Research
Christmas Break
During the completion of my DH&T essay over the break, I collected many resources that have influenced me creatively. The overall theme of my essay was about seeing sound as something that can stand independently as a thing by itself. Going back to when I first started researching, I talked about how Francisco López’s essays were influential to me and set me on a deep, rich and interesting exploration into the substance of sound.
Hildegard Westerkamp, a sound artist from Canada, wrote an essay about Music-As-Environment and described a lot of sound in the urban is passive and forced upon us, such as music in shopping centres. She also discusses that sound is often used to put ourselves in a sort of comforting womb to get a mood that we desire, a mood setter. Along with this essay, López argues against the need for a stage in musical performances. That sound and music should be trusted and not need to be needlessly and thoughtlessly paired with visual spectacles. In another essay, López discusses that sounds should not try to be realistic and “perfect”.
Further in my essay, I explore the ontology of sound and delve into the idea of object-orientated-ontology and opposing anthropocentrism. This exploration is through López (again), Ian Bogos and Christoph Cox. The world is not built for us, we shouldn’t expect experiences to be given to us, but we should take experiences from the world and see the worth. My idea of my exhibition shying away from human presence was a part of this idea, I want someone to come into my installation and explore the sonic matter for what it is. Maybe it is seemingly boring and uninteresting sounds, but I feel there’s a quality to be gained from just listening. I want to encourage you to be one with the environment, not a consumer of it.
The explorations of these essays contribute to me treating sound as a thing in itself as valuable as anything else. I don’t need to represent a perfect place, I don’t need spectacles to keep the audience going “wow…”. I want a lasting impression, even if small and subconscious, to persevere in those that listen that maybe they should try listening more to see how much can be gained and how much closer we can grow to the world through compassion and understanding through ignored beauty.
In my final chapter of my essay, I explore ways in which different artists engage with the sonic realm. Pierre Schaeffer’s movement Musique Concrète explores using recording sound as a material that can be sculpted and used. Maryanne Amacher’s Synaptic Island: A Psybertonal Topology explores the idea of aural architecture and structure-borne sound, instead of typically exploring sound through air, they explore different mediums. Similarly with Mark Vernon’s exploration of the vibrating shattered window behind the Vic in Tremors.
I want this mundane to shine through and impact the person that is there experiencing it. I am going to explore the mundane through attempted-unbias (as much as I can!) recordings of different environments. I will then use software to pick random grains from hours of sonic material to provide a site-specific auditory experience with lots of different sonic waveforms being stretched, repeated, moving around the listening in a surround speaker setup. This is what I’d like to accomplish. I’d like it to almost be like a living breathing cloud of sonic experience.
There are many things I need to consider with this installation. Originally I was exploring lighting, though, will this be needed to explore what I do? I don’t want to overpower the sound, I want to give it as much space as it can to breathe. Maybe I will only use light subtly to enhance the experience of sound, such as providing lighting for navigation or dimming the lights so that people can fully engage with the sound. Do I need visibly reactive interaction, no, I don’t think so. I want it to be almost like a living environment, not a game. The monkey won’t dance for the visitors behind the glass, it’ll do it’s own thing which is as valuable to the visitors.
December 2024