Berlin based sound artist Felisha Ledesma epitomises a true sense of community with and within her sound practice. Having co founded a 30,000 ft underground gallery space, S1, Felisha provided a platform for artists to showcase and experiment with their practices, offering residencies and one off opportunities. From the first installation she hosted in 2014, S1 has displayed a diverse range of audio and visual works, the installation by Birch Cooper speaking to me most. In the space at S1, strobe lights were being triggered by synthesisers he had built. I loved the joining of the visual with the audio, the video shown in the lecture almost hypnotising me. The idea of being given a space to experiment with an idea so bold, and Birch Cooper’s ability to build his own synthesisers, is something I’m highly interested in. I would love to hone in on my own sonic practices to the point of excellence, in order to be able to experience an opportunity like this. From Ledesma’s description of her experience, and from my personal research, it seems as though a residence is a place of community- somewhere where your personal sonic practice would benefit the space of residence just as much as that space would benefit you. It is almost like a complete dedication to your craft, which would allow you to polish skills and learn in an environment without distractions.

Ledesma exhibits this idea with her description of her time working at the Synth Library, which she co launched in 2016. True to its name, the Synth Library is a space where artists can freely use equipment (synthesisers) for recording and performance. True to the sense of community Ledesma expresses in her work and life, the Synth Library is an inclusive space to all regardless of experience with the equipment- volunteers donate their time to ensuring those using the facilities are able to have someone on hand to troubleshoot any issues, passing on knowledge. Ledesma noted that having spent a generous amount of time at the Synth Library, not only was she able to help those there, but her knowledge drastically increased, learning new patches and becoming familiar with new equipment that was donated. From what I gather from Ledesma’s overview of her time at S1 and the Synth Library, having a residency at an arts space builds an instilled memory of knowledge, the way any artist of any art wishes they could achieve, allowing space for creative freedom, making everyday grounds for new research and investigations about anything that (sonically in my case) interest the artist. However, I feel it is easy to get lost in the idealisation of having a residency, without first thinking about the steps one would have to take to obtain the opportunity.

In thought of this, I thought it would be useful to draw on ideas taken from Ledesma’s sonic practices, and how I could apply that to my own. The first thing that sparked interest in correlation to my own skill set was Ledesma’s project of creating a sound collage on CDJs and running it through modular synthesis. I didn’t know what a sound collage is, but after a brief internet search I realised an example of this would be the audio visual document provided at the start of the academic year in the Introduction to Sound Art module. Once the studio at work is in use again, I plan to use the set up there to create a sound collage- there are four CDJs and 2 turntables, which really gives the opportunity to layer as many sounds together as possible, bringing together the use of digital and analog sound.

The other project of Ledesma’s that spoke to my own sonic practice was her collaborative work with Keyon Gaskin in 2018. Gaskin, though a dancer with no previous experience in sound, wanted to be involved in the creation of sound with this project. Ledesma used her knowledge, stepped back from the leading role, and instead guided Gaskin to have sole control of the sound. This reminded me of a project I conducted last summer, where a friend of mine who had never made music before asked if we could collaborate on some music. I allowed his full creative vision to be painted, only providing the resources (instruments, DAW, knowledge); I thought of it as he was the mind and I was the hands. Hearing about Ledesma’s experience, it has encouraged me to attempt to finish this project, as it has been left untouched.