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. Each iteration is shared as a series workshops—led by Christopher Willes and Akash Bansal—that conclude with participants staging a public noise concert.
The workshops blend sound-making, somatic practice, writing and dialog, to explore practices of collective listening that treat records not as commodity objects but as shared experiences. Each session begins with physical practices intended to build group sensitivity and sonic awareness before moving into sound making. Using turntables, amplifiers, and custom-made vinyl records, participants practice techniques for physically transforming fragments of the archive into new sonic compositions together. In this way, the group develops a form of collective DJing together. Each iteration concludes with an experimental concert, in which participants perform soundscapes developed through the workshops, and a zine that documents their process is shared.
The audio recordings used in the workshops include sounds created during past workshops and archival materials specific to each new presentation context. For example, at the Toronto Public Library we worked recordings of experimental music made in Toronto in the 1970’s found in the TPL’s vinyl record collection, and at the Music Gallery we worked with recordings from the Music Gallery Editions label. In 2025/26 we’re planning a new iteration with a music festival and an artist-run centre, reworking audio found in each institution’s archive of past performances.
Six Turntables has been shared in a variety of contexts in Canada since 2017. For more background on project see this document. You can also read this call for workshop participants from a previous iteration at the Toronto Biennial of Art in 2024.
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.
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Related projects: Listening in the library, Listening at the CLGA, Cheap DJ, Quiet Concerts, Noises