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Six Turntables
Workshop and Performance

Six Turntables is a project that gathers groups of young people to listen to, learn about, and remix audio archives. The project is shared in a series workshops led by Christopher Willes in collaboration with Akash Bansal, each of which conclude with a performance. Six Turntables has been shared in a variety of contexts in Canada since 2017.

Through a facilitated process that blends sound-making and listening exercises, somatic practice, writing and dialog, the workshops share practices of collective listening that treat records not as commodity objects but as shared experiences. Using turntables, amplifiers, and custom-made vinyl records participants develop techniques for physically transforming fragments of the archive into new sonic compositions together. Each workshop concludes with public performance, share practices and sounds developed through the process, and the release of a zine documenting the process.

The audio recordings used in the workshops are drawn from sounds created during past workshops and archival materials relevent to each new presentation context. For example, at the Toronto Public Library we worked with their vinyl record collection and focusing on experimental music from Toronto in the 1970’s and 80’s, at the Music Gallery we worked with recordings from their Music Gallery Editions label, and we are currently planning future iterations with a music festival, remixing their audio archives of past festival performances.

For more background on project see this document. You can also read this call for workshop participants from a previous iteration.

Presentations

- Toronto, Toronto Biennial of Art, October 30 - November 7 2024
- The Music Gallery, X Avant Festival, October 3 - 11 2023
- Toronto Public Library (Albion), February 11- March 4 2023
- Toronto Public Library (Cedarbrea), development workshops, October/November 2019
- Toronto Public Library (Scarborough Civic Centre), October 12-29 2017

Credits

Project by Christopher Willes, created in collaboration with Akash Bansal (dramaturge). Workshop co-facilitated by Akash Bansal and Christopher Willes. Photo by Kendra Epik.

Music Gallery workshop participants/performers: Aliyah Aziz, Jada Fleming, Julianna Angheloni, Ky Gray, Nikki Gilani and Will Carriere. Toronto Public Library workshop participants 2017-2023: Gian Caracciolo, Gianluca Occhipinti, James Wells, Jason Li, Lucas McCarten, Maria Patricia Abuel, Taggart Quinn, Ximuna Diego, and Nanthini Namasti.

Special thanks to Jenn Goodwin, Roxanne Fernandes, James Baily, Gayle Young, Sanjeet Takhar, Matthew Fava, Max Halparin, Mitchell Akiyama, Seika Boye, Jim Lewis, Michelle Brownrigg, Emerald Ekong, Olang Cerda-Moesker, Joseph Glaser, Keith Stratton, Ellen Furey, Claire Harvie, Joe Strutt, Anne Bourne, Ishan Davé, Kendra Epik, Philip Nozuka, Erika Hennebury, Beau Levitt, Bill Vrantsidis, Radha Shilash, Liz Hysen, and Raymond Bai for helping us to develop this project through it’s various stages.

Photographs by Kendra Epik, Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias

Custom vinyl records cut by Jackson Darby (Personal Touch Vinyl).

Developed with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council - Artists in the Library Program (2017-23). Produced by Christopher Willes, in partnership with Public Recordings.