WFAE Conferences In 2014 | Call For Abstracts and Audioworks In March

Two important events will take place in 2014, endorsed by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). Sound In the Land is a 4-day festival and conference happening June 5-9 at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Invisible Places | Sounding Cities is a 3-day symposium on sound, urbanism and sense of place happening on July 18-20 in Viseu, Portugal within the annual Jardins Efémeros (Ephemeral Gardens) arts festival.

Submissions and proposals for Sound In the Land will be accepted until March 15, 2014. The deadline for submissions (abstracts and audio works) for Invisible Places has been extended to March 31, 2014.

Sound in the Land features keynotes by R. Murray Schafer and South African researcher, Gus Mills. The field of ecomusicology figures large in this conference, as well as a Mennonite perspective. Conference organizer Carol Weaver writes, ”We are looking for proposals from all interested presenters (no need to be Mennonite!) We will have conference presentations, workshops, poster presentations, soundscapes, soundwalks, installations as well as concerts of live music, singing, and new commissions.”

The Invisible Places | Sounding Cities symposium has support from many organizations in Portugal. Keynote presentations on architecture, public spaces, and sound art by Jean-Paul Thibaud, Salomé Voegelin, and Brandon LaBelle will be accompanied by a concert by Francisco López, including workshops on sound, music and sound walks.

During the symposium a meeting between artists and Portuguese researchers will be held with representatives of the WFAE in order to create a new Portuguese affiliate in our international network. The opening day July 18 is also the 2014 World Listening Day.

The symposium’s scientific committee is comprised of an international body including members of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) The WFAE is an international association of affiliated organizations concerned with and individuals in Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia that share a common concern with the state of the world’s soundscapes. WFAE members represent a multi-disciplinary spectrum of individuals engaged in the study of the social, cultural and ecological aspects of the sonic environment.