musician, composer & artist anna roberts-gevalt @ middlebury college, 2-5 April 2019.
Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Vermont native and one half of Smithsonian Folkways recording artists Anna & Elizabeth, visits Middlebury College from April 2-5, 2019 for a series of public events connected to Michael J. Kramer’s Digitizing Folk Music History seminar.
Anna is, as her bio puts it, a “multi disciplinary artist working in Brooklyn, moving outwards from her immersion in folk music.”
Please join us for any and all of the following events:
Morning Soundwalks
- Thursday and Friday, April 4 and 5, 9-10 am
- Meet in front of Davis Family Library
- Free and open to the public
- Come join us for some exploratory deep listening and field recording. Equipment can be checked out from Davis Family Library or just use your mobile phone or own recording device, or just bring your ears to walk and listen
- Recommended reading: Hildegard Westerkamp, “Soundwalking,” originally published in Sound Heritage 3, 4 (1974, revised 2001); republished in Autumn Leaves, Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice,ed. Angus Carlyle (Double Entendre, Paris, 2007), 49
Deep Listening in the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection
- Wednesday, April 3, 12:30-1:30 pm
- Special Collections & Archives, Davis Family Library
- Free and open to the public
- What we’ll be talking about: to prepare for the Anna & Elizabeth Smithsonian Folkways album The Invisible Comes To Us, Anna Roberts-Gevalt conducted research in the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College’s Special Collections and Archives. Come join us for a special event in Special Collections space itself to explore this fascinating collection of Vermont and New England traditional music with Anna
The Invisible Comes To Us: Digital Approaches to Intangible Cultural Heritage
- Wednesday, April 3, 5-6 pm
- Abernethy Room, Axinn Center
- Free and open to the public
- Coffee, tea, and snacks served
- A discussion exploring new approaches to intangible cultural heritage, with Digitizing Folk Music History artist-in-residence Anna Roberts-Gevalt of the modern folk duo Anna & Elizabeth (The Invisible Comes to Us, Smithsonian Folkways, 2018). The discussion will be facilitated by Digitizing Folk Music History professor Michael J. Kramer, Acting Director of the Digital Liberal Arts at Middlebury
- What we’ll be talking about: digital technology raises new possibilities—and new ethical and practical challenges—for thinking about intangible cultural heritage. One of Anna’s new projects finds her re-recording versions of songs in the locations where the original field recordings were made. She digitally maps and shares these experiences as reflections on time, place, and tradition across distances of background, belief systems, and social positions. Her developing project will serve as a means for our discussion of how artistic practices might combine with computational ones to address pressing issues of engaged listening
Hootenanny!
- Wednesday, April 3, 7-9 pm
- Abernethy Room, Axinn Center
- Free and open to the public
- Coffee, tea, and snacks served
- After the discussion, stay for some food and then an informal music hootenanny session. Bring your instrument or just stay to sing along or listen
Get Crankie! Devices for Accessing Tradition, from Crankies To VR & Back Again
- Thursday, April 4, 4-6 pm
- Davis Family Library 105 A-B
- Free and open to the public
- Coffee, tea, and snacks
- Digitizing Folk Music History Artist in Residence Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Middlebury College Professor of Music Peter Hamlin explore the relationship between analog and digital technologies of storytelling, facilitated by Digitizing Folk Music History professor Michael J. Kramer, Acting Director of the Digital Liberal Arts at Middlebury
- What we’ll be talking about: Anna will present her work with the crankie, which Sue Truman describes as “an old storytelling art form. It’s a long illustrated scroll that is wound onto two spools. The spools are loaded into a box which has a viewing screen. The scroll is hand-cranked while the story is told. It can be accompanied by a narrative, song or tune.” Peter Hamlin presents his modern version of the crankie—his work with virtual reality technologies to create immersive spaces shaped by music composition. Come take in some demonstrations and hang around to try them out, have some snacks, and chat as we explore the collision of old and new technologies
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