Iraq - Sound check with Walking Arts

Numerous autumn activities of Walking Arts - Art, Culture & Heritage within the Here, now toghete - Social Artsproject with the contribution of the Fondation Assistance Internationale - FAI.

The overall reality in Iraq is certainly not easy.
The number of infected people in the Covid 19 pandemic is growing in a situation in which the already precarious health system proves to be completely insufficient.
The economic and social crisis has become a constant.
Young people continue to fill the squares, such as October 29, 2020, on the anniversary of the protests that began a year ago. There is talk of elections in mid-2021, but nothing is decided yet.

In this chaotic and complex framework, young artists, musicians, cartoonists continue stubbornly and creatively to work, to meet online and live when and where possible, to design and imagine, growing together in the use of various artistic languages.

After the summer initiatives, a recording studio was activated in the spaces of the Duhok Art Gallery to allow musicians to be autonomous in music production.

In November, the first part of the Trainig dedicated to audio techniques and production of musical products was held to strengthen the knowledge base of young musicians. The entire training course had to take place through the creation of the new CD of the Ensemble Mshakht together with the Italian musicians of News Landscapes..
Obviously, as everywhere in the world, the pandemic has forced plans to change.

In this way, a new way of realizing the Traning was built between online and presence, which was attended by some young people from Duhok in the recording studio and others in connection from different parts of Iraq, such as Baghdad, Nineveh Plain, Basra and Najaf.
A rich program of theoretical and laboratory moments, alternating in a synergistic way the online presence of the expert Francesco Fabiano and from Iraq of Maestro Luca Chiavinato.

The training focused mainly on sound sources.
In the first session Francesco Fabiano started with basic hints of acoustic physics: what sound is, how it propagates, acoustic perception, waveforms (sinusoids), dec.
He then continued with an explanation of the various types of connectors and cables that are used for the transmission of an audio signal, balanced and unbalanced cables.
To get to illustrate what a microphone is, how it is built, how it "captures" the sound, and the difference that distinguishes the two great families of microphones (dynamic and condenser).ibels, hertz.
The day continued with practical recording exercises, coordinated by Luca Chiavinato, recording voices and instruments with dynamic and condenser microphones to listen to the resulting sound differences.

In the second session, the lesson continued on the various types of microphone, the differences between various types of capsules (cardioid, hypercardioid and omnidirectional) and their uses.
The in-depth study was developed to understand:
 which microphones are best suited according to the situation and context,
 differences in the choice of microphones to be used for studio recording or live events,
 what problems are encountered in the use of microphones in live events,
 what is the larsen effect,
 which microphone to use for the various instruments differences between large and small diaphragm mic and their use.

Moving on to analyze the various types of pickups, passive and active, their positioning, what is a D.I. Box and their use.
From here the techniques of miking and positioning based on the instruments were studied.

The last part was dedicated to stereo recording techniques and microphone position schemes (X-Y, ORTF, SPACED).

The laboratory part was dedicated to practical exercises and recording, using the various positions studied, followed by analysis and discussions on the results and the performance of the various choices.

The entire course was a large space for discussion with questions from the participants.
All the material used for the lessons and much more is available to students
within the classroom on Google Classroom along with the entire video recordings of the lessons.
The class remains an open place, where young people can interact with experts, exchange materials and opinions.

On the program there is the desire to continue with the precious contribution of Francesco Fabiano and the following lessons are already being planned to allow young people to acquire basic notions useful for experimenting, researching and self-producing their works.

The activity is part of the path to strengthen the knowledge and skills of young people in various artistic fields in order to create innovative employment opportunities and make them increasingly independent, as is also being done with regard to art therapy and the language of comics.

Opera di Saman Kareem

There are many projects for the future: continue the strengthening and expansion of Walking Arts, create spaces in addition to the recording studio where young people can interact and share paths, work with art in the social field, make the new CD and maintain international contacts .
Ideas are not lacking!

Project with the contribution of Fondation Assistance Internationale – FAI, coordinato da Walking Arts - Art, Culture & Heritage in collaborazione con Associazione Ya Basta Caminantes ODV.