Within the scientific-professional conference "CENTERS AND MARGINS – FORCES OF RAPPROCHEMENT", several programs were organized dedicated to the application of music as a support in the developmental processes of children, young people and vulnerable groups. The programs consisted of workshops and presentations led by artists, educators and activists from Serbia and abroad. The programs were open to artists and art educators, teachers, educators and parents of children with and without attention deficit disorders and other disabilities in social, intellectual and emotional development.
PROGRAM:
Creative music workshop
WORLDS WE DON'T KNOW
Irena Popović Dragović, composer
The workshop instructs participants how to translate words from stories and fairy-tales into drawing and music, thereby composing and performing music. Through stories of worlds that we don't know, which many of us are not even interested in, we draw attention to their existence and vulnerability. Poetic stories of disappearing animal species develop empathy for the youngest to the unknown and make them aware that they can protect marginalized groups of people, as well as their environment. Participants also question the limits of their openness and willingness to indulge in sound worlds they do not know and approach music worlds they were not interested in until then.
* The workshop is intended for teachers and everyone who works with children and youth on creative grounds. Children aged 5 and older can follow the program.
Voice workshop
VOCAL PROJECTIONS
Branko Milisković, performance artist
The subject of the workshop is the voice and its application in performance as a form of public statement. The content will be rhetoric, reading text in different ways: aloud, in the same voice, cacophony, very loud, etc., as well as listening to selected vocal works (author’s and by others). The conclusion of the workshop is a discussion of the experiences.
* The workshop is not intended for children and teenagers, and for people with speech disabilities (deaf mune).
Body music workshop
BODY PERCUSSIONS
Ana Vrbaški and Marko Dinjaški, Association »Oper Circle Novi Sad«
Body music is the oldest form of musical and nonverbal expression and a great tool for working with different target groups: children, youth, adults, seniors, people with disabilities. It is also a contemporary artistic expression that combines dance, music, movement, theatre and performing. This year (22-25 Sept.) the facilitators shall organize in Sremski Karlovci the first international festival of body music in Serbia and the region "New Balkan rhythm".
* The program is intended for professionals who want to apply body music to work with different target groups.
B-AIR SYMPOSIUM
Within the program of the conference "Centres and Margines - Forces of Rapprochement", a Symposium "Sound and Music in Support to Vulnerable Groups" was included as an opportunity for project partners to exchange experiences and present some key questions that emerged during their work processes.
- Dana Papacristou, Yorgos Samantas, TWIXTlab, Athens, Greece:
Audibility: sound art approaches in Special Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing adolescents /
Slušnost: pristupi umetnosti zvuka u specijalnoj edukaciji gluvih i nagluvih adolescenata
Audibility is an interventional project for artistic research, production and education concerned with the ways of the Deaf with sound art and music. The presentation consisted of a theoretical introduction from the perspective of Deaf anthropology and anthropology of art, enhanced by fieldwork observations, and a screening of two artistic interventions in a Special School for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing in Athens, Greece.
- Saša Rakef Perko i Sabrina Povšić Štimec, Radio and Television Slovenia - RTV SLO, Ljubljana:
Hospital Radio / Bolnički radio
The presentation focused on the structure and content of Hospital radio, created for toddlers, children, and youth, who are bound to hospital environment due to different health reasons for shorter or longer periods in time. Carefully curated artistic content is selected on the premise that it might ease the discomfort of staying in the hospital as well as fears and tension patients feel.
- Vesna Perić Momčilović, Radio and Television Serbia - RTS, Belgrade:
Radio shows: entertainment, educational or scientific work? /
Radijske emisije: zabava, obrazovanje ili naučni rad?
Radio shows appeal to a wide audience that is often unprepared for scientific and/or educational research. The topic refers to the experiences gained during the recording, editing and broadcasting of 9 shows on three radio Belgrade frequences in 2021-2022. Presented production consisted of radioshows in three categories: documentary, docu-fiction, and sound experiment. Majority of the shows were the result of researches in various fields such as: sound art, anthropology and ethnomusicology, audio memory, speech pathology, psycholinguistics etc.
- Giuseppe Gavazza, AAU Cresson-ENSAG, Grenoble, France:
A journey through soundscapes heard by special ears; Soundwalk, soundscapes and composition /
Putovanje kroz zvučne pejzaže koje slušaju naročite uši; Zvučne šetnje, zvučni pejzaži i kompozicija
People with special needs actively explore and make sense of their environment in a personal way. Interactive Soundwalks and landscape perception through shared listening, by emphasizing the close relationship between music, culture, and identity, promote shared decision making, participatory bonding, and interaction with the environment and offer a fertile context for redefining the role of music education. Creative activities based on soundscape listening, which examples were shown in the presentation, could facilitate the development of sound-based relationships, reducing negative experiences in sharing musical activities.
- Ana Čorić, Radio teatar, Zagreb, Croatia:
Wars of the Worlds: Children as Sound and Memory Makers /
Ratovi svetova: Deca kao stvaraoci zvuka i sećanja
Presentation showed the process of arts-based research with children who are actively participating in the radiophonic theatre play The Wars of The Worlds created and performed by RadioTeatar Bajsić i prijatelji during pandemic times. In this theatre play children were co-creating the sound directly on stage, using various everyday objects in producing sounds, in interaction with actors. As an extension to their improvisation with sounds on the stage, a memory game was created as a research tool which complements the ethnographic approach to research right after the theatre play. During the presentation, the focus was be both on the process and the product of research.
GALACTIC GONG JOURNEY WITH SOUND
(Gong Bath)
Anika Petrović, Galactic Gong Center, Belgrade
Sound healing treatments are deep relaxation treatments which help us establish inner peace, harmony and balance on all levels of our being. Sound baths enable letting go of unwanted thoughts as the attention is at sound that can make changes in emotional field, removing the burdens, subconscious programs, limited beliefs, stress, anxiety, various blockages and even pain (including physical pain). They stimulate the processes of self-reflection and self-recognition as sound travels through every body cell, fostering clarity, inspiration, motivation, creativeness etc.
HANNAH
Blue Theatre, Belgrade
A contemporary dance-vocal-instrumental recital dedicated to all holocaust victims is based on the thesis on the banality of evil, by the famous German philosopher and political theorist of Jewish origin, Hannah Arendt. The play calls for us to resist evil by starting to think from another person's perspective. The play also features traditional Jewish dances and Sephardic, Ashkena and spiritual Jewish songs performed by actors.
* The play is accessible to deaf, hard of hearing and blind people, through sign language interpretation and audiodescribing.
