Self-described as “Guelph’s portal for adventure new sounds,” Silence is a hub for experimental and improvised sound art in the community. Events include musical acts, a monthly concert series, the occasional improvisation session, handmade music nights, and other unique and interesting workshops.
The Ontarion spoke with Ben Grossman, founder of Silence, about the inception of the initiative, where he mentioned how he used “a funding system called overdraft” when he chose not to pursue any outside investments to get the project off the ground.
Grossman had been involved in other arts initiatives in Guelph, but had found himself discouraged by the whole system, and was looking to start something different. After thinking about this project for a long time, “I felt like if I wanted to make something happen, I’d just have to make something happen, and I did. And I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it, so I just started pretending that it was happening,” said Grossman.
While Grossman developed the concept of Silence, a local performance artist named Ron Gaskin came up with the name. “I just made some little cards and started putting them around stuff, and posting enigmatic things without any reference to who I was – and it worked,” said Grossman. “I started getting emails from people saying ‘Have you heard anything about this Silence thing? What’s going on? Who is that?’ – It felt like a fantastic little prank.”
At that point, artists began contacting him from Toronto, California, Berlin, New York – all asking if they could take part in the initiative. With Silence gaining a bit of traction, it began to fill a void in the music scene, at least “it certainly fills a void for me personally,” Grossman said.
The main idea behind starting Silence was “to create an environment or community or an entity that would support and foster work in experimental music and sound,” stated Grossman. His goal was not to connect it to a particular genre – but, “to make it about all kinds of music…with some aspect that pushes the envelope a little bit aesthetically: in terms of practice, in terms of the rigors of actually making or listening to the music or the sound.”
He admits on his utilization of the word ‘experimental’ that he is “using it fairly naively,” explaining that the word operates in a way that is pseudo-scientific, and not in reference to the genre of experimental music. Grossman’s idea of experimentation involves projects that “haven’t been done before, or at least you haven’t done before, or under circumstances that are unusual or different, or using different materials.” As both a creator and listener taking part in these experiments, “you might not quite know what’s going to come out of the other end…you’re looking for a surprise or some sort, or you’re looking for something new, something to be challenged.”
Speaking from a personal perspective, Grossman described this type of experience as what he is always looking for in music and art, something that makes him ask, “What the fuck’s going on here? I don’t understand this.” A feeling of your preconceived notions about music and art being challenged, something that forces one to say, “I thought I really understood what music was about’…this is different and it’s making me question things, and I like that,” said Grossman. His goal with Silence is to create this sort of space where these experiments and questions happen.
As for Grossman’s plans, he wants to “keep it going without going insane.” But his future goals for Silence are to build a bigger audience, create a greater diversity of programming, and to reach out to the Guelph community through workshops and educational activities. “It sounds kind of naive, but I’d love to really keep doing what we’re doing, and do it better,” said Grossman.
“More is more, right?” Grossman asked. Ultimately, he wants Silence “to be a place where people can come and hang out, and learn, and start making stuff.” And now that he has a little proof of concept, and a year under his belt, “it’s probably time to go legit.”
For more information, visit www.silencesounds.ca