Claude Schryer - Immersion in Hope 16

Canadian Claude Schryer is a Zen practitioner who believes in the power of art to shape a better future & dedicates much of his life to this pursuit. He has been a sound & media artist, having released several electroacoustic soundscape CDs in the 90s. for 20 years, He served as an arts administrator with the Canada Council for the Arts in Inter-Arts after creating that department. 

Schryer is  an environmental activist and in 2020 launched his bilingual ‘radical listening’ Conscient podcast, which explores art and the ecological crisis. He also offers workshops on art and sound & the climate emergency.  

When I heard Schryer’s podcast with Hildegard Westerkamp, I was moved as much by the interviewer as by his inspiring guest. Thoughtful dialogue and warm atmosphere. I reached out to Schryer and came away with this interview. He is enthusiastic and engaged. He welcomed the opportunity to discuss immersion and the moderating of a podcast. Midway through our interview, he turned the tables and began interviewing me and, in the end, we each came away with our own podcast – one for immerse!, a second for Conscient. 

Schryer: “The world’s a bad place and there are those who are raising awareness. And there are those who say: Here’s what you can do about it. That sort of action-oriented activist, engagé art. And then there’s a third category of escapists and dreamers, also very important ... so somewhere between those who are raising awareness, those who are inciting us into action and those who are helping us escape from it.”

Read entire interview pdf here

* production & audio backdrop: bart plantenga