Music Writing Workshop

1 pm – 4.15 pm
Freddie Hudson
(freelance electronic music journalist, Lunchmeat Festival, ex-Deputy Editor of Inverted Audio)
in EN, free entry
Capacity of the workshop is limited.  

Want to try your hand at music journalism? Lunchmeat Festival is looking for eager would-be wordsmiths to write about acts at this year’s festival! 

In the workshop, you’ll learn the basics of writing about both recorded music and live events, the differences between, and get some hot tips on how to craft a piece of text that is engaging, informative, and brings your readers right to the front of the crowd.  

The workshop isn’t all a lesson in theory: participants will get to attend the main days of the festival at the National Gallery, and will be tasked with writing a focused review of an act at the festival. You’ll get feedback and coaching from Freddie, and the final product will be shared out on Lunchmeat Festival’s social media channels – kickstarting your music journalist career in style.  

You’ll need to have a strong grasp of both written and spoken English in order to get the most out of this, but the concepts apply to Czech, and indeed any language you may speak. You’ll also need to be available to attend at least one of the days of the festival’s programming at NGP, and be able to commit to a set deadline for your review.   

Interested? Write a short review of maximum 150 words about a piece of recent music that you love – LP, EP, or single – and fill in the survey to apply here. 

Find out more about Freddie Hudson here.  

Data Animism: Survival Strategies in an accelerated digital world  

5 pm – 5.45 pm 
Kuo Chih-Yi (NONEYE, NAXS Corp.)
talk in EN

As a developer, artist, and co-founder of the tech-art collective NAXS Corp, YI will share his explorations into dataism, pantheistic beliefs, and Buddhist philosophy, and his attempts to intertwine these seemingly distant perspectives in his art practices, aiming to construct a fresh viewpoints to confront the alienation brought on by technological mediation, and to find a way to thrive/survive in the age of AI. 

KUO Chih-yi is a Taiwanese interdisciplinary developer and media artist and co-creator of the Meuko! Meuko!s AV project you are going to see at this year’s Lunchmeat Festival. His works often combine different media including theater, virtual reality, web space, audio-visual performances, and space installations. In 2015, the group reorganized into NAXS Corp., and he has taken on different roles such as director, technical coordinator and visual/space/sound designer. Since 2017, his focus was on network interface experiments, no-man audio-visual performances, post-human mythology and ritual research. 

Twists and turns of creativity

5.50 pm – 6.45 pm
Zoë Mc Pherson, Alessandra Leone
host: Julia Yurchuk (Radio 1) 
interview in EN

Melding raw and unpredictable live energy with the brain-altering potential of the best experimental club textures, multimedia artist Zoë Mc Pherson makes music that evades constricting boundaries of genre. With a background in performance, sound design and installation art, Mc Pherson’s live sets are every bit as intense as Zoë is fearlessly creative. On stage, they are accompanied by visuals of their long-time collaborator Alessandra Leone, an art director and multimedia experimentalist. Together, they run SFX, the boundary-pushing A/V-focused label. 

In this interview we will offer you a sneak peek into their ways of creative thinking and process, methods of artistic creation and approach to multimedia projects when working alone, collaborating or initiating collaborations.  

Kolaps Live: Will the artist status save precarious cultural workers?

5 pm – 6.10 pm
Anna Štičková (Asociace spisovatelů)
hosts: Jan Bělíček, Pavel Šplíchal (Alarm.cz), Marie Lukáčová (artist)
discussion in CZ

In recent years, the debate about the precarious working and economic conditions of people working in culture has finally started in the Czech Republic. With the rising cost of living and the ever-increasing cost of housing, people in the cultural sector are finding themselves in a tight spot. Even people from the cultural sphere themselves are now beginning to speak openly about their dismal salary conditions. One of the ways to improve their situation at least a bit can be the introduction of the so-called status of the artist, which partially gave tax and social benefits to people working in culture.  

What could this tool change for the better? How realistic is its introduction in the Czech Republic in a form that would really help? And can the status of an artist solve all the problems that cultural workers face in their practice? This will be the subject of a live recording of the Kolaps podcast, which Jan Bělíček and Pavel Šplíchal are preparing for the internet newspaper Alarm.cz. 

Dimitri Hegemann on cultural activism, collaboration and communities

6.15 pm – 7 pm
Dimitri Hegemann (cultural activist and space pioneer) 
talk in EN 

What does cultural activism mean today and how can we use it with all its pros and cons? What role does collaboration play in it and how can we think about it when connecting and supporting different communities, subcultures, the cultural sector, authorities and the public? Dimitri Hegemann will share his thoughts on these topics on the background of his ongoing community and educative projects Happy Locals and Academy for Subcultural Understanding and other examples coming from his rich experience he gained as a club owner, community organizer and cultural activist. 

Dimitri Hegemann’s world began with observing the night in West-Berlin where he started to become active in the music scene. Between 1982 and 1990 he organized five Berlin Atonal Festivals – new codes in vision & sound. In 1986, he opened a store called Fisch Buero, in 1988  the acid house club called UFO. After the wall came down, Dimitri and his friends opened the legendary techno club Tresor, which became the birthplace of the biggest movement of the last century – techno. In March 2007, Hegemann found a new home for the club in an abandoned power plant in the middle of Berlin. The so called Kraftwerk Berlin is now home for art events throughout all genres. His newest concepts are the Happy Locals and the Academy for Subcultural Understanding. He considers himself a cultural activist and space pioneer – aiming to turn industrial ruins into cultural spaces.  

Open workshop for everybody: Animated stories

2 pm – 6 pm
in CZ/EN
free entry, for kids + adults 

Anything is possible in animation! Flying dogs, sea waves, talking cats and exploding dinosaurs. Stop by anytime between 2 pm – 6 pm and create your own short animations on animation machines or a lightbox! As a bonus, you can take your exported animation home with you.  

Thanks to the lightbox, it is possible to create an extraordinary spectacle from everyday objects with the help of colored films, glasses, wires, threads, rice, plasticine, hair gel or sand. You can also use a classic pencil and paper. It’s up to you how much you let your imagination run wild and whether you focus on a purely visual show or make a short film with a story.  

There will be many other animation machines such as praxinoscope and a flipbook machine on which you can create your own animation, and additionally there will be a woven silhouette zoetrope that you can try!  

The workshop is prepared by the illustrator and designer duo OP&K – Pavla Šnajdarová and Ondřej Mladý – op-k.cz/about  

Synth Playroom

2 pm – 11 pm
in CZ/EN
free entry, for kids + aduts

Stop by anytime between 2 pm – 11 pm in our open playroom where you have the opportunity to discover, play and experiment with different synthesizers, tabletop synths, other electronic instruments and audio/video reactive projection. If you get lost at the beginning, don’t worry, there will always be a Bastl, Noise Kitchen or Synth Library experienced guide around to help and navigate your sound journey.  

The Synth Playroom is prepared in cooperation with Bastl Instruments, Noise Kitchen and Synth Library, with the support of Vinyla Music Awards.   

Bastl Instruments have been sending their original musical instruments from Brno (CZ) to all over the world for ten years. These are played by living room artists and professional musicians alike. And you can get your hands on them during the Synth Playroom at the Lunchmeat Festival.  

Noise Kitchen is a collective and community-driven workshop dedicated to electronic music and DIY culture, creating music playgrounds to make and share music together, to experiment, learn, and communicate. Current DIY and educational activities as well as Open Jams happen in collaboration with Petrohradská kolektiv – an artist-run initiative.  

Synth Library Prague is a space for sharing, creating, discussing, experimenting, learning and unlearning not only in the field of sound and electronic music. Space filled with amazing instruments, books, and other resources run by artists and curators, who are committed to creating a welcoming space for everyone to learn, share, collaborate as equals and trigger change – with respect, care and thoughtfulness.