ProgrammingCall for SubmissionsNewsBecome a Member
Rentals + Services
About VIVO
Archive
Video Out Distribution
DonateBuy VIVO Totes
Registration Deadline: July 1, 2025
Fees: $100-$200 + 100% Subsidy Spot (see below)
Tuning In: Soundscape Recording with Nancy Tam is a two-day weekend workshop with Nancy Tam where participants will learn the basics of field recording and soundscape composition for film, theatre and music.
Limited capacity—register now to reserve your spot! Registration Deadline: July 1, 2025
Two sessions, 11 hours total
Session 1: Field Recording Outdoors - Saturday July 12, 10am – 4pm (1-hour break in total included)
Participants will begin the day at VIVO Media Arts Centre for a brief survey of microphones, recording techniques, and data organization to prime them for a day of field recording outdoors. Workshop participants will then take a field trip to Burnaby Lake Regional Park for a day of hands-on field recording, using a variety of microphones and field recording equipment to develop their own soundscape library.
Session 2: Editing and Manipulating Field Recording - Sunday July 13, 10am – 3pm (1-hour break in total included)
Participants will meet at VIVO Media Arts Centre to edit and manipulate their field recordings using Ableton Live software, with an emphasis on creative and technical approaches to sound. The session will explore how soundscape recordings can be applied across disciplines, including film, theatre, and music.
This course is introductory to intermediate level. No prior field recording experience is needed but an understanding of computer use and basic filing systems is required. Equipment, including headphones, will be provided. Participants are asked to bring their own laptop with Ableton Live or Ableton Live Lite (free) software installed. A limited number of computers with Ableton software will be available upon request.
* Active members should have already received a discount code based on their membership level. If not, please email info@vivomediaarts.com.
^ If you’ve volunteered with VIVO, you should have received a discount code based on your stored Video Bucks. If not, please email info@vivomediaarts.com.
Want access to discounts?
Sign up for a VIVO Membership.
To learn more about getting involved in the future, check out our volunteering page.
One no-cost workshop spot will be available for individuals from marginalized or underserved communities facing financial barriers. To enter the lottery for a 100% subsidy, please email info@vivomediaarts.com. The deadline to apply is June 27, 2025.
Results will be shared with all applicants by July 2.
Class sizes are small, and our instructors need to be paid. If you can’t make a class that you’ve signed up for, we need time to alert wait-listed participants. VIVO presently asks that withdrawals from workshops be requested by emailing info@vivomediaarts.com. Please notify us at least 10 days before the workshop (by Tuesday, July 1 end of day) if you need to withdraw to receive a refund. Note that the ShowPass processing fee is non-refundable, and we cannot process any refund requests after July 1.
—
This workshop requires mobility in a variety of outdoor terrain, and unfortunately we cannot guarantee accessibility off site. VIVO Media Arts Centre is accessible for those with mobility devices. Please contact us if you have further questions or concerns: info@vivomediaarts.com
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.
Nancy Tam was born and raised in Hong Kong. She now lives and works on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her practice is collaborative and interdisciplinary. She is spirited by experimentation with form and dramaturgy to create immersive sonic designs and environmental performances for on-stage and on-screen media. Her current research triangulates between sound, space, and body to examine the uncanny valley of haptics. Nancy has a penchant toward listening to quiet sounds and observing quotidian performances. Nancy is a founding member of the performance collective A Wake of Vultures, the theatre collective Five Blessings, and the visual art collective Fathom Sounds. Her compositions, performances, and collaborations have toured Europe, Asia, and North America. Under Nancy’s leadership, A Wake of Vultures’ Walking at Night by Myself played at Sound Forms Festival 2019 in Hong Kong, Open Ears Festival in 2022, and PuSh Festival in 2025. In 2023, Nancy concluded a 11-year run of ‘…wreckage upon wreckage…’ a durational performance installation of producing and shedding of plastic skins from dawn to dusk over two days. Nancy was a featured artist at Prague Quadrennial 2023 for the Canadian exhibition.
Photo: Nancy Tam by Sewari Campillo
