Reading the City


26/08/2021
18:00 - 21:00

dinA, Nieuwbrug 3 Rue du Pont Neuf, 1000 Brussels

 



supported by Vlaamse Gemeenschap, oracle, culturele activiteitenpremie Vlaamse Gemeenschap

[EN] oracle launches the vinyl edition of Reading the City. Sound artist Laszlo Umbreit has taken the vocal recordings from Reading the City and created a vinyl to accompany the science fiction writing of Mira Sanders.

At the end of the first lockdown in June 2020, that week the bars and cafes opened,  oracle was reading the city at different moments and places. The recordings of those moments were then sent to  Mira Sanders who wrote a sci-fi text based on the listening of the readings.
Laszlo turned the recordings into an experimental music piece called Places which will be released on an LP very soon. The second side of the LP exists of playful and improvisational recordings of Mira’s text.
Thursday 26 August this LP is launched (without LP) with a listening session in dinA. There will also be the chance to see some of the documentation around the project, like the beautiful scores of Tine Ringele.

[NL] oracle lanceert de vinyl editie van Reading the City. Geluidskunstenaar Laszlo Umbreit gebruikte de opnames van de vocale interventies van dit project voor de creatie van een vinyl die het science fictie verhaal van Mira Sanders begeleidt.

Aan het einde van de eerste lockdown in juni 2020, de week dat de bars en cafés opnieuw openden, werd de stad op verschillende momenten en plaatsen door oracle gelezen. De opnames van die momenten werden vervolgens naar Mira Sanders gestuurd, die een sciencefiction tekst schreef op basis van dit materiaal.
Laszlo maakte van de opnames een experimenteel muziekstuk, Places genaamd, dat zeer binnenkort op LP zal verschijnen. De tweede kant van de LP bestaat uit speelse en improvisatorische opnames van Mira’s tekst.
Donderdag 26 augustus wordt deze LP gelanceerd (zonder LP) met een luistersessie in dinA. Een selectie van de documentatie van het project – zoals de tekeningen van Tine Ringele – zal te zien zijn.

 

“From Afar – Preface

oracle invited me last year to write a text regarding their practice. The writing project was originally planned as an exchange while travelling together one week on the Buratinas boat, navigating on the canals and rivers starting from Brussels. Due to the sanitary conditions with the Covid19, the trip together could not be realised or at least was complicated.

Instead of seeing the situation as an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to travel with them from afar. Me, living outside the city and them, inside. My question was ‘how, through their voices echoing with the urban spaces, will I imagine the city’s everyday life?’. Because one of the things that Oracle’s practice does, is to offer ways to perceive and encounter the city and its inhabitants.

For the following texts I was inspired by the records Oracle sent me every day during one week. Besides that, the book Invisible Cities written by Italo Calvino gave me a way of structuring my imagination. Regarding the genre, I opted for a kind of ‘sci-fi storytelling’ that offered me as an artist (because I am not a writer) the idea of being able to reach limits beyond the daily news and instead, get closer to the (their) little stories of our (their) everyday life.

Mira Sanders, June 2020.”

[FR] Oracle lance l’édition vinyl de Reading the city, crée par l’artiste Laszlo Umbreit à partir d’enregistrements vocaux. Celui-ci accompagnera l’écriture science fictionnelle de Mira Sanders. Une session d’écoute est organisée à dinA.