Salford Conference Report:‘Bigger than Word, Wider than Pictures’: Noise, Affect, Politics

Conference Adelphi House, July 1-3, 2010

From the 1st to the 3rd of July the above conference on Noise washeld at Adelphi House with an associated gig at Studio Salford atthe Kings Arms in Salford. The event was conceived and convened byMichael Goddard and Benjamin Halligan, with funding from Salford’sRISF fund.

The event started with former Salford professor Sheila Whiteley’sre-examination of noise in late 60s psychedelia while the otherkeynotes Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire looked atambient noise in pre and post-punk musics and Paul Hegartyexamined the relationship between noise and time bothphilosophically and with reference to specific practices of noisemusic. These two keynotes expressed a combining of theory andpractice being both noise pracitioners and theorists that wastypical of the event as a whole; for example an entire noise bandfrom Brazil, Simbiotecnoise, both performed at the Kings Arms gigassociated with the conference and each member of the band alsogave academic presentations. As well as Brazil, conferenceparticipants came form as far afield as Japan, Singapore,Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands and North America making this atruly international event. In additions to addressing a range ofnoise musics, or noise in music ranging from classical compositionvia improvisation to rock, psychedelic, post-punk, industrial andnoise musics, there were also panels on the philosophical aspectsof noise, noise in cinema and visual arts, noise and the city,noise and politics and noise and anti-psychiatry. Many of thesepanels were chaired by MMP’s PhD students – and even a fewaspirant Salford postgraduate students!

The academic sessions of the conference were complemented by thescreening of Eve Woods’ recent film on Sheffield music andpolitics in the 1980s, The Beat is the Law Part 1, which followed onperfectly from Stephen Mallinder’s presentation. Friday night’s

gig at the King’s Arms featured six noise performances including –in addition to Simbiotecnoise’s evocation of the origins ofplanetary life via a 45 minute composition – a performance pieceinvolving the deconstruction of prepared laptops by ChrstineEllison, aka iPolly Touch, Paul Hegarty as Safe, Preston composer JohnAveyard, the projection of a series of Para-Musical experiments byChristopher Gladwin and a mesmerising experimental performance bylegendary shoegazer group The Telescopes. On the final day we werejoined by Stephen Lawrie form The Telescopes and StuartBraithwaite from acclaimed post-rock group Mogwai for a round-table discussion, which engaged with all the multi-faceted ways inwhich noise had been understood and expressed throughout theconference. Stuart talked about his experiences scoring Hollywoodmovies and both Stuart and Stephen were available to delegates fordiscussion before and after.

Work has already begun on two publication outputs from theconference: two edited collections, one on noise musics and theother on the philosophy, aesthetics and politics of noise. Thereis also interest in further noise events, as well as the formationof a global noise network to capitalise on the internationalinterest both in the conference and in noise practices andresearch, in which Salford could play a central role. We were alsodelighted to receive suggestions of more general forms of academicexchange, especially with our participants from Rio de Janeiro.

All in all, this was a highly successful and enjoyable event, asis confirmed by the following testimonies from some of theconference participants.

A big thank you to Michael and Ben, I think you may have created a moment that willchange the way people study noise in the future. - Daniel Wilson, University ofLeeds

Just wanted to say congratulations on last week’s conference. I thought the whole event was very interesting and impressive. Many thanks for the opportunity to come and join you.Stephen Mallinder, University of Brighton/Member of Cabaret Voltaire

Certainly it was one of the most agreeable conferences which I have participated in.Instead of defining noise in a restricted way, which I think would be to impoverish thediscussion, I could see (and hear) a broadening field, full of different aspects to beexplored and different approaches. It will certainly have effects on my research from now

on. Jose Castanheira, State University of Rio de Janiero

To join the chorus, the conference was a fantastic brain massage with so many brilliantand affable people; many thanks to Michael & Ben for bringing us all together. Sebastian Roberts, Noise Artist and Theorist, Japan

It has been an exhilarating 3 days at the conference: the wide diversity of topics and issuesraised and discussed; the amazing sounds and musics heard; the conversations andexchange of ideas between the participants. Congratulations to Ben and Michael fororganizing and coordinating and making this conference a success. - Joseph Tham,Singapore

It was indeed a fantastic conference; one of the best I've ever been to, anyway. Thank you very much, Michael and Benjamin, for organizing it. - James Mooney, University of Leeds

I agree to the point of excess with everyone! It was a great event, really well organised andwelcoming (thanks Ben and Michael). Great atmosphere, and some healthy arguing…Dr. Paul Hegarty, University College, Cork

What a brilliant conference!!!  It was the right size - although there were papers I'd still like to have got to, and everyone was brilliant!  I'm still buzzing and have that feeling inside likesomewhere it's still going on - maybe just in my head, but still fantastic.  Thanks you, thank youSheila Whiteley, Emeritus Professor, University of Salford

It was obviously a really excellent conference and I'm pleased to have participated. Dr. Dean Lockwood, University of Lincoln

I wanted to thank both you and Ben for organising a phenomenal  conference. It was the most interesting, diverse, and welcoming one I've been to yet with a real sense of excitement for future work! Conferences like these are the reason I want a career in academia.Laura Wilson, University of Manchester

Many thanks for this wonderful event. It seemed that the concept of noise has a paradigmatic value that connects the most remote disciplines, seeing how this plays out ina body of articles will be very interesting. - Cecile Malaspina, University of Bristol

Thanks so much for organizing such an exciting and ambitious conference, and for inviting me to take part. I learned so much from the talks and discourse of the event, and

I'm sure I will continue to learn from the future work of many of those I met at the conference. - Clara Latham, NYU

Friday night “noise event” at the Kings Arms, which followed theconference (Mexican) meal, and was open to the public too – some

travelled up from London for it.

Saturday morning roundtable discussion with Dr Paul Hegarty("Noise/Music"), noise theorist / activist Mattin, panel chair Dr

Benjamin Halligan, Stephen Lawrie (of The Telescopes), StuartBraithwaite (of Mogwai), Prof Sheila Whiteley ("The Space Between

the Notes").

Lexi Patterson of Cardiff University on Sound Barriers: The FramingFunctions of Noise and Silence

Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai talks about extreme volume andshoegaze group My Bloody Valentine, and the battle between melody

and noise in his own group’s music

Simbiotecnoise in performance on Friday night

The Telescopes provided the “headline” act for the conference,with improvised light show by Dutch glitch artist / conference

participant Rosa Menkman.

Full programme: http://www.famss.salford.ac.uk/page/noise,-affect,-politics-conference