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CoDI Off-Grid sgwrs #9

John Harvey

PENALLTA COLLIERY -

A SONIC INTERVENTION

16:00 Tuesday 05.04.22

Welsh coalmining has been pictorialised ever since it emerged as a cottage industry in the early 13th century.  From the second half of the 19th century until its demise in the 1980s, what grew into a large and complex technological means of production became a significant genre in Welsh landscape art. However, little attention has been paid to the unique and powerful acoustic character of the industry, other than the textual testimonies to such recorded by workers and visitors, that is. Until the development of electrical sound recording in the mid-1920s, and the increase in fidelity and capacity to record a wide frequency band, it was impossible to capture and preserve the actuality of the collieries’ sonorities.

In 1930, the British Movietone newsreel company recorded South Wales Colliers Go Down the Mine. It represented the ‘first sound pictures of a British coalmine’. The film’s sonic profile embraces the wide range and the peculiarities of noises produced by, for example, machines, steam, hydraulics, pneumatics, pit-wheels, drams, and cages, as well as the colliers’ voices and the movie’s accompanying musical interludes. This source represents the primary material for a suite of sound-art composition entitled Penallta Colliery: Sound Pictures, which will be released by the Screen and Sound Archive of Wales in July 2022.  

The presentation will provide an overview of the sound work, including an account of: the source material; the conceptualization of the project; the methodology and technology of sound construction; the compositional process; the suite’s relationship to my previous sound, visual, and art historical work; and the problematics of engaging with coalmining history in a post-COP26 world.

hyd / duration: 60-90 mins

Mae mynediad i'r digwyddiad hwn yn rhad ac am ddim 

Admission is free of charge REGISTER HERE 

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John Harvey is a practitioner and historian of sound art and visual art, and Emeritus Professor at the School of Art, Aberystwyth University.. His research field is the sonic and visual culture of religion. In art history, his studies engage the visual imagery of the Bible in relation to sound, popular piety, supernaturalist traditions, and working-class culture. In art practice, his work explores visual, textual, and aural sources of the Bible, Judaeo-Christianity, theological and cultural ideas, and systemic processes. It is explored in The Pictorial Bible series of exhibitions and The Aural Bible series of CD releases. The Aural Bible series (released by the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales) deals with the Judaeo-Christian scriptures as the written, spoken, and heard word. It also explores the cultural articulations and adaptations of the Bible – through preaching, reading, and prayer -- within the Protestant tradition, especially. The works embark upon a critical, responsive, and interpretive intervention with aspects of religious sound culture. His website provides a comprehensive overview of publications, electroacoustic compositions, visual art exhibitions, conference papers, teaching, and research supervision: https://johnharvey.org.uk/

> John Harvey website

> John Harvey Sound website

 

> Intersections of Sound, Image, Word, and Life website includes a series of blogs on the project, collectively entitled ‘The Road to Penallta Colliery'

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CYM

CoDI Dan-Ddaear sgwrs #9

John Harvey

GLOFA PENALLTA – YMYRIAD SONIG

16:00 Dydd Mawrth 05.04.22

Mae cloddio am lo yng Nghymru wedi’i ddarlunio ers dod i’r fei fel diwydiant cartref ar ddechrau’r 13eg ganrif. O ail hanner y 19eg ganrif nes iddo ddarfod yn y 1980au, daeth yr hyn a dyfodd yn ddull technegol, mawr a chymhleth o gynhyrchu yn genre arwyddocaol yng nghelfyddyd dirluniol Cymru. Fodd bynnag, ni roddwyd fawr o sylw i gymeriad acwstig unigryw a phwerus y diwydiant, hynny yw, heblaw am dystiolaethau testunol i’r cyfryw a recordiwyd gan weithwyr ac ymwelwyr. Hyd nes datblygiad recordio sain trydan yng nghanol y 1920au a’r cynnydd o ran cywirdeb a’r gallu i recordio band tonfedd eang, roedd yn amhosibl dal a chadw soniareddau go iawn y pyllau glo.

Ym 1930, recordiodd y cwmni ffilmiau newyddion British Movietone South Wales Colliers Go Down the Mine. Dyma’r lluniau sain cyntaf o bwll glo ym Mhrydain. Mae proffil sonig y ffilm yn ymgorffori ystod eang a nodweddion unigryw’r synau a gynhyrchid gan, er enghraifft, peiriannau, stêm, hydroleg, niwmateg, olwynion pwll, dramiau a chawellau pwll, yn ogystal â lleisiau’r glowyr a’r interliwdiau cerddorol sy’n cyd-fynd â’r ffilm. Y ffynhonnell hon yw’r deunydd crai ar gyfer cyfres o gyfansoddiadau celfyddyd sain o’r enw Glofa Penallta: Lluniau Sain a ryddheir gan  Archif Sgrin a Sain Cymru ym mis Gorffennaf 2022.

Bydd y cyflwyniad yn cynnig trosolwg o’r gwaith sain gan gynnwys hanes y deunydd crai; cysyniadoli’r prosiect; methodoleg a thechnoleg adeiladu sain; y broses gyfansoddi; perthynas y gyfres â’m gwaith sain, gweledol a hanes celf blaenorol a’r problemau wrth ymgysylltu â hanes y pyllau glo mewn byd ar ôl COP26.

hyd: 60-90 munud

Mae mynediad i'r digwyddiad hwn yn rhad ac am ddim 

COFRESTRWCH YMA

Ymarferydd a hanesydd celfyddyd sain a chelfyddyd weledol yw John Harvey ac yn Athro Celf yn Ysgol Gelf Prifysgol Aberystwyth. Ei faes ymchwil yw diwylliant sonig a gweledol crefydd. Yn hanes celf, mae ei astudiaethau’n ymdrin â delweddaeth weledol duwioldeb poblogaidd, traddodiadau goruwchnaturiol a diwylliant dosbarth gweithiol. O ran ei waith celf, mae’n edrych ar ffynonellau gweledol, testunol a chlywedol y Beibl, Cristnogaeth-Iddewig, syniadau diwinyddol a diwylliannol a phrosesau systemig. Edrychir arno drwy’r gyfres o arddangosfeydd, Y Beibl Darluniadol a’r gyfres o CDs, Y Beibl Clywedol. Mae’r olaf yma (a gyhoeddir gan Archif Sgrin a Sain Cymru) yn ymdrin â’r ysgrythurau fel y gair ysgrifenedig, llafar ac a glywir. Mae’r gyfres hefyd yn edrych ar ynganiadau ac addasiadau o’r Beibl drwy bregethu, darllen a gweddïo. Mae’r gweithiau’n cyflwyno ymyriad beirniadol, ymatebol a deongliadol gydag agweddau ar ddiwylliant sain crefydd.

> gwefan John Harvey

> gwefan John Harvey Sound

 

> Intersections of Sound, Image, Word, and Life website

yn cynnwys blogiau am y prosiect: ‘The Road to Penallta Colliery'

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Tŷ Cerdd is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner in association with Youth Music

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