Experimental Sound Laboratory at MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection led by Andrey Smirnov

New lecture dates and a workshop make up the new seminar cycle entitled "The Sound Machines of the Avant-Garde" that will take place at MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki, led by Andrey Smirnov.

The meetings will be held in English, without interpretation, with registration and participation fee for those interested. Find below information on bookings and tuition fees. 

Thursday 04 April 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Arseny Avraamov: Music of the Future"

The story of ideas of the composer, theorist and adventurer Arseny Avraamov, who proposed in 1916 in the article ‘Upcoming Science of Music and the New Era in the History of Music’ many new approaches to musical theory as well as future techniques to synthesizing sound.

*free entrance

"Rhythmicon Workshop"

Saturday 06 April 2024 | 13:00-15:30

Hot riding the Rhythmicon - the world’s first rhythm machine to play the most complicated polyrhythms, developed in the US in 1931 by the Russian inventor Leon Theremin and American composer Henry Cowell.

Thursday 18 April 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Sound out of Paper: The History of the Graphical Sound Techniques"

The story of the Ornamental and Paper Sound techniques, developed in the early 1930-s in the framework of the Graphical (Drawn) Sound technology of synthesizing sound from light that was developed in Soviet Russia and Germany as a consequence of the newly invented sound-on-film technology. 

Thursday 09 May 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"The program of cartoons with artificial graphical soundtracks"

The program of cartoons with artificial graphical soundtracks by the IVVOS group (IVanov, VOinov, Sazonov), produced in 1931-1936 as well as graphical soundtracks, created by means of Variophone by Evgeny Scholpo, Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov and Igor Boldirev.

*free entrance

Thursday 16 May 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Graphical Sound: Variophone"

The story of the Variophone, which was capable to produce polyphonic, multitimbral artificial soundtracks by means of automated paper sound techniques as well as to simulate more subtle variations in rhythm such as rubato, developed by Evgeny Sholpo and Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov in Leningrad in 1931. 

Thursday 23 May 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"ANS Synthesizer and Artificial Synesthesia"

The story of the ANS Synthesizer, invented by Evgeny Murzin in 1957, based on a graphical score representing a spectrum of sound, erasing the difference between the pitch harmony structures and the spectral tissue of a sound, reminding the legendary UPIC developed by Iannis Xenakis in 1977.

Thursday 30 May 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Noise Machines of Avant-Garde"

The story of the noise music of the 1920-s which had to embrace all the noises of the mechanical age and the rhythm of the machine. Inventors proceeded to construct special noise instruments, to form noise orchestras, and soon noise symphonies and noise festive performances were composed.

*free entrance

Thursday 06 June 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Vladimir Popov: the Symphony of Noises"

The story of the noise machines created by the actor Vladimir Popov in the 1930-s. Among his numerous inventions were the special instruments of the Noise Orchestra as well as an infinite quantity of devices and gadgets by means of which he could solve the most complicated problems of sound design.

Thursday 13 June 2024 | 18:00-20:00

"Noise Music in the Early Sound Cinema"

Being largely underestimated and understudied, the Soviet sound cinema in the brief period of 1929-1935 was characterized by numerous extraordinary discoveries in the field of sound technology. Being based on the contrapuntal method, the early soundtracks became masterpieces of early sound art.

Bookings and tuition fees: 

By sending email at reception.modern@momus.gr, or by calling at (+30) 2310589143, until Thursday 07 March 2024 at 14:00. First come, first served basis. 

• A certificate will be provided by MOMus, after the completion of the circle.
• The lectures will be in English; no translation provided. 
• Tuition fees for lectures:
  For one (1) lecture: 25€ / person, 15€ / person for students (student ID required).
  For four (4) lectures: 100€ / person, 60€ / person for students (students are required to show their student ID card).
• Fees for the workshop:
  30€ per person, 20€ reduced price for students (student ID required at the show)
  For those already participating in the cycle of five paid lectures: 20€/person, 12€/person for students (student ID required).

Curriculum Vitae

Andrey Smirnov is a musical artist and researcher, known worldwide for his innovative teaching method and his research in the fields of electronic music and the history of Avant-Garde music alongside visual arts. He is the founder of the Theremin Centre and has been the Head of Sound Laboratory at the Rodchenko Art – School in Moscow. He teaches courses on the history and aesthetics of electro-acoustic music, sound design and composition, new musical interfaces and physical computing. 

Andrey has conducted many workshops and seminars, targeted both at professionals and the general public, in the USA, Europe and Russia and he has participated at significant festivals and conferences. 

Andrey Smirnov is the author of the books “Sound In Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia” (Walther Koenig & Sound and Music, London, 2013) and “In Search of Lost Sound. Experimental Sound Culture in Russia and USSR in the first half of the 20th century” (Moscow, GARAGE, 2020) (The Book of the Year Award, Innovation 2021).

From September 2023, Andrey works as a special scientific associate at MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki.

The Experimental Sound Laboratory at MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection is based on the historical documents and original electronic musical instruments from the personal collection of Andrey Smirnov relating to that period, and aims at studying the Avant-Garde sound culture and to revive as well as advance the accomplishments of related technologies that proved to be many decades ahead of their time. The value and meaning of these ideas highly exceed the sphere of Russian Avant-Garde. Today, we usually utilize them not being aware of their origins, while multiple ideas evolve in a new, creative manner. 

The Experimental Sound Laboratory develops educational programmes in the form of lectures and workshops, targeted to musicians and music historians as well as to the general public, with a distinct interest in Russian Avant-Garde, sound and new media art, electronic and electroacoustic music.