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Festival of Ideas

The festival of Ideas was initiated in 2011 by the University of York working in association with the NCEM, York Theatre Royal and Yorkshire Museums Trust and has blossomed to engage with a broad range of partners currently including BBC Radio 3, The British Library, Granta Magazine, The Institute for Engineering and Technology, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the V&A.

The 2013 programme - with a theme of North and South - brings together a range of world-class speakers, exhibitions, performances and interactive experiences for people of all ages from York, Yorkshire and the rest of the world! The terms North and South are suffused with cultural, social, economic, historical, scientific, geographical, industrial and broader resonances - in the UK and throughout the world.

Recognising York's status as 'capital of the North', this year's Festival will explore, question and celebrate ideas of 'North', both as a stand-alone idea, and in direct comparison with ideas of 'South'. Ideas of cultural identity, health, food, women, technology, engineering and architecture are just some of the array of subjects which will be presented in more than 120 events across a 15-day period.

These are the two events happening at the NCEM


Music as Architecture

Thursday 13 June 7:30pm

Adults £6.00 | Concessions £4.00 | Students £3.00
Join the students of the University of York Creative Performance Project, directed by Ambrose Field, as they unveil an evening soundscape of music, performance and video giving an unusual musical perspective on York's famous historic architecture.

From South to North  

Monday 24 June 7:30pm

Adults £6.00 | Concessions £4.00 | Students £3.00

Pole to pole

A new vocal sonification by Andy Hunt based on the Earth's magnetic pole flips over many millennia.

Prototype Vocal Tract Organ
This will be the world premiere showing of the prototype vocal tract organ from the Audio Lab, which is based on 3-D prints of human vocal tracts, that will be used to accompany voices.

If/Then+Really (as if)
for live and synthetic voices, by Kevin Jones, featuring Mezzo Soprano Lisa Coates.

If/Then+Really (as if) is a music/performance work, which explores the broadening impact of human-machine interaction and the ways in which we increasingly find ourselves navigating the terrain that divides the poles of humanity and technology. Featuring Mezzo Soprano Lisa Coates, the piece combines a live singing-speaking voice with synthetic voices performing in a musical/dramatic counterpoint. Growing from a conversation with a telephone menu options system the relationship between the live and synthetic characters becomes a vortex of understanding and misunderstanding as they both struggle to find meaning in their interaction.

Vocal Vision 1
Vocal Vision 1 was written by David Howard for a four-part computer-based synthetic vocalise quartet and two sopranos, Clare Steele-King and Annie Howard.

Vocal Vision 1 juxtaposes a computer synthesised four-part choral texture with two solo voices to allow particular differences between them to be placed in stark contrast as a vocal vision of the technological 'now'. The synthesised voices can hold all aspects of a note, such as pitch, tuning, volume and vowel quality, exactly and for as long as is desired; this is not the case for a human sung output where there are constant small-scale variations as well as a need to breathe! Listen out for diphthongs, basic sounds we use in speech communication, that are stretched over many bars; something the synthetic choir can easily achieve. Contrast this with the lack of consonants, something the synthetic choir cannot easily achieve, to be appreciated all the more by their absence.





The 2013 brochure can be downloaded below
Festival_of_Ideas_Brochure_2013_brochure.pdf

Please see the Festival of Ideas website for further information www.yorkfestivalofideas.com