WISWOS 2016: 22 April, Lancaster University ‘Educating Girls in Sound’
WISWOS 2016 will focus on education. The previous very successful event at Lancaster in 2015 exhibited the excellent and varied work being done by women in many areas of sound, but also made clear their lack of visibility to the young. Despite the long and effective history of women working in and on sound, the numbers involved have not risen. What impact does the current education system have on young girls to deter them from moving into the fields of science, technology, the arts and engineering with sound? How can it be improved?
This next event seeks to explore how we can change and challenge current education systems by first looking at what is happening, why it is happening and what measures or advice can be put in place to invite change. We also recognise that on an international level there may be key differences in how girls participate or are taught sound, whether creatively or through the sciences and engineering, and we very much want to explore what these differences or similarities are.
To this end the next WISWOS is calling itself a forum. Instead of showcasing the work of women in sound we are looking for their contributions to change: innovative, imaginative, thoughtful, challenging ideas that can be put forward to propose changes to primary, secondary and third level education. We are also looking at experiences: what educational or non-educational experiences shaped your engagement with sound. What were the positives and negatives? What ideas do you have?
If you are part of an organization that already works to challenge the gender divide we welcome your input and ideas. Contributions from women and men are equally welcome. We also want to highlight the work that women make in various sonic disciplines so will again showcase the work of a number of artists, theoreticians, engineers and scientists in sound. In addition to the forum we are organising a number of other events in collaboration with Goldsmiths University and the Yorkshire Sound Women’s Network. We are again working alongside the Octopus Collective for the next event, project to be announced soon. Submission deadline February 8th, notification of selection February 15th.
For submission details to attend please click here to go to the WISWOS website
