DESCRIPTION

The 3rd edition of our collaboration with Maine College of Art's Salt Institute for Documentary Studies is here! Spend a weekend in Belfast with award-winning audio producers and documentarians Josie Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum (Director, Salt Institute), immersing yourself in the sonic landscape and retraining your ears to listen deeply to what’s around you. In this three-day workshop we will make audio field recordings in and around Belfast, using both standard equipment as well as some more experimental microphones that can record vibrations through objects, make underwater recordings, and capture “3D sound.” 

We’ll then demonstrate how those recordings can be manipulated for greater clarity, layered for experimental compositions, or used to create a more narrative audio scene. The final recordings will be uploaded to an online archive or map. We will finish the class with a public and participatory sharing of what we capture!

Beginners welcome! Equipment and instruction provided. Welcome dinner and closing meal included (Friday evening and Sunday evening). 

SCHEDULE

*Detailed schedule sent after registration

Day 1 (Friday, Aug. 7th evening)

• Welcome dinner and introductions

• Listening exercises and ear training

Day 2 (Saturday, Aug. 8th)

• Field recording techniques and instruction (morning)

• Field production, going out and recording in Greater Belfast

• Begin post-production process in editing software

Day 3 (Sunday, Aug. 9th)

• Continue to fine tune audio editing (levels, filters) experimental compositions

• Sharing of projects, reflection

• Closing meal

LOCATION:

Torchlight, 158 High St, Belfast, ME

COST:

Sliding scale $250-450. Consider paying the higher price and provide opportunities/access to scholarship and students in need of more financial assistance! Payment plans and scholarships available. To learn more about options, or for any other payment related questions, please contact us at torchlightmaine@gmail.com. 

To hold your spot, a deposit of $100 is needed. The remainder is due on or before the first day.

Please note: Deposits are nonrefundable as long as class is held as scheduled.

Payment Plans and Scholarship are available. To learn more about payments plans and scholarship options, or for any other payment related questions, please contact us at torchlightmaine@gmail.com. We would be happy to speak with you and provide more information.

Payment for workshops can be received by check, cash, Venmo, and Paypal. Checks or cash strongly preferred. 

INSTRUCTORS:

Isaac Kestenbaum is the Director of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, An immersive, semester-long field-based graduate program. He is also the co-founder with his wife, Josephine Holtzman, of the audio production company Future Projects.

Isaac is also an audio producer and journalist. His most recent podcast, Alaska Is the Center of the Universe for Audible was written up in The New Yorker. His previous Audible Original, Midnight Son, was a best-seller and was adapted into the documentary Blood & Myth for Hulu, on which Isaac served as Executive Producer.

His work has been funded by the Arctic Circle Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Isaac has also worked with Vox, NPR, The Guardian US, ESPN, Religion of Sports, PRX, The GroundTruth Project, AIR, and SIERRA Magazine. 

He is the former Production Manager at the national oral history and radio project StoryCorps. Honors include a Peabody Award, a duPont Award, two Online News Association awards, a Signal Award and an Alaska Broadcasters “Goldie” Award. 

Josie Holtzman is an audio documentarian, podcast producer and multimedia artist. She has conceived, produced and sound designed audio projects for NPR, PRX, the Guardian, Audible Originals, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, ESPN and Sony.  She was an executive producer of the Hulu documentary Blood and Myth based on the best-selling Audible Original Midnight Son which she co-produced.

Her work includes an award-winning multimedia project about the effects of climate change on Alaska's rural indigenous communities, a multi-platform project exploring the modern-day impacts of treaties on Native American communities in the US with NPR's Storylab and the Pulitzer Center, and a Gracie Award-winning series on abuse in professional women’s soccer.  She has produced soundwalks and audio tours for the  Eisenhower Memorial Museum and the Anchorage Museum, among others.  She has taught at NYU’s Journalism School, the Association for Independent in Radio, UnionDocs and Monson Arts.

Supported by Torchlight staff, Chris Battaglia & Eli Kao

FAQ:

I want to sign up but I don’t have any audio experience. Is that okay?
Yes! We will accommodate all experience levels.

Do I need any of my own equipment or gear in order to participate?
No–we have kits available to lend that you'll learn how to use. But if you have your own equipment and want to understand it better, or get more use out of it, bring it along.

Do I have to know what kind of audio recording I want to make before I sign up?
No–idea incubation and planning will be participatory group activities.