to broadcast standards, and is a real statement of the ambitions of the Lincoln School of Media and University of Lincoln.

Enter Calico Trailer

With a world premiere of all the videos on 4th November in Manchester, here’s a taster of the videos featuring in Clear Notice’s debut music app release for the iPad. More information on the Clear Notice website.

The premiere will take place at 8pm on Thursday 4th November 2010 and tickets are FREE, but issued on a first come, first served basis.

Along with the first full screening of the Enter Calico music videos will be an artist / videographer Q&A session (inc. David McSherry), giving you the chance to find out more about the work of CNR’s talented artists. Tickets are strictly limited, so please grab one only if you’re sure you’re able to attend.

Enter Calico Trailer from Clear Notice on Vimeo.