Past Events

PUBLICATIONS

2022 – Polemical Zine | Issue 18: Change, November.

Featured work: Pieces of Covid Memories

Issue 18: Change explores the changing of emotions, opinions, and lives – for better or for worse. It was published in November 2022.
Link: https://issuu.com/mclarenrebecca/docs/change

2022 – Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE): Listening in on Pandemic Life No. 8 }{ Covid-19 Between Belfast and Montreal (by Georgios Varoutsos). March 01, 2022

Welcome to Listening In on Pandemic Life, a new ten-part monthly blog series curated by CASE in which artists, scholars and designers offer short reflections on their sonic experiences across the past 18 months of living under the shadow of COVID-19.
In this eighth entry to the series, sonic artist and researcher Georgios Varoutsos discusses his pandemic-era soundwalking practice between his home of Montreal and his place of study, Belfast, Ireland. – Editors Milena Droumeva and Randolph Jordan
Link: http://www.soundecology.ca/pandemic-listening-series-2/listening-in-on-pandemic-life-no-8/

2021 – Polemical Zine | Issue 15: Memory – Vol. 1, March.

Featured collaborative work “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios in Polemical Zine Issue 15: Memory explores our past in relation to our present.
Link: https://issuu.com/mclarenrebecca/docs/memory1

Polemical Zine is a non-profit, online arts magazine which has no selection process – we publish pieces from ALL people, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, geographic location, and/or skill level.

2021 – The Social Art Award (E-Book): We are the People – Peaceful Revolutions, Edition No. 2. – Institute for Art and Innovation

Featured work “Divided Spaces” as one of the top 100 artists in a collection of inspiring artworks and projects dealing with important societal issues around the world.
Link: https://social-art-award.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SAA-2019_book_FA_Spreads_LR.pdf

2020 – Proceedings of the 17th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2020), Torino, June 24th – 26th 2020

Varoutsos, G., 2020. Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial audio representation of Divided Spaces and soundwalks, in: Proceedings of the 17th Sound and Music Computing Conference, Torino, June 24th – 26th 2020. Presented at the Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2020), Zenodo, pp. 123–130. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3898717

2018 – SONIC FIELD: WAYBACK SOUND MACHINE, A CONSTELLATION OF SOUNDING TIME

[Part of artist group collaboration: Matheos & Georgios ]

Publication of a collaborative piece ‘Changing One’s Mind’. Themed on time.
Link: https://sonicfield.org/2019/02/wayback-sound-machine-a-sonic-constellation-compilation-part-2/

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS, BURSARIES, HONOURS, AND GRANTS

2020 – PhD Studentship awarded from the Department of the Economy Studentship (DfEIntl)

The DfE Studentships are funded by the Department for the Economy (DFE), and awarded for research within the Arts, English, and Humanities at Queen’s University Belfast.

2019 – Awarded with Degree Plus Route A & B from Queen’s University Belfast

Accreditation from the University for completing extra-curricular work-related learning alongside their degree. This includes: OnCampus Jobs, Master Your Leadership Skills, Volunteering, AHSS Placement Bursary Language Course, and Active Member of a Society.

2019 – AHSS Placement Bursary from Queen’s University Belfast

Our Work Placement Bursary for students studying in Arts, Humanities and Social Science seeks to provide support for students planning to undertake a paid or unpaid work placement lasting longer than two weeks.

2019 – Sir Hamilton Harty Scholarships from Queen’s University Belfast

Awarded to enable PGT students on any Music pathway to travel within the continent of Europe during the long vacation in pursuit of their music studies.

2018 – International Office Postgraduate Taught Scholarship from Queen’s University Belfast

Awarded to international fee rate students beginning their full-time studies at Queen’s University Belfast

2018 – Douglas C Harrison bursary from Queen’s University Belfast

Allocated annually to the top Master’s in Research applicants in Music

2017 – AH and FB Austin Award in Electroacoustics from Concordia University

The highest award that is given in the Electroacoustic Studies program.

2017 – Canada Council for the Arts- Arts Abroad Travel Program

Used for travel and presentation at klingt gut! International Symposium on Sound- Hamburg, Germany.

2017 – Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec (CALQ) – Scholarship Program for Professional Artists Travel

Used for travel and presentation at NYCEMF | New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2017- New York City, USA.

2017 – Les Offices Jeunesse Internationaux du Québec (LOGIQ) – Travel Grant – Professional Development

Used for masterclass on Exploring Spatial Awareness and project creation in Kefalonia, Greece.

2017 – Concordia University – Fine Arts – Student Travel Grants

Used for Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium (TIES) Concert #4 – Toronto, Canada.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS, CONFERENCES, FESTIVALS, AUDIO CONCERTS, and WORKSHOPS

2022 – Podcasting with Queen’s University Belfast for BBC Young Reporter with Isaac Gibson and Georgios Varoutsos. SARC at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. November 30, 2022.

This is a workshop taught by Isaac Gibson and Georgios Varoutsos for BBC Young Reporter. Participants will learn basic audio recording skills with handheld recorders and podcast-making using Reaper.

BBC Young Reporter is the BBC’s journalism and media project supporting young people to develop content creation skills, find out about careers in broadcasting and share their own stories.

2022 – Alliances and Commonalities 2022. [Online]. Stockholm University of the Arts, Stockholm, Sweden. October 20-22, 2022.

Presentation: ‘Sounding Belfast During Covid-19 (Lockdowns)’.

Curatorial Statement

“Alliances and Commonalities 2022 invites artists and researchers to share ways in which their artistic research is reassembling, responding, reconfiguring, and reconstituting in the aftermath of the past two years. Who, what, where, when, why and how are artists and researchers situating their practices now? What transforms? What transmits? What matters?

At a glance the 2022 conference will include online explorations into archiving, diffractive storytelling, speculative fabulation, somatic practices, ecological praxis, more-than-human-ness, practices of caring, crafting, walking, writing and food-ing and many other approaches to AR, gathering within our four profile areas: Concept and Composition, Bodily and Vocal Practices, Art, Technology, Materiality and Site, Event, Encounter.”

Learn more: https://www.uniarts.se/…/alliances-commonalities-2022_1

2022 – Atemporánea Festival 2022. [Hybrid]. Buenos Aires, Argentina. September 19-24, 2022.

Works presented: “Pieces of Covid Memories”

“The Festival is projected to favour the creation, audition and diffusion of multiple artistic tendencies, it also promotes new productions of various musical and sound art specialities, and interact with performers, composers, educators and researchers.

The purpose of the different calls of works is to promote internationally the plurality of aesthetics and manifestations of contemporary acoustic, electroacoustic, mixed and interdisciplinary music through activities such as concerts, conferences, round tables, workshops and installations.”

Link: https://sites.google.com/view/atemporneafestival2022

2022 – 11th International Conference in Music and Sonic Art: Sounding Identities (MuSA 2022). [Hybrid]. Middlesex University, London, UK. September 22-23, 2022.

Paper Presentation: ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

“Our main aim in organizing this conference is to explore and build on the historical, theoretical and practical connections and similarities between Music and Sonic Art: we want to bring a different perspective to the relationship between the two areas, one that thrives on regarding them as displaying continuities and links, along a broad spectrum of hearing and listening practices and art-making that use sound. We note that research in Music and in Sonic Art are both interdisciplinary by nature, and that the theoretical and aesthetic concerns of contemporary practitioners in the two domains might be more similar than is currently assumed.

In accordance with our main theme in MuSA 2022, ‘Sounding identities’, we wish to explore how artistic, cultural, social, institutional, national, disciplinary, and sensory (aural, visual, tactile, embodied) identities and agencies are constructed through engagement with music and sonic art practices; how technologies mediate the construction of such identities; the material cultures that facilitate identity formation; and the emergence of new identities through the cross-fertilization between musical and sonic art practices.”

This event is supported by the Royal Music Association and Middlesex University, London.

Link: http://musa2022.zilmusic.com/

2022 – 4th Edmonton Noise Fest 2022. [Online]. August 28, 2022.

Works presented: “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios

Inscribed video works of noise artists from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and from all over the world.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCI6tDmBE0I

2022 – 17th EASA Biennial Conference, EASA Belfast 2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons. Belfast, Northern Ireland. July 26-29, 2022.

Lab Presentation with Lara Weaver titled Lab14 ‘Sounds around us: Sounding the Peatlands & Belfast During Covid-19’
Sound Tours on my projects:
1. Sounding Belfast During Covid-19 (Lockdowns)
2. Peace Wall Belfast Soundwalks

The 17^th EASA Biennial Conference focuses on the entanglements of transformation, hope and the commons. The global Covid19 pandemic, and societal responses to it, have transformed the societies in which we live and work. Media and political discourses deploy a rhetoric of rupture, facilitating shifts in governance and bio-politics that mask and widen existing inequalities. Instead of the ‘crisis-thinking’ that abstracts current events from broader and historical continuities, we invite anthropologists to make connections through sustained ethnographic and anthropological inquiry.
Link: https://easaonline.org/conferences/easa2022/

2022 – The Irish Science, Sound, and Technology Association (ISSTA) presents the River Shannon Soundwalk for ICMC 2022. Limerick, Ireland. July 3-9, 2022.

Panellist member with Brona Martin and Cait Ni Ghriofa
Soundwalk composition on the River Shannon Soundwalk project with Robert Coleman and Lara Weaver

The River Shannon flows through the University of Limerick, and it was this feature that inspired the conference theme “standing wave.” To explicitly connect sonic practices with the river’s environs, ISSTA invited artists to contribute to a soundwalk.

We asked for musical compositions, performances, spoken word, and other experiments addressing themes of geography and travel, water and way-finding, history and heritage, culture and family, storytelling and poetry, imagined spaces and places. We were interested in artists exploring their heritage or previous connections with Ireland, as well as artists considering an Irish context for the first time.
Link: http://issta.ie/shannonsoundwalk/

2022 – Sound and Music for Immersive Storytelling (SAMIS) Conference. [Online]. The University of York, Department of Theatre, Film, Television & Interactive Media. July 5-6, 2022.

Paper Presentation: ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

“The inaugural conference on Sound and Music for Immersive Storytelling (SAMIS) aims to formally launch an academic community of researchers undertaking research in this area. The community will focus on research related to the use of sound and music in storytelling-based immersive experiences which includes, but is not limited to, sound and audio for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, games and other interactive experiences where storytelling is an important feature within the experience. We anticipate that there are many academics working in this field, and the community will appeal to students and colleagues working across a range of creative sectors, including film, tv, theatre, heritage, environment, etc.

Our objective is to establish the academic study of sound and music within immersive storytelling as a significant research area that complements and extends the work of existing communities with our specific focus on audio within immersive storytelling. In this conference, we hope to bring together researchers already working in this space to set the agenda for the direction of research in this area, and ultimately produce a body of knowledge that recognises the importance of sonic design within immersive storytelling, as well as exploring the potential for innovation in this exciting space.”

This event has been funded by the Dept of Theatre, Film, Television & Interactive Media at the University of York.

For more information: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sound-and-music-for-immersive-storytelling-samis-virtual-conference-tickets-362961456487

2022 – Lacuna Festivals: Clash 2022. [Hybrid]. Lanzarote. July 1-30, 2022.

Audio Piece: ‘Pieces of Covid Memories’ included in Brittany Kurtinecz’s – Sansar Virtual World, a virtual gallery. This will be accessible on the 3rd, 10th, 19th, 25th & 30th July, 12noon-Midnight (GMT+1).

Just like a physical festival, Clash 2022 has many different galleries in a variety of different places. We have galleries of participatory projects on our Facebook page, artist profiles on our Instagram account, video works on our Youtube channel, albums on our Flickr page, a huge range of online events, a virtual world on Sansar designed by Brittany Kurtinecz and our virtual galleries hosted by ArtSteps.

On this page you can find our nine curated festival galleries, each with a separate narrative linked to the overall festival theme of ‘Clash.’ These Clash narratives are; Pandemic Vs Normality, Life Vs Death, Action Vs The Establishment, Nature Vs Human Vs Tech, Self Vs Others, Reality Vs Dreams & Expectations, War Vs Peace, Noise Vs Silence and Colour Vs Black and White. The works within each Clash narrative not only link to the overall festival theme but also speak with other works in their gallery so that each themed gallery tells a unique story.”

Click on the link for more information: https://www.lacunafestivals.com/

2022 – QUB Widening Participation Unit with AHSS Summer School Workshops. Sonic Arts Research Centre. June 28, 2022.

Organised and led the workshop titled: LECTURE 3: Music – Sounds of Belfast: recording, editing and producing an urban soundtrack for the WP AHSS Summer School.
Activities held:
1. Listening Exercises
2. Field Recording
3. Audio Post-Production
4. Sonic Lab Demo

“At Queen’s University Belfast, we are committed to providing students with an educational experience that is on par with the best universities in the world. We are also committed to ensuring that those most able but least likely to participate in Higher Education should have an equal opportunity to do so.”
Link: https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/wpu/

2022 – Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC-2022): MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN. [Saint-Etienne and Online]. June 5-12, 2022.

Works presented: “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios

“SMC-22 (Sound and Music Computing) is a multifaceted event around acoustics, music, and audio technology. It will take place in Saint-Étienne (France) on June 4-12, 2022 and will have the following theme: Music Technology and Design. As the first “in-person” edition of SMC after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we aim at widening the public of this event by (i) broadening the scope of SMC concerts through a digital art festival opened to the public, (ii) involving local schools and public, and (iii) strengthening connections between academia and the industry.”

The SMC-22 Concert 6 – (Fixed Media Listening Room) will be held at the Factory of Innovation on Friday, June 10th at 4:25 pm.

Link to watch online: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUA5dds-1wv4XJ27wQ5Xm6w/featured

Conference link: https://smc22.grame.fr/index.html

2022 – La Hora Acusmática: Ciclo de Conciertos Virtuales 2022. [Virtual]. May 31, 2022.

Works presented: “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios

May 31 at 8:00 p.m. Argentina will hold the first virtual concert of the 2022 season on our YouTube channel, “La Hora Acusmática”. We want to invite you to enjoy an interesting program with electroacoustic works and videos by international artists.

Link: https://youtu.be/pdPV9uhqpGk

2022 – Starting your own research podcast with Georgios Varoutsos, Ciara McAllister and Chrysi Kyratsou, part of QUB Development Week at Queen’s University Belfast. May 23, 2022.

An introduction to research-centred podcasting, with help and advice on planning, storytelling, communicating, and producing your podcast.

About this event

The Student Research Network in the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University Belfast is delighted to bring you a workshop on starting and managing a research podcast. Building on the success of the QUB Voices Postgraduate Podcast, which ran during the pandemic (shortlisted for a QUBSU award in the ‘Celebrating Innovative Online Activities’ category), this short course will provide an introduction to managing the content of a podcast and the technical knowledge needed to produce high-quality sound files. You will hear from PhD students who were involved in various aspects of the QUB Voices podcast and will have an opportunity to ask questions and receive support to develop your own podcast ideas.

The following topics will be covered:

Roles and responsibilities in a podcast team
Applying for funding
Research and interview techniques
Marketing your podcast
Sound editing and post-production

Venue: Training Room 6 (TR6), The Graduate School, Queen’s University Belfast

This event is open to postgraduate students (PGT & PGR) of Queen’s University Belfast.

2022 – International Seminar on Sonic Design at the University of Oslo. [Hybrid]. May 5-6, 2022.

Presentation on my research ‘Sounding Belfast During Covid-19: Lockdowns‘.

The seminar is set up to celebrate the achievements of Professor Rolf Inge Godøy and continue discussing some of the topics he has contributed to throughout his career. Professor Godøy has over the years proposed the concept of sonic design as an amalgam between artistic and scientific approaches to the creation and study of (musical) sound.
Underlying all the practical approaches to the creation of sounds for various purposes are several basic research perspectives, including music theory, music perception, embodied cognition, phenomenology, acoustics, cognitive neuroscience, and digital signal processing, to mention just a few. As such, sonic design can be seen as a meeting point between basic and applied research, “soft” and “hard” approaches, and creative and analytic perspectives.
Link: https://www.hf.uio.no/…/2022/sonic-design/index.html

2022 – Audio Skills Workshop with Isaac Gibson and Georgios Varoutsos for the Seamus Heaney Centre. April 27, 2022

This is a workshop taught by Georgios Varoutsos and Isaac Gibson. Open to MA students at Queen’s University Belfast interested in learning basic audio recording skills for use in music recording and podcast making. Students are encouraged to bring along ‘live projects’ that they’d like help with, but this is not necessary.
Link: https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/Events/AudioSkillsWorkshop.html

2022 – MediSouP, “Healing. Listening to a Brave New World”. [Online]. April 22, 2022.

Work presented: Harland And Wolff Horn – April 9, 2020

Included in Selection in a Natural Therapy part of the Soundworks Concert.

Description:
The second MediSouP Community Concert, “Healing. Listening to a Brave New World.” is a hybrid event, held virtually and live, in Cyprus, Spain and Turkey. MediSouP brings together a selection of audio-visual works, presenting ways in which image and sound formulate the transcultural understanding of our present condition on a damaged planet. This special presentation foregrounds the power and agency of these visual and acoustic works to re-envision healing and deep listening in post-pandemic times of crisis. We wish to emphasise that profound changes in our acoustic landscape are filled with hope, care, and empathy in our sonic futures.
The event series is featuring 49 selected Sound and Video Works
Link: http://medisoup.cut.ac.cy/

2022 – Sonorities Festival 2022. [Hybrid]. Belfast, April 6-10, 2022.

3 events:
– Presentation on ‘Peace Wall Belfast‘ [part of Talks]
– Listening Room on ‘Divided Spaces‘ [part of sound Installations]
– Soundwalk on ‘Peace Wall Belfast Soundwalk‘ [part of in-person Installations] | This project is now accessible via Echoes (GPS soundwalks – Available on the Apple Store and Google Playstore): https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/0txhFuJvg1KSjjHZ

For forty years Sonorities has led the way for musicians, composers and sound artists from around the world to make and present work for curious listeners. A biennial festival of sound and music, making a joyful commotion in Belfast since 1981.
https://sonorities.net/

2022 – NI Science Festival – Let your mind wonder. [Hybrid]. Belfast, February 17-27, 2022.

Two events were selected, one presentation and one activity, both on areas of my PhD research ‘Sounding Belfast During Covid-19: Lockdowns‘.

Link (event): https://nisciencefestival.com/events/sounding-belfast-during-covid-19-lockdowns
Link (talk): https://nisciencefestival.com/events/sounding-belfast-during-covid-19-lockdowns-2

During a global pandemic, countries and cities have become literal ghost towns. Once flustered with sounds from human activities, it has now been overtaken from the once subtle industrial, urban, and natural sound environments. Recording multiple points during the lockdown, we are able to chronologically experience the differences imposed by Covid-19 restrictions and how these spaces have changed from the start of the global pandemic. The recordings focus on Lockdowns 1, 2, and 3, as well the Exit Strategies of Summer 2020 and 2021.
This project reflects through an auditory and sonic art perspective how the city sounds like without the presence of humans or the normal amount of human density in popular areas in public spaces of Belfast.
This project is accessible via Echoes (GPS soundwalks – Available on the Apple Store and Google Playstore): https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/QZQN9a10To92iDoM

More about the NI Science Festival:
Established in 2014, NI Science Festival has grown to become the largest celebration of its kind on the island of Ireland and in its relatively short lifespan has become one of the leading science festivals in Europe. It offers a stimulating and wide range of events focusing on the wonders of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. These events present some of the leading scientists from NI and beyond who discuss their work, cutting-edge research and what the future might hold.

2021 – Beyond Conference 2021. [Hybrid]. Belfast, October 20-21, 2021.

Presentation & Poster Exhibition on my research of ‘Sounding Belfast during COVID-19: Lockdown 1 and 2’.

The BEYOND 2021 programme will explore questions and ideas around the theme of Creative Places. Old certainties are breaking down. In places where we used to make things, we must now make decisions. Political centres are paying attention to those on the margins and a place-based agenda is taking hold to drive economic development.

CREATIVE PLACES >> There is a big space opening for the Creative Industries to lead the way with mission-driven research and innovation to reimagine, reinvent and reinvigorate place.BEYOND 2021 will take the theme of place to look at how the Creative Industries are forming the heart of new vibrant cultural and creative economies.

BEYOND will convene Creative Industry leaders, researchers, policymakers, creators and artists to understand:
》How place influences the shape these economies take
》How the success of creative places can be locked in for the long haul
》How we build talent pipelines to meet the ambitions
》The role of imagination, risk-taking and research
》How creative technologies augment and connect places both real and virtual
》The roles of identity and diversity in places and spaces
》How these place-based creative economies link to each other and the wider world

BEYOND IN BELFAST >> BEYOND 2021 comes from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a region that knows just how intricate the ties between place, identity and power can be. It is also where exciting experiments and ideas are playing out with the expansion of the screen industries right at the heart of a plan for economic renewal. It is a uniquely useful location to be thinking about the place-based missions for the Creative Industries.

https://beyondconference.org/b21/posters/poster-5/

2021 – Atemporánea 2021 II Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea del Conservatorio
Superior de Música de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires “Ástor Piazzolla”. [Virtual]. Sept 13-18, 2021.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

Atemporánea arises at the “Astor Piazzolla” Superior Conservatory of Music of the City of Buenos Aires, to centralize the production and interpretation of current music with an opening to musicians, composers, researchers and specialists in pedagogy from all over the world. country and abroad.
The Festival is projected to favour the creation, audition and diffusion of the multiple artistic tendencies. This is how it also originates to promote new productions of the various musical and sound art specialties and interact with performers, composers, educators and researchers.
The call for the presentation of works aims to promote internationally the plurality of aesthetics and manifestations of contemporary acoustic, electroacoustic, mixed and interdisciplinary music through activities such as concerts, conferences, round tables, workshops and installations.
Its mission is to disseminate the Institutional musical activity within the framework of a Festival, which encourages education and updating through interaction with professional artists and new generations of the national and international scope.
This opening is an impulse to extend the image of the Conservatory, through the various higher teaching staff that make it up, throughout our country and abroad.

2021 – Sounding Conflict presents Contested Resonances: Creativity, Listening and Performance in Conflict Transformation Conference 2021. [Virtual]. July 29-30, 2021.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

This interdisciplinary conference will examine conflict and post-conflict contexts through sound in performative practice. Themes include: peacebuilding efforts by music-based community arts initiatives; sonic-arts and theatrical re-soundings of conflict; creative and musical interventions in conflict and post-conflict societies; sound-based methodologies for exploring the narratives and everyday experiences of people in post-conflict contexts.

2021 – Walking Arts Encounters Conference: Walking as a question, panellist for ‘Pandemic Walking’. [Virtual]. July 4-17, 2021.

Featuring on my research of ‘Sounding Belfast during COVID-19: Lockdown 1 and 2’.

The Covid 19 crisis of 2020-21 has taken many names, including “The Great Pause.” It has forced us to halt our usual habit patterns and critically reflect on how we conduct our daily lives. New forms of movement and sociability have emerged in the wake of this global pandemic. Why and how do people develop walking practices during periods of physical and psychological constraint? What has this experience revealed to us, and how have our attitudes towards walking shifted as a result, perhaps even in ways that we can carry with us in a post-Covid reality? This conversation centers on academic research and artistic practices that investigate the act of walking as shaped by pandemic conditions.Speakers: Ana Correa Do Lago (Brazil), Martin P Eccles (UK), Georgios Varoutsos (UK), moderated by Lydia Matthews, Professor of Visual Culture, Parsons School of Design / The New School, New York (US).

2021 – Lacuna Festival: Distance 2021. [Virtual]. July 2 – August 31, 2021.

Work presented: Peace Wall Belfast Soundwalks

Possible interpretations of the theme include (but are not limited to): measurements of distance, the distance between two points, two people or two objects, barriers created by distance, overcoming barriers created by distance, ways of communicating from a distance, journeys, travel, modes of transport, migration of birds, insects and animals, psychological distance, physical distance, emotional distance, legal and illegal immigration, geodesic distance, meridian arcs, circular distance, Manhattan distance, relative distance, edit distance, chessboard distance, cosmology and the expansion of the universe, construal level theory, distance between experienced realities and/or individual perceptions, milestones and markers, signposts and cairns and so on.

2021 – Innovation in Sound Community: Surrounding Sounds Webinar. [Virtual]. June 30, 2021.

Presentation on ‘The art of soundwalking’
Link: https://youtu.be/OdXfmTxf_bw?t=2684

It’s time to explore the innovation in immersive sound and how we use the options to arrange the sounds and audio around us in innovative ways. We will delve into the forms of immersive sound in art, music, VR games and sound cancellation in health.

2021 – Common Ground Postgraduate Conference. [Virtual]. June 28-29, 2021.

Presentation on my research of ‘Sounding Belfast during COVID-19: Lockdown 1 and 2’.

Common Ground is the annual postgraduate conference at the SAEL and AHSS at Queen’s University Belfast. This year we invite postgraduates and early career researchers across the humanities to explore the theme of ‘Making Connections in Literature, Culture and Society’.

2021 – RE:FLUX festival de musique et d’art sonore – 16th edition. [Virtual]. May 24-30, 2021.

Podcast submission for the Radio Re:Flux category.

During the 30min interview, we discuss how we can still be connected through sounds, finding the similarities and differences of where we currently live. How may this even embrace the digital soundscapes of staying connected, via the soundscapes generated through FaceTime or Team Calls. Also, how we are locked in these positions until Covid-19 diminishes for people to reunite and physically connect once again.

Additional works presesented: “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios

Link: http://www.festivalreflux.com/radioreflux-2021

2021 – NI Science Festival: BEHIND THE SOUND | Sounding Belfast During Covid-19. [Virtual]. February 15-28, 2021.

During a global pandemic, countries and cities have become literal ghost towns. Once flustered with sounds from human activities, it has now been overtaken from the once subtle industrial, urban, and natural sound environments. Recording multiple points during the lockdown, we are able to chronologically experience the differences imposed by Covid-19 restrictions and how these spaces have changed from the start of the global pandemic.
This project reflects through an auditory and sonic art perspective how the city sounds like without the presence of humans or the normal amount of human density in popular areas in public spaces of Belfast.

NEW LINK: https://2021.nisciencefestival.com/e21430-sounding-belfast-during-covid-19
Link: https://nisciencefestival.com/e21430-sounding-belfast-during-covid-19

This project is accessible via Echoes (GPS soundwalks): https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/QZQN9a10To92iDoM

2020 – 2nd International Conference of Red Ecología Acústica México (REA_MX). [Virtual] – December 9-12, 2020.

Work presented: COVID-19 Belfast Mini Window Scape – Georgios Varoutsos – Canada – 2020

Acoustic Ecology Network – Mexico (REA-Mexico) REA-Mexico is a non-profit organization that represents and promotes Acoustic Ecology in Mexico, in conjunction with the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). A space to integrate all those academics, professionals, artists, students, institutions, companies and organizations in general that have to do in some way with the Acoustic Ecology in Mexico and in the world, giving space to any of its manifestations, as well as to any of the disciplines that are cultivating, promoting or studying it, in order to promote the multidisciplinary development of the Acoustic Ecology in Mexico. We promote an active, proactive and creative community participation. Where courses, congresses, contests, prizes, exhibitions, publications and other possibilities of the same nature related to the Acoustic Ecology can be summoned, either within the country or abroad.

2020 – Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research – Midlands New Music Symposium. [Virtual] – December 5-6, 2020.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

The Midlands New Music Symposium seeks to explore and celebrate the diversity of current contemporary music and sound practices in the fields of composition, performance, and technology. The two-day symposium will include a series of presentations, lecture recitals, discussions, workshops, and concerts.

2020 – PITEÅ PERFORMING ARTS BIENNIAL 2020 | ECOLOGY, SITE AND PLACE. [Virtual] – October 26-27, 2020.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

Piteå Performing Arts Biennial seeks new formats for the performing arts to engage in societal issues. The first edition—postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic—focuses on ecological perspectives, and further seeks engagement in questions related to site and place.

2020 – ART VOLT / ART VOLTE COLLECTION: SOFT-LAUNCH EVENT. [Virtual] – October 22, 2020.

Works presented: “Divided Spaces” by Georgios Varoutsos and “DigiTral” by Matheos & Georgios

The Art Volt Collection is proud to present 7 video and sound pieces by recent Concordia Fine Arts alumni. These works were selected by our jury, Dr. Eldad Tsabary, Associate Professor in Concordia’s Music department, and Camille Bédard, General Coordinator at LA SERRE – arts vivants and Concordia alumni, to support the diverse range of emerging creative practitioners from our faculty. There will be a round-table discussion with the showcased artists.

2020 – 21st International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2020). [Virtual] – October 11-15, 2020.

[Matheos Zaharopoulos was the attendee and presenter at this conference]

Piece: DigiTral by Matheos & Georgios featured for main audio concert.

2020 – Online research presentations by PhD and MRes students at Sonic Arts Research Centre. [Virtual] – September 9 & 17, 2020.

Presentation on current Covid-19 research projects.
8 researchers at Sonic Arts Research Centre share their current practice-led research during two online sessions.

2020 – 56th Royal Musical Association (RMA) Annual Conference alongside the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Cambridge University Press, and Goldsmiths, University of London. September 8 – 10, 2020.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Divided Spaces’ for a Sound Art program.

The Association aims to sustain and enhance musical culture in the United Kingdom, while liaising with other subject organizations at home and abroad where appropriate and recognizing outstanding scholarly and creative achievement by individuals worldwide. It further aims to support the education and training of emerging scholars and practitioners.

2020 – New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) – SOUND TRAVELS #1. [Virtual]. August 15, 2020.

Included work (collaborative piece): Changing One’s Mind by Matheos & Georgios

The first of two online presentations showcasing works from the Sound Travels online album with the composers and sound artists on hand to discuss their works with listeners. The online album features fixed media works and live performance recordings on the theme of Transformation. A common thread throughout this collection is the use of the transformation of sounds through digital means to not only bend and change conceptions of reality, but to also blur distinctions for the listener between musical listening and imaginary planes of existence.

2020 – Walkshops Drifting Bodies/Fluent Spaces em GUIMARÃES. [Virtual]. July 22 – 24, 2020.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

Drifting bodies/ fluent spaces is an international meeting/conference on walking arts in relation to the liquid bodies that cross the landscape. Focusing on intermedia and embodied practices, the project enables a site-specific creation-research laboratory about the relations between walks and dérives, sounds and silences, void and occupied places, digital and bodily spaces, and their walking narrations and translations.
The aim is to generate and share collective experiences and documentation of the diverse processes within urban landscapes and the urban setting of Guimarães in particular. The project intends to explore critically how bodies and new technologies work together to produce new practices and narrations of public space and movement. Special attention will be placed on the exploration of the city which draws our attention to people’s everyday actions and negotiations of city spaces revealing the potentiality of space.

2020 – Australasian Computer Music Conference (ACMC 2020).[VIRTUAL]. July 3-11, 2020.

1- Poster Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

2- Presentation of my audio piece ‘Divided Spaces’ for an audio program.

ACMC is a place to show and discuss research and artistic progress in computer/electronic music. It’s a festival of performances, installations, workshops, and tutorials that inspire, challenge, and showcase our community. This year’s conference theme is inclusion.

2020 – Audio Testimonies Symposium. [VIRTUAL]. organized in collaboration between Bournemouth University and CRiSAP. July 2-3, 2020.

Virtual Poster Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

Workshop participation with groups of 5 members exploring the topic of ‘Audio Testimonies’ within artistic research and practice.

This symposium considers the place of Audio Testimony in artistic practice, and will explore the ways in which artists use sound to enable new forms of testimony, and create new artistic configurations, which engage public consciousness.

2020 – The 17th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2020). [VIRTUAL]. Torino, Italy. June 24-26, 2020.

Virtual Poster Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

The Sound and Music Computing Conference reaches its 17th edition!
This 17th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2020) is organized by three
institutions from Torino, Italy: University, Polytechnic School and Conservatorio di Musica “G. Verdi”. The conference should have taken place in Torino, June 24tth – 26th, 2020 as a joint event together with the XXIII Colloquium of Music Informatics (CIM) organized
by the Italian Association of Music Informatics (AIMI).
The current COVID-19 situation has forced us to change our plans for this edition. While in agreement with AIMI we decided to postpone the XXIII CIM, together with the SMC steering committee we opted for turning SMC 2020 into a virtual conference. Although this means a certain loss of opportunities in relation to the physical conference, this decision allowed us to keep the yearly scheduling of the SMC conference.
Did we learn anything from COVID-19? In terms of scientific practice, we have all been forced to embrace on-line work. At least we became more acquainted and competent with this kind of resources. While moving the SMC conference to the World Wide Web, we thought that we should try to exploit some possibilities provided by this technological shift. For instance, why keep access to the conference reserved to a closed group of registered participants? Thus, this 2020 edition is open to anyone with an internet
connection.
SMC 2020 Topics of Interest include a wide selection of topics related to acoustics, psychoacoustics, technologies for audio and music, audio analysis and synthesis, spatial sound, sonic interaction design, music analysis, performance modelling, and many more. SMC 2020 is an interdisciplinary forum to share music, thoughts, needs and discoveries in this remarkable research topic that brings together art, technology and human perception.

Main theme of Conference – This year’s featured topic is Imaging Sound.
However, SMC 2020 also examines all the core topics of the Sound and Music Computing field

2020 – Sensing Divisions Conference. [VIRTUAL]. Queen’s University Belfast. Belfast, Northern Ireland. May 21-22, 2020.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’.

The conference, entitled ‘Sensing Divisions’, investigated the nature of troubling and persistent divisions in human societies that often keep societies from producing stable governance.
The virtual event took place from 21-22 May 2020 and was organised by anthropologist, Dr Maruška Svašek from Queen’s, and historian, Professor John Connelly, from the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Connelly was based at Queen’s as Fulbright Fellow from January – April, 2020.
The conference was originally to be a global interdisciplinary event taking place on the Queen’s University campus which then was adapted to become a digital event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 150 delegates from countries across the world joined in via Zoom to discuss the theme of ‘Sensing Divisions’ as sixteen speakers explored historical and current tensions in Australia, Austria, Turkey, Greece, India, Nigeria and Northern Ireland.

Main theme of Conference – Sensing Divisions: Exploring Affective Dynamics Across Disciplines

2019 – Ecos Urbanos – Festival De Arte Sonoro Y Transmedia – Mexico City, Mexico. November 7, 2019.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Divided Spaces’ for an audio program.

To support the creation and dissemination of electroacoustic music, sound art and art with technological means, the Tecnológico de Monterrey calls for the selection process of works for the Festival de Arte Sonoro y Transmedia Ecos Urbanos.

2019 – Sharing Space II Symposium 2019 – Belfast, Northern Ireland. June 14, 2019.

Presentation on my research of ‘Peace Wall Belfast: Spatial Audio Representation of Divided Spaces and Soundwalks’

The School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s in association with the Irish Society for Theatre Research is holding a one-day symposium on Practice as Research (PaR) processes in the creative arts at the Brian Friel Centre on Friday, 14th June 2019.
The aim of the symposium is to function as a creative colloquium for university PaR researchers to connect and share their work, and to identify important questions that will inform future development of artistic research in a university context.
Following the rich discussions of the symposium’s first iteration last year, we wish to continue exploring how PaR scholars “share space” through interdisciplinary connections and collaborations across different arts practices (e.g. dance, theatre, film, music, sonic arts, visual arts and performance art).
Sharing Space II is generously supported by funding from Queen’s University Belfast and the Irish Society for Theatre Research. Presentation and participation is free, although spaces are limited.

Main theme of Symposium – Practice as Research symposium at Queen’s University Belfast

2018 – Visiones Sonora – International Festival of Music and New Technologies – Mexican Center for Music and Sound Arts (CMMAS) – Michoacán, Mexico.

[Matheos Zaharopoulos was the attendee and presenter at this conference]

Presentation of a collaborative piece ‘Changing One’s Mind’ for an audio program.

2018 – Guest Lecturer with Matheos Zaharopoulos for Music History (MHIS 241) From Phonograph to Streaming. Concordia University-Montreal, Canada.

Lecture on historical relevancy to modern art and project creation through our piece ‘Changing One’s Mind’.

2018 – Sonorities – Festival of Contemporary Music 2018- Queen’s University of Belfast- Belfast, Ireland.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Reflection’ for an audio program.

2017 – klingt gut! International Symposium on Sound- Hamburg, Germany.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Reflection’ for an audio program.

2017 – NYCEMF | New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2017- New York City, USA.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an audio program.

2017 – Sounds Like THIS Festival 2017: Surround Threat, Leeds College of Music – Leeds, England.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Reflection’’ for an audio program.

2017 – MUSLAB 2016: Muestra Internacional de Música Electroacústica y Video Mapping. UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE RIO DE JANEIRO. Brazil

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Reflection’ for an audio program.

2016 – EAST FEST 2016 – Concordia Electroacoustics Circus- Montreal, Canada.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Reflection’ for an audio program.

2016 – Sonorities – Festival of Contemporary Music 2016- Queen’s University of Belfast- Belfast, Ireland.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an audio program.

2016 – Ecos Urbanos 2º FESTIVAL DE MÚSICA ELECTROACÚSTICA ECOS URBANOS- Mexico City, Mexico.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an audio program.

2016 – (ISSTA) Irish Sound Science and Technology Association 2016 – Derry/Londonderry, Ireland.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an online radio broadcast.

2016 – (TIES) Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium (TIES) Concert #4 – Toronto, Canada.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an audio program.

2016 – Cicada Consort -The Marvin Johnson Memorial Celebration of Electronic Music – Alabama, USA.

Presentation of my audio piece ‘Elongation’ for an audio concert.

SOUND MAPS

2022 – Echoes – Peace Wall Belfast Soundwalks

The project was first conceived in 2019, as part of my Masters in Research (MRes) final project for the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast. It has now been included on the Echoes app for larger audience usage.
Link: https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/0txhFuJvg1KSjjHZ

2021 – Echoes – Sounding Montreal During Covid-19

This project reflects through an auditory and sonic art perspective how the city sounds like without the presence of humans or the normal amount of human density in popular areas in public spaces of Montreal.

After a year and two lockdowns in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I was able to return home to Montreal, Canada for a short period of time. During this time, I wanted to expand on my research practices of Covid-19_Belfast City and take a soundscape recording approach to the lockdowns in some areas of Downtown and Old Port Montreal. The entirety of Quebec faced different zones of lockdowns; Montreal was in its second lockdown since September 2020 with a home curfew being ordered in early January 2021.

I kept the same recording constraints of only capturing five minutes of audio and composing two-minute listening experiences. Places were chosen by a similar approach of using the VisitBelfast Tourist Map while in Belfast, whereas in Montreal this was the Carte Touristique Officielle/Official Tourist Map 2019-2020. Locations focused on touristic places, hospitality sectors, retail sectors, educational areas, and public urban spaces. Parts 1 and 2 focus on the same three crossroads along the famous Saint-Catherine St in Downtown Montreal, Part 3 on Old Port Montreal, and Part 4 on the Quebec Home Alert for the curfew put in place.

This project is accessible via Echoes (GPS soundwalks – Available on the Apple Store and Google Playstore): https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/Q6FztVnFMhtOzHoO

2021 – Echoes – Sounding Belfast During Covid-19 (Lockdown 1, 2, 3)

During a global pandemic, countries and cities have become literal ghost towns. Once flustered with sounds from human activities, it has now been overtaken from the once subtle industrial, urban, and natural sound environments. Recording multiple points during the lockdown, we are able to chronologically experience the differences imposed by Covid-19 restrictions and how these spaces have changed from the start of the global pandemic. This project reflects through an auditory and sonic art perspective how the city sounds like without the presence of humans or the normal amount of human density in popular areas in public spaces of Belfast.
Link: https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/QZQN9a10To92iDoM

2020 – Science + Media Museum Present: Sounds of my quarantine [Based on Project 1: COVID-19_Belfast City]

Sound Map link: https://padlet.com/platformmuseum/q9unei4soco98xu8

SOUNDS OF MY QUARANTINE – Blog Post: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/sounds-of-quarantine/

Scroll to Northern Ireland OR search Georgios Varoutsos and you will see all 10 files I have recorded.

2020 – COVID-19 Sound Map [Based on Project 1: COVID-19_Belfast City]

Sound Map link: http://www.tinyurl.com/covid19soundmap

A miniature version version of Project 1: COVID-19_Belfast City has now been included on Prof. Pete Stollery’s COVID-19 Sound Map. Scroll to Northern Ireland OR search Georgios Varoutsos and you will see all 41 files I have recorded.

2020 – Cities and Memory [Based on Project 1: COVID-19_Belfast City]

Sound Map link: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/sound-map

This sound map is part of Cities and Memory is a global field recording & sound art work that presents both the present reality of a place and an alternative, reimagined sound world – remixing the world, one sound at at time. Scroll to Northern Ireland OR search Georgios Varoutsos and you will see all 41 files I have recorded.

Also featured on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3162-belfast-city-hall/id877264885?i=1000473123789

2020 – Radio Aporee – Soundscapes in the Pandemic [Based on Project 1: COVID-19_Belfast City]

https://aporee.org/maps/work/projects.php?project=corona

Scroll to Northern Ireland OR search Georgios Varoutsos and you will see all 41 files I have recorded.

RADIO BROADCASTS

2021 – MUSIKIÍ Radio Show – Vilnius, Lithuania.

Piece: ‘DigiTral’ featured for a radio show. [Part of artist group collaboration: Matheos & Georgios ]

2020 – Gwaith Sŵn’s Sonic Darts Radio Show on Resonance FM 104.4 London.

Presentation of a collaborative piece ‘DigiTral’ for Part One of Open Call: 2020 Radio Show. [Part of artist group collaboration: Matheos & Georgios ]

2020 – Ralph Hopper’s Acoustic Frontiers on CKCU-FM 93.1 – Carleton University – Ottawa, Canada.

Piece: ‘DigiTral’ featured for a radio show. [Part of artist group collaboration: Matheos & Georgios ]

2019 – Gwaith Sŵn’s Sonic Darts Radio Show on Resonance FM 104.4 London .

Presentation of a collaborative piece ‘Changing One’s Mind’ for a radio show themed on mental health. [Part of artist group collaboration: Matheos & Georgios ]

2016 – Ralph Hopper’s Acoustic Frontiers on CKCU-FM 93.1 – Carleton University – Ottawa, Canada.

Piece: ‘Reflection’ featured for a radio show.

MUSIC RELEASE, COLLECTIONS, CD’s, and ONLINE ALBUMS

2020 – Here EP on BandCamp

Link: https://georgiosvaroutsos.bandcamp.com/album/here-ep

2020 – Listening (Ongoing Project: Connecting Acoustic Spaces) by Natalia Domínguez Rangel

Included work: Covid-19_Belfast_Northern Ireland

2020 – New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) – SOUND TRAVELS #1

Included work (collaborative piece): Changing One’s Mind by Matheos & Georgios

Online album of electroacoustic sound art, the first edition produced for the Sound Travels Festival of Sound Art, featuring fixed media works and live performance recordings on the theme of Transformation. A common thread throughout this collection is the use of the transformation of sounds through digital means to not only bend and change conceptions of reality, but to also blur distinctions for the listener between musical listening and imaginary planes of existence.

Curated by Artistic Director: Darren Copeland

The Sound Travels Album is not available for download, however you can listen to the entire album [Here]

Featured artists include: Barry Truax, Léa Boudreau, Matheos & Georgios, and other artists.

2020 – GRISPerú – Sonidos desde mi Ventana VOL.1

“Sounds from my window” is a collaborative work in which sound and interested landscapers recorded the soundscapes of their surroundings during the obligatory stay at home. From different windows, they recorded the closest thing to their territory.

COVID-19 Belfast Mini WindowScape by Georgios Varoutsos

2020 – Liburia Records — 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 —

In this month of quarantine creativity has found so much space in many musicians. The answer to our call for the realization of a collection linked to electroacoustic compositions designed during this forced closure period was very high.

‘WindowScape‘ by Georgios Varoutsos

INTERVIEWS, WEB ARTICLES and PRESS

2022 – In Conversation with Aoife Magill on SARC Radio. [Interview]. May 25, 2022.

This Wednesday at 6 pm on SARC Radio – final year BA Broadcast Production student Aoife Magill launches a new limited series showcasing SARC students, discussing their influences and sharing samples of their work.

On Wednesday’s show, Aoife chats to sound artist and PhD student Georgios Varoutsos about his soundscape compositions.

Future episodes next Wednesday and the following week will catch up with undergraduate musicians Daire Heffernan and Pearse Donaghy for some live performances in the Sonic Lab.

Listen Wednesday, May 25, June 1 & June 8 at 6 pm here: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sarc/sarcradio/

2022 – Queen’s University Belfast: My Story [Interview]. May 10, 2022.

About: Highlighting a story on my PhD journey in the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/queen%27s-university-belfast_it-is-as-if-yesterday-i-was-standing-alone-activity-6928041143192449024-BRet?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

2022 – BBC News – Belfast: The sounds of the city during Covid lockdowns [Video Interview]. March 6, 2022.

About:
During the coronavirus pandemic, cities throughout the world emptied as lockdown restrictions were implemented.
A PhD student from Queen’s University Belfast used this time to make recordings for his final research project.
Georgios Varoutsos used his daily lockdown walks to record the sounds of Belfast city centre.
Like many cities throughout the UK, Belfast had previously been dominated by the sound of human activity. During lockdown, these were replaced by subtle industrial, urban and natural sounds.
The results can be listened to by downloading the free Echoes app and it was showcased as part of the 2022 Northern Ireland Science Festival.
BBC News NI merged Georgios’ sound files with drone footage taken in Belfast city centre during and after lockdown.

Video journalist: Niall McCracken

Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-60601083

2022 – Art Volt guides alumni through the brouhaha of artistic careers by Véronique Morin [Interview]

Discussion about Art Volt / Art Volte’s platform that aims to support students graduating from all nine Concordia University Fine Arts departments.
Link: https://theconcordian.com/2022/02/art-volt-guides-alumni-through-the-brouhaha-of-artistic-careers/

2020 – SONIC FIELD – Sonic, Social, Distance and Soundtracks for Strange Days, compilation Part 1 [Compilation]

Work featured: COVID-19_Belfast Mini WindowScape

About: Sonic, Social, Distance, is calling for works on listening and sound, and thinking about listening and sound, in the time of social distance…alone together, together apart.
Link:https://sonicfield.org/2020/08/sonic-social-distance-and-soundtracks-for-strange-days-compilation-part-1

2019 – Northern Slant | NORTHERN ROOTS: “IN A SHORT TIME I COULD CALL BELFAST HOME” by MICHAEL AVILA [Interview]
https://www.northernslant.com/northern-roots-in-a-short-time-i-could-call-belfast-home/

2017 – The Link | Clinging to the Nostalgic Hum: Getting Lost Within Wire Forest at Art Matters [Interview]
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/blogs/entry/wire-forest-art-matters-concordia

2016 – The Link | Avenues Within Akousma XIII [Interview]
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/akousma-xiii

ARTIST RESIDENCIES & MASTERCLASSES

2018 – 1953 – Through the Dust. Collaboration with Matheos Zaharopoulos. [Artist Residency]

Invited to do research and create an art piece in relation to the 1953 Great Kefalonian Earthquake. Based at the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia Island, Greece.

2017 – Triangular Project – Multimodality – Sounds of Southern Kefalonia. [Artist Residency]

Collaborative project with Mallika Guhan on the concept of multimodality. Based at the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia Island, Greece.

2017 – EXPLORING SPATIAL AWARENESS [Masterclass]

A seven day Master Class exploring spatial awareness, led by TRIANGULAR PROJECT. Venue: Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia Island, Greece.

Objectives of the course:

Learn a variety of methodologies to explore space (spatial perception, spatial awareness) & Collaborative audio project with Mallika Guhan on the concept of multimodality.

EXHIBITIONS

2022 – ‘Connecting Acoustic Spaces’ by Natalia Domínguez Rangel. Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab. Vienna, Austria. June 28 – July 22, 2022.

Audio Contribution: Covid-19 field recordings from April 2020

“Connecting Acoustic Spaces” are 6 sound and light glass sculptures with a multichannel soundscape created with ca.500 collected audio recordings from 6 continents, including 40 countries, including 140 cities and towns around the world since the corona lockdown in Europe. Dating from March 2020 till March 2021. I invited artists, friends, colleagues and people to send me recordings of their acoustic environments.

I am involved in the way we are listening and interpreting our surroundings. I find very relevant how, gradually, our noise footprint increases and how unaware we were (are?) of the huge impact it has. This has brought me to reflect on: How do we imagine ourselves as listening objects, bodies? The need to understand our own acoustic agency and how it tunes in or makes sense with our and other sonic environments.

Connecting Acoustic Spaces exhibits these recordings through sound and light glass sculptures with a multichannel soundscape. The glass creatures create personal acoustic arenas for those specific pandemic audio files collected and shared by my peripheral community.
These biological shell creatures serve as a protectorate and demarcation of acoustic spaces allowing us to observe and listen. The shelter became a means to isolate an ecology at the same time it made an idealistic environment differentiated from the exterior of the present acoustic moment.

I created these fictions inspired by nature acoustic shapes for these audio files to re-exist and resonate. These sheltered sounds can be heard and felt through the transparency and reflection of glass.

The sculptures will embody all those different listening ears.

2021 – You Are Not Alone: An International Mail Art Exhibition – Created by Syria.art Association + Penticton Art Gallery + Online Cyrrus Gallery. Salon Am Moritzplatz, Berlin. September 3 – 13, 2021.

While the isolation imposed by governments worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic protected us from the dangers of a contagious virus, it also exposed us to the ever growing threat of separation on our psychological and social health. In these challenging times only our collective awareness that none of us are in this alone — that human beings everywhere on this planet face the same threat — allowed us to keep our solidarity, our togetherness and our strength while in quarantine.
This exhibition is a collective effort and joint statement from 180 artists around the globe that we stand together and that we will always find our space to create, adapt and stand strong.
These 300 multiple-medium artworks are the result of an open call released in March 2020 by the Penticton art gallery in Canada, the Syria.art Association (Nice/Berlin) and the Online Cyrrus Gallery celebrating a strong and creative partnership and demonstrating the ability of art in bringing people together.
These works will be kept as an archive to serve as a time capsule, a permanent document of this moment in our collective history. The collection will be made available for loan to other galleries and museums across the globe and in a permanent online exhibition. The exhibition was shown in Penticton, Canada in September 2020 and will be shown in Nice, France in 2022.

Curated by Humam Alsalim and Paul Crawford

Visit: https://www.covid19mailart.com
Visit: https://www.covid19mailart.com/?ux-portfolio=georgios-varoutsos

2020 – The Kitchen Sink Project – Hosted by Naomi Even-Aberle. South Dakota, USA.

Work featured: Divided Spaces

The Kitchen Sink Project is a curatorial and exhibition project between Naomi Even-Aberle and her husband Nik Aberle who live in Rapid City, South Dakota USA. Both are taking inspiration from the phrase ,”everything but the kitchen sink”. The phrase originated around the early 1900s and the first print reference can be found in 1918 in the newspaper The Syracuse Herald. The expression became popular during World War II, where it was said that everything but the kitchen sink was thrown at the enemy.

As artists, the couple believes that creating space to nurture, grow, and share the process and work of other artists is important. To this end, the couple is curating an exhibition space within their very own kitchen. Unlike the original idiom, the project strives to leave nothing out – even saying yes to the kitchen sink.

2020 – You Are Not Alone: An International Mail Art Exhibition – Created by Syria.art Association + Penticton Art Gallery. British Columbia, Canada. Dates: 18.09.2020 – 08.11.2020

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting imposition of self-isolation, the Penticton Art Gallery, in partnership with the Syria.art Association (Nice/Berlin), invited artists from across the globe to participate in an unprecedented art exhibition entitled, You Are Not Alone. Like a message in a bottle, we sent out a call to artists working in all media, to submit works which would serve as a testament to our resiliency, creativity, and collective humanity in face of these extraordinary times.

Visit: http://pentictonartgallery.com/you-are-not-alone
Visit: https://covid19mailart.com/mailart/georgios-varoutsos/

2020 – Social Distancing Art Festival – SODA (Virtual Exhibition of COVID-19 artworks)

This website is especially designed to show a variety of artworks that were made during the times of the Covid-19 crisis. Artists from over 20 countries participated in our open call and are represented here. We are aware that the movement of social distancing art is still in its infancy. At the same time we present the selected works of art as documentation, of the present “unimagined” time. Without a doubt, the contributions will last for weeks, months and years and gain relevance as a historical statement.

Works featured from COVID-19_Belfast City: Botanic Gardens + Albert Memorial Clock

2017 – TRIANGULAR – SEA(S) 2017, IONION Center for the Arts and Culture. Kefalonia Island, Greece

Theme: Artist collective working with the theme of space

2017 – Temps Incongrus – Espace Project, Painting and Drawing Student Association. Montreal, Canada

Theme: Questioning various facets of time

2017 – Wire Forest – Art Matters, Studio XX. Montreal, Canada

Theme: In this world, technology has replaced the organic

2016 – Polar Vortex – Galerie VAV Gallery. Montreal, Canada

Theme: Artistic Pressure

RESEARCH, MEMBERSHIP, ARCHIVES, or OTHER GROUPS

2022 – ARCHIVE FOR SHARED PERCEPTUAL SPACE | Research Catalogue

This is part of the SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP: SPATIAL AESTHETICS AND ARTIFICIAL ENVIRONMENTS, formed by the Society for Artistic Research.

“Artists, researchers, and theorists working with space, while focusing on specific aspects, processes, approaches or methods, ways of working, constellations of activities or framing patterns, particular projects or lines of enquiry-in-practice were invited to contribute to Archive of Shared Perceptual Spaces – an online presentation of expanded approaches to spatial practices within the field of artistic research.

Over 70 individuals working as architects, experience designers, lecturers and researchers, media artists and media technologists (VR/AR/XR), media theorists, visual artists, performers, musicians, sound artists, and composers, are presented in this archive.”

Link: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1108448/1108449

2021-Present – Sound & Space | Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast

Addressing relationships between sound, space and environment from multiple perspectives and methodologies. We are interested in how spatiality and the sonic interact through acoustics, social, experience, perception and creative practice. How can sound inform our understanding of the climate crisis, promote environmental stewardship and contribute to more cohesive and inclusive communities? Group meetings take the form of reading/discussion sessions, sharing work in progress, and planning conference/journal contributions.

SOCIETIES

2022-2023 – Treasurer of the Hellenic Society | Queen’s University Belfast

Responsible for the finances of the society

2021-2022 – President of the Hellenic Society | Queen’s University Belfast

Responsible for the overall running of the society

2021-2022 – Vice-President of Philosophy Society | Queen’s University Belfast

Shared responsibility with the current President for the overall running of the society

VOLUNTEER & EXPERIENCE PLACEMENT

2022-Present – SARC Steering Committee at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Queen’s University Belfast

Info: The Steering Committee aims to represent interests and act as a group that continues to develop strategy and acts on implementing initiatives and relevant structures.

2022 – Audio Visual Arts Festival (AVA):

Info: AVA is an Audio Visual Arts Festival & Conference that celebrates, amplifies and develops the strong current of electronic music and digital visual arts.
Roles: Build & Decor | Accreditation & Ticketing ~ Guest List + other ticket tiers

2021-Present – SARC PhD Lead at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast

Info: The role aims to support a vibrant research culture with over 30 PhD students and ensure effective communication between the PhD cohort and academic staff.

2021-Present – Arts, English, and Languages (AEL) Student Research Network (SRN) – Steering Group in Queen’s University Belfast

Info: A network of PhD Researchers from Arts, English, and Languages focused on three areas: research activities, social events and publicity/promoting people.

2021-Present – Networking Knowledge: Official publication of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) Postgraduate Network

Info: It is a fully indexed, open-access, peer-reviewed journal, run exclusively by and for postgraduate and early career researchers in the interdisciplinary fields of media, communication and cultural studies.
Role: Peer Reviewer

2021 – Audio Visual Arts Festival (AVA):

2020-2021 – QUB VOICES: Postgraduate Podcast

Info: QUB Voices showcases PhD research at Queen’s University Belfast, giving postgraduate researchers an opportunity to share, discuss and promote their projects.

Honourable Mention for Queen’s Student’s Union – SU Awards 2021 on Celebrating Innovative Online Activities
Role: (Primary) Production Team | (Secondary) Host

Hosted:
Episode 18: Researcher Spotlight
In this episode, Laura speaks about how this interplay has shaped her life as much as her research practice on the PhD journey.
Episode 17: Music, Accessibility and Artistic Research
First guest, Alex Lucas, who designs musical instruments, talks about the process of creating to enable musical performances for those with disabilities. The second guest, Damian Mills, speaks about inclusivity with the use of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and music making for those with disabilities.
Episode 5: Researcher Spotlight
In the next of our researcher spotlight episodes, Georgios speaks to Shane O’Donnell, a PhD candidate at Queen’s researching men’s health and suicide.
Episode 4: Men’s Health
In this episode, Georgios speaks to Professor Joe O’Sullivan, professor of radiation oncology at Queen’s, and Katie Ní Chléire, Vice President Welfare at QUB Students’ Union, about men’s health in Northern Ireland.

2019 – Audio Visual Arts Festival (AVA):

2019 – Institute for Conflict Research (ICR):

Project: The Art of Conflict Transformation – Ards & North Down Borough Council: Art at the Heart of the Peninsula
“Art at the heart of the Peninsula” is a community-based engagement and participation programme addressing the Ards Peninsula’s shared and diverse history of migration and immigration. Aimed at fostering social inclusion peace and reconcilliation, over 18 months the 75 participants have engaged in cross community and cross border initiatives aimed at developing understanding and communication between residents. They explore the area’s diverse social history learning about its significant contribution to Kindertransport, Polish Air Squadrons, Kelp Farming, Straw Hat Making, Life boat Rescues and the Viking and Norman heritage. A sustainable legacy of the programme is the creation of six pieces of public art with visual artists Eleanor Wheeler and Alan Cargo and writers Frank Ormsby, Jan Carson, Kathleen McCracken, Siobhan Campbell, Paul Maddern and Maureen Boyle for placing in the villages of Millisle, Ballywalter/Ballyhalbert, Greyabbey, Kircubbin, Portaferry and Donaghadee.
Roles: Sound Recordist, Composer, Associate, and Producer

PERFORMANCES

Directive roles with Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk)

Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk) is a laptop orchestra, made up of students who major in electroacoustics at Concordia University, Montreal, and is directed by Dr. Eldad Tsabary.

2018 – Conductor, Concordia Laptop Orchestra, CLOrk with Ed Fuller & Georgios Varoutsos-Montreal, Canada. Concordia University, Music Department.

A sound performance based on ‘Tonic’ a musical card game.

2016 – Co-Director, Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk at Akousma Festival 2016, Usine C, Montreal. (2016-10-21)

2016 – Co-Director, Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk 22h22 : Ariane Moffatt with Concordia Laptop Orchestra at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), part of Les Journées de la culture, organized by Culture pour tous. (2016-09-29) https://youtu.be/DqW_UWcOPs8

2016 – Director & Sound Painter. CLOrk at George’s Campfire: A piece by Georgios Varoutsos for Concordia Laptop Orchestra. Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-02-04). https://youtu.be/l9zhLfc9JmQ

Performed Shows:

Performer with Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk). CLOrk is a laptop orchestra, made up of students who major in electroacoustics at Concordia University, Montreal, and is directed by Dr. Eldad Tsabary.

2017 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with guests Kathy Kennedy, Elizabeth Millar, Mallika Guhan, and Channel No One (Eric Séguin & Justin Wright), Eastern Bloc, Montreal. (2017-04-14).

2017 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with Kathy Kennedy and Damaris Baker, Concordia University, Music Department. (2017-03-23).

2017 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk – No Complaints, a collaboration with electroacoustic duo No Complaints (Fernando Alexis & Line Katcho). Concordia University, Music Department. (2017-02-09).

2016 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with QUADr (Myriam Boucher, Alexis Langevin-Tétrault, Lucas Paris, and Pierre-luc Pierre-Luc Lecours) and Choeur Élan Choir (directed by Damaris Baker). Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-04-07).

2016 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with Nashim Gargari and Jeremie Jones. Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-03-24).

2016 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk and Sponge, with Martin Marier. Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-03-24).

2016 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with Le Trio Carson (Alain Lefebvre, Hazy Montagne Mystique, & Guillaume Vallée). An audiovisual performance. Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-02-18).

2016 – Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk): CLOrk with CCRMA and York. A telematic performance with Chris Chafe, Michael Palumbo, Michael Pinsonneault, and others. Concordia University, Music Department. (2016-02-04).

CREDITS

2022 – “A Silent War” – cine-poetry collection by Ross Thompson in collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen and Digital Film Archive

Sound Designer & Original Music Composed for Lacunae
Link: https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/a-silent-war-lacunae-5784

2022 – Queer at Queen’s Podcast by Seamus Heaney Centre

Sound Recordist & Sound Engineer
Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/097ZK3yxF6e3OlJSFCH8Q2?si=5d6d53a222c54a24

2022 – Blackbird Anthology Reading Series by Seamus Heaney Centre

Sound Recordist & Sound Engineer
Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3C2EeZ8TpvX3BZzlNU2eeO?si=8322c2a1c6fb48bf

2020-2021 – QUB Voices Podcast

Sound Recordist, Production Team, and Host
Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7CqiI3RtWJ5HTRiKnJb0y2?si=fb25fd29da334409

2020 – Liburia Records: ‘WindowScape’ by Georgios Varoutsos Various – Sound diaries in quarantine time – Vol.II ‎(CD, Comp)

2019 – “Art at the Heart”: Public Art Project: Ards Peninsula by the Institute of Conflict Research and Ards & North Down District Council

Sound Designer & Composer
Link: https://www.nvtv.co.uk/shows/art-at-the-heart-of-the-peninsula/

2016 – NORTHERN CØDA:

Track 2 – Funk You | Recorded by Georgios Varoutsos
Track 4 – Untempered | Recorded by Georgios Varoutsos
https://www.discogs.com/NORTHERN-C%C3%98DA-NORTHERN-C%C3%98DA/release/11629581

2015 – The Sociopath’s Guild | Production Assistant

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2644490/

2015 – The Sociopath’s Guild | Assistant Camera

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2644490/

2014 – Pas de Deux | Actor

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3817516/

PROJECTS

2022 – Covid-19 Sound Stories | [Audio / Audiovisual Projects]

2022 – Life With Sounds | [Audio / Audiovisual Projects]

2022 – COVID-19_Belfast City: Lifted Restrictions | [Audio-Image Projects]

2021 – Pieces of Covid Memories | [Audio Piece]

2021 – A Silent War – Written by Ross Thompson – A poetic sequence in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020. | [Audio Pieces]

2021 – COVID-19_Belfast City: Lockdown 3 | [Audio-Image Projects]

2021 – COVID-19_Montreal Lockdowns | [Audio-Image Projects]

2021 – COVID-19_Belfast City: Lockdown 2 | [Audio-Image Projects]

2020 – Here EP | Ambient Music

2020 – DigiTral with Matheos & Georgios | [Audio Piece]

2020 – Moments of a Solivagant (Ongoing series) | [Audio-Image Projects]

2020 – COVID-19_Window Ledge | [Audio-Image Projects]

2020 – COVID-19_Belfast City: Lockdown 1 | [Audio-Image Projects]

2019 – Divided Spaces + Peace Wall Belfast Soundwalks | [Master’s Research Project]

2019 – JTTP 2019 – Revisit | [Audio Piece]

2019 – 60 x 60 Concordia with Matheos & Georgios | Supported by Fondation Evenko | Audio Piece | [Show]

2018 – ‘Tonic’ a musical card game | Concordia Laptop Orchestra, CLOrk Georgios Varoutsos | [Conductor]

2018 – JTTP 2018 – Changing One’s Mind by Matheos & Georgios | [Audio Piece]

2018 – Changing One’s Mind by Matheos & Georgios |(Added in JTTP 2018) | [Audio Piece]

2018 – 1953 – Through the Dust by Matheos & Georgios | [Audio Piece]

2018 – DreamLand by Matheos & Georgios | [Audio Piece]

2017 – Feeling Reeling Being by Catherine Slilaty | Animation | [Sound Designer/Composer]

2017 – Independent Research Study for Electroacoustic Studies at Concordia University| Building a wireless hand-worn midi controller for live electronic music. | [Instrument Design]

2017 – Astir for 60 x 60 Concordia supported by Fondation Evenko | Audio Piece | [Show]

2016 – JTTP 2016 – Reflection | [Audio Piece]

2016 – Reflection | [Audio Piece]

2016 – Summer On Lake Ouareau by Marielle Dalpé | Animation | [Sound Designer/Composer]

2016 – CLOrk at George’s Campfire (2016): A piece by Georgios Varoutsos for Concordia Laptop Orchestra | [Performance Piece/ Sound Conductor]

2016 – Elongation | [Audio Piece]

2016 – Party Like it’s 2007 by AndréAnn Cossette |Performative Piece | [Sound Designer/Sound Performer]

2015 – JTTP 2015 – Chasing Away The Animals | [Audio Piece]

OTHER PLATFORMS

PURE QUB: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/georgios-varoutsos

SONUS: https://sonus.ca/artiste/CP-6877/Georgios_Varoutsos

DISCOGS: https://www.discogs.com/artist/6331293-George-Varoutsos