It's Time To Start Making Shit Again
What about applying for a Residency? The ECCO Cohort 2 applications close on January 12...plus links for 5 more residency ideas below
Not sure about you, but I’m ready to put 2024 behind me and look ahead. Some of my personal goals for this year include finding ways to embrace my own experimentation and creativity.
Why now? As we sit (impatiently) waiting for the marketplace to settle down into whatever its new normal will become, maybe the best way to prepare for this is to look inside instead. And, start making things again. Just cuz.
is someone who is ahead of the curve on this (and many other things as well). Last month, she launched her indie test pattern Little Devils….read about that here.Last October we met up in a coffee shop one morning in Richmond, VA, just before Resonate kicked off, to talk some more about her brainchild The ECCO, which is a residency-based gathering to play, create, think, and explore the world of narrative audio.
The following is a lightly edited conversation.
[Samantha Hodder]: Tell me about The ECCO.
[Jasmin Bauomy]: In order to tell you, I kind of need to tell you how it started… because it came out of a point of frustration. At the end of last year, I wanted to play. I was sick and tired of always pitching and trying to sell something.
I have this amazing group of people in Berlin. I've started building this community of people—struggling freelancers basically—and I'd meet them individually or in small groups and they kind of vent about how shitty things are. How everything's [gone] chatty. They wanted to make art and have a space to fail, just like me. So everybody was kind of in the same spot.
The problem with that is you kind of need to be slightly bored to be creative…or be out in nature, less distracted.
So I was like, what if I took my friends on a little vacation and we just nerded around about audio? So I asked around…a few people who I thought would benefit from knowing each other. I really handpicked and curated them. And they said yes. And that idea just snowballed and snowballed. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into…poor souls!
The goal is long term. I like the idea of it being somewhat of a residency where people don't have to sell [their work after].
[SH]: Were they all audio makers hers to begin with?
[JB]: Not all of them…but all they wanted was to go on a vacation!
Nobody got paid, nobody, not a single, nothing. They paid for it, but it was also the cheapest thing they could have done.
It was a long weekend, four days…I think they paid 320 euros, for everything. Transportation, accommodation, we cooked for ourselves. It was very scrappy, it was amazing. We can’t do it that cheaply again, sadly.
And then I was like, but now we've got these ideas, we might as well make them. And then…Oh! Well now that we're making them, what if we showed them to somebody… and then how cool would it be if we had an event…so that's how that snowballed.
[SH]: Can you give me a sense of the constellation of the people, the cohort?
[JB]: I wanted to have a few people who had a very trained artistic muscle. People who felt really comfortable in these waters of breaking the rules; once they go into editing a documentary, it's not all neat…just have vague ideas and a month later come out with art.
These people who I just look up to so much and I want to pick their brains I just want to sit in their brains and look around. I just I was like, this is my chance. I'm goning to learn from them.
I also wanted people who are underestimating themselves, ones that I believed in them way more, who I thought were fantastic storytellers, had a good voice, were smart, kind and generous, and were good glue, you know? [People who] don't have much of an ego.
I don't want to put any value on it, but kind of like more reportery or journalistic—slightly more RadioLab than Shortcuts. So I had those sensibilities.
And then I had two print people, who've done a little bit of audio and really wanted to break into audio. They were kind of testing the waters for what it means to be creative and bring some art and out-of-the-box thinking into their journalistic pieces and make audio.
I [also] got a few of those [people with] journalistic sensibilities, in terms of checking your source, or protecting your sources, ethically how to deal with trauma…and then a couple of [industry people] who know the landscape—solid journalists.
[SH]: Can you give me an overview of what you did there?
[JB]: One of the first things that we, an actual programming point, was a Q+A with Jess Shane, about Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative.
That kicked off an amazing plethora of discussions and, and it really set the tone for how can we make art, and documentary-style, journalistic things, and be ethical, and responsible.
You had all these artists and journalists discussing, and testing their boundaries. I wanted to see how they can they overlap in a way that is healthy for both, and where can they challenge each other.
SH: So you purposely brought together a range of skill sets and experience levels…what about ages?
[JB]: Age-wise it was kind of close, like twenties and thirties. Most of them. But I want to change that.
SH: Give me a sense of the schedule.
[JB]: So we arrived, cooked dinner that same night, and then I was like, what do you all want to do?
I had one-on-ones with each one of them, where they had kind of told me about some of the ideas they were thinking of making. That's something that I would change in the future. I think in the future, I would have a much longer lead-up to the actual retreat so that people come with tape.
The only thing I insisted on was writing sessions every morning. We had two people on the team who are very well versed in this [so they helped].
After the Jess thing, there was a need to discuss and talk about what are some of the ethical things, the best practices amongst each other.
There was somebody who said they wanted to learn some Reaper things….and we [someone who knows Reaper well], so he volunteered to teach a little bit.
It was fairly free-flowing. There was a lot of room for sharing and sitting with each other. Some people did a little bit of work. Some people went on walks, but it wasn't super structured.
Which, you know, you gotta be the type. I got some feedback from two people later on who wished there was more structure. But that's not what this is about. I don't want it to ever be that that, because it is self-organized.
One thing that I did make clear that first evening, in terms of the tone between all of us, I want it to be generous. I want it to be collaborative and I don't want there to be any clickiness. Unless you want alone time…don’t go out just by yourself without asking around if somebody wants to join you.
No clickiness allowed. Help each other out. We're here to help each other out. And I think that set the tone. People have become friends now. And now they're making things together. It's amazing.
[SH]: And then you had a listening event….tell me about that.
[JB]: Yeah. So that was in May. I wanted to showcase all the talent, kinda celebrate it. We also had some public submissions that were part of the night. That was part of the vision I have for this. There was no more space to sit. It was insane. Just an evening of celebration.
And it was the climax of sorts for everybody who was involved and then. What I didn't know back then was it was basically the beginning. Because then a radio station got in touch and they're like can we buy this?
[One person] sold her piece to a German radio station, and also Shortcuts (she changed it a bit for them). One of the public submissions also got picked up by a German radio station. A guy from the radio was in the audience and picked up on her hosting talent, gave her a little gig.
Everybody keeps their IP. Everybody does with it whatever they want to.
[SH]: What’s your vision for the future of The ECCO?
[JB]: I'm a little bit tired of hearing only English-speaking stories. So I've got this vision of kind of wandering around the world. But I also want to hear Spanish, French, Farsi, Portuguese, Korean—they've got a huge audio producing community there.
So now that I've kind of done this test round, which has been so damn successful, we decided to start an actual registered association (we're in the process of getting registered so that we can take donations in the future). I'd like to actually make it happen in the Global South and have them sponsored.
But I do have a full-time job on the side.
I also really want to look and make it in the U.S; maybe not 2025, but 2026. I'd love to do a retreat in the Arizona desert; I'm a desert fan. I think it brings out the best in people. I'd love to do something in Spanish or Portuguese, maybe dip into the Brazilian audio community, and the Latin American audio community, generally. And then hopefully one in the Middle East—that’s in the works.
But for 2025, my goal is a European cohort. I'm still looking for a good venue.
And more listening events. The community in Berlin have made it very, very clear they want more of those, please.
Deadline for Cohort #2 of The ECCO is January 12, 2025.
HERE’S 5 OTHER RESIDENCY IDEAS:
1 - Transom Travelling Workshop in Catalina Island is happening again! This holds a special place in my heart - I attended this in 2019. Apply by January 17, 2024. APPLICATIONS and INFO here
2 - Musée du quai Branly - Jacque Chirac Sound Art Residency - Apply by January 12
3 - Transom X Blue Mountain Center Residency - Apply for a month-long residency in the Adirondacks! INFO HERE
4 - Mazra’ah Media Art Residency for New Media Artists and Scholars - READ the info and APPLY by January 31
5 - Wave Farm Transmission Arts : 2025 Program Focus: A Radio Art Hour Deadline is February 1, 2025. INFO and Application HERE
Are you further ahead and already have something in the can?
OR, could you imagine getting it ready and then shoving it into the can? If so, apply to the TRIBECA Audio Storytelling Deadline STILL OPEN.
And…keep your eyes peeled (and newsletter subscribed) for the next circuit of Audio Flux…and perhaps donate to make this happen.