The piece will be investigating material audio quality. I have taken Ryoji Ikeda’s concept of hidden worlds and applied them to a different facet of reality. He made binary information audible, I want to make transient audio qualities of materials constant through the use of granular synthesis. In the same way the visual qualities of something (eg. A stone wall) are most often constantly visible, I want to take the audio quality of the object out of potentiality (We can only hear its audio quality when it’s interacted with) and make it continuously perceivable. I want to then install speakers playing the synthesized noises next to their respective materials.
Gallery Location-
Garden (entire or partial depending on other installations)
I’ve drawn out a floor plan of the garden, this way I can plan out the installation considering material. Ive identified 4 materials in the garden:
Gravel
Stone Wall
Plants
Metal Fire Pit
I need to go to the location and record these materials being struck/rubbed by a similar material. I will then extend these transient sounds into constant sounds using granular synthesis, I will create approximately 4 distinct versions from each material. I can then merge between these versions to implement variation into the installation and keep the visitor’s attention. These 4 material recordings will be assigned a singular channel each in the multichannel installation. I am debating whether to have one speaker per material or more to create a more immersive experience.
Zimoun is a Swiss sound artist that creates mostly site specific installations, he utilises motors to rotate everyday objects causing them to emit small sounds. Repeating the technique of rotating an object many times results in a grandiose sound comprised of lots of small sounds. Zimoun uses these sound making objects as an architectural material, shaping audio sculptures and environments, sometimes rooms that the subject can enter engulfing them in the sound. This is similar to Ryoji Ikeda’s installations in the way of surrounding the subject, however Zimoun takes a more physical/material approach both in method of creation and subject matter. This is evident in the naming of his works, naming them only by the materials used to create it.
Zimoun uses minimalistic methods to provoke the objects into audibility, these are objects that usually remain in relative silence when left un-interfered with. The constant movement or interaction with other materials unveils the audio quality of the material, subsequently Zimoun can saturate a large room with the sound of cardboard, or any material he chooses.
I am interested in the audio qualities produced by Zimoun’s works, it’s a constant, rich, textured sound. The listener is presented with a blanket of sound constructed with tiny tiny parts, and those details from the construction remain evident, one can recognise and tune in and out to singular sources. It might be advantageous for me to implement this idea of layering to my piece, it could result in a more textured and information rich sound. However, using multiple interactions with the object simultaneously could detract from the idea of documenting one object, one transient sound extended might conceptually be more compatible with my work. An idea I will definitely be taking into consideration from Zimoun’s works is the approach of ‘sound architecture’, using multiple sound making objects to sculpt sound in space. If I am to install my work in the garden of the gallery I might think of the approach as more of a ‘sound gardening’, using natural materials and turning them into sound making objects with the use of loudspeakers, the piece could be an auditory investigation into the dynamic of natural and man made material in a garden.
I am interested in themes of material and potentiality. The way we perceive the sounds of objects is mostly a result of stimulation of said object. The sound of a rock is only present when it is hit, or dropped or scraped. There are objects that spend most of their existence only with the potential to make sound. In one of the visiting practitioner lectures, Sam Auinger presented a method of listening in which you take a small pebble and knock it against different materials. If you understand and mitigate variables such as the way you hold the pebble, you are able to listen to the resonance of materials and objects in a more objective way. I think that this might be an interesting concept to explore, perhaps using a technique similar to this in order to present the audio of material in a different way to how we normally perceive them, to bring these objects out of a state of audio potentiality and into a constant representation of their identity.
In regards to method Im drawn to granular synthesis as a way of turning a transient sound into a constant one, while retaining its timbre and identity. I would also like to look into exploring the resonance of materials and ways in which to uncover or present them in the most objective way possible.
Ryoji Ikeda is a digital audio-visual artist from Japan. He considers data a material, subject to be composed. This allows him to explore the underlying structures of our existence through implementing the human genome, structure of a protein or astronomical data as the input of his sounds/visuals. He translates these binary data sets into light and sound, giving us a perceivable representation of these hidden structures. He is converting patterns present in our existence that are on an unreachable plane, into a human experience.
This fascination with hidden structures informs his choice of sound. We as humans are perceptually limited by our sensory capabilities, we can only hear or see frequencies within a certain bandwidth. Ikeda tends to use frequencies very close to the edges of these bandwidths, highlighting the metaphysical distance between us and the material.
‘My aim is to show and experience the sound of data, and the data of sound’
Ikeda considers himself a composer, he collects enormous amounts of data which he then feeds to his ‘musicians’, the computers. This orchestral approach to sound art allows for a dispersion of the data through a multichannel installation.
The experience of his installations is that of sensory assault to some people, with the combination of extreme frequencies and flashing lights it can be disorienting. This sensory overload can have a hypnotic effect, inducing trance like states. I think that this is exactly the result you would expect given the source of the sound, Ikeda is presenting the audience a level of data/information that although perceivable through Ikeda’s practice, is not comprehensible.
The installation is constructed as environments for experience, people are encouraged to sit down or lie on the floor to experience the work. In this way Ikeda has placed the audience within the data, illustrating and emphasising the data’s original context. These data sets are all around us (the human genome etc.) they permeate our existence, this engulfing scale with which Ikeda presents this barrage of sensory stimulation reflects that permeation.
If an audio visual installation is an invitation for perceptual investigation (which I think it should be), then the hidden structures and imperceivable world is an excellent subject matter to explore. I would like to invite the audience to experience a sensory element of life in a different way, as Ikeda has done here. I would also like to create an all encompassing environment in which the ‘mobile visitor’ is tempted to stay for a while, relax and experience the work.
‘Extending Musical Form Outwards in Space and Time: Compositional strategies in sound art and audiovisual installations‘
Considering the form of audiovisual installation works-
Established forms of artworks tend to have a solid set of conventions, for example one might see a concert as being contained by the entrance into the space and ended with an applause. Also the viewer can expect a standardised format of location, one sits in a static place with the work emanating from one location in the room, eg. the stage. Audio visual installations do not have these rules or conventions, the presentation of the work is fluid or malleable. Audiovisual installations contain the presence of a ‘mobile visitor’, this audience member has agency over the temporal framing of a piece. They can move where they want, and stay as long as they please. This, in a way, is stripping the artist of a power to define their work. This form of artwork forgoes the traditions of musical artwork.
Installations ‘[eschew] tem- poral narrative progression … [and] instead [unfold] in space through … our perceptual investigations of [spatial] surroundings’ (Minard 1999: 81).
‘Perceptual investigations of [spatial] surroundings‘ – I would like to consider the audience’s experience in this way. I want my piece to be an invitation for investigation.
Olafur Eliasson posits that the dimensions of an installation piece, Euclidian (Width, depth and height), are modulated by not only the fourth dimension of time but also your engagement sequence. This is the first-person sequential unfolding of four-dimensional experience
Through Eliasson’s concept, we can consider the work as within a frame, a frame in which a subject can move in, through and out at will. Our work is an environment for experience, and the ‘form’ is the subject’s first person experience as they navigate within the frame we create.
We can analyse an installation piece by considering the ‘average’ movement of a visitor and understand how it modulates the piece. In the example provided by Adam Basanta we see a square room in which a speaker is placed in the corner opposite the entrance, it is fair to assume that most visitors will enter through the door, move towards the speaker to investigate the source, and at some point return to the door moving away from the speaker. These movements are modulations of experience, increasing and decreasing audio clarity and loudness. Although the temporal aspect of this modulation will differ between individuals, the general shape of the modulation will be similar. An increase in loudness and clarity, a plateaux, followed by a decrease. Loudness and clarity are not the only aspects ripe for manipulation. There are psychological aspects such as the urge one might feel to investigate when being confronted with the space, the speaker placement influences the audience’s perception of the content. A speaker placed high above the subject might feel looming or imposing, small speakers hidden in cracks in a wall might intriguing and invite exploration, a head height speaker whispering might result in a feeling of intimacy.
I haven’t finished this article but what I have read so far has influenced me to consider the subjects movement as a modulation of the sound and space, also to consider my job as an artist to create an environment for investigation, to create the confines in which the subject can move and shape their own formal experience of the piece.
Director Denis Villeneuve describes Dune as a psychedelic journey, he talks about grounding the film with ‘familiar’ visuals that link with our relationship with nature, and expressing the psychedelic aspect through sound. The approach they took with the sound was that of a documentary, Denis wanted it to sound as though there was a ‘guy with a boom’ on the planet Aracus.
The Worm
Denis integrated postproduction very early into the creative process, he brought the sound team to Budapest where they were shooting the film, this way they were able to feed their ideas together. Villeneuve recalls working on lower budget films and having to rush the sound at the end of production, but now with a bigger budget he is able to make sure the sound has deep enough roots (as he puts it) to stand the test of time. He values having space to experiment, explore and make mistakes. When supervising sound editor and sound designer Theo Green first received the script for the film, he decided to check himself into a hotel in Death Valley where there was a nearby sand dune called Mesquite sand. He did this to get a good idea of the atmosphere of the film, to know what it sounds like to stand in silence and to know what it sounds like to walk up a dune. Green was motivated a lot by some recordings done by their re-recording mixer Doug Hemphill, they were recordings of sand dunes moving, they sing/groan. Green recognised that in order to make that sound the dunes must be resonant like a musical instrument, so Theo planted microphones in the sand to see how human interaction, walking jumping etc, resonated with the sand. This was also useful in the conception of the sound of the worm, Green realised that in order for the worm to swim through the sand as it does visually, the worm would have to vibrate to liquify the sand, this defined the sound of the worm.
Denis described the sound of the worm or ‘worm sign’ as an insect fluttering its wind, something small that doesn’t let on the full scope of the beast. It should be something so contrasted to the worm that only a native would recognise, a visitor would think it was an insect or a bird, its ‘fluttering sand’. Denis emphasised awe as the quality they wanted to portray to the audience, he didn’t want the audience to fear it but see it as a God on the planet. The worm has a strange intelligence and should convey a huge presence, meeting the worm is a spiritual experience.
An aspect of the sound design that informed the visual is something that the designers named ‘The Gunk Gunk’, a series of thumps that can be heard coming from deep within the creature. They defined this as a means of communication, this is why the worm responds to the thumping machines places in the sand by people. After hearing this, Denis Villeneuve decided to take this information to the VFX team, and asked them to animate movement in the epiglottis.
Villeneuve describes the desert environment as introspective experientially, due to the weight of the heat, open plains and silence. This, he says, brings the sound closer to you. Often the loudest sounds in the environment will be your own body, your breath and heartbeat.
The Voice
There is a very important concept in Dune called ‘the voice’. Denis emphasised a theme of channelling ancestry throughout the film, the sound department had to express this concept/theme through ‘the voice’. The idea was that Paul could channel a feminine ancestral power, and so the voice would be a deep female voice, this could be simultaneously or separate from his own voice. The sound department casted lots of gritty female voices, they layered these voices under Timothee Chalemete’s voice. They wanted the projection of the voice to be powerful, for the resonance to be amplified especially in the bass, to the point where the room rattles. They also took an opportunity to use synchronisation as an expression of aptitude, as the protagonist learns to use the voice it is out of synch with him, it comes a few seconds after the words are spoken, whereas the reverend mother’s voice is completely in sync, percussive and immediate. To emphasise the lower frequencies of the voice Theo Green used a technique he learned from Lee Scratch Perry, a pioneer in dub reggae. The technique was to record the audio, and play it back through a very large speaker in a resonant room and record the result, sometimes you can hear a little bit of the room shaking. This, Green says, gives the voice a very tactile sense to the spiritual experience. Giving a tactile sense to the spiritual experience became this sound’s main utilisation, the voice could speak subtext, text and tell a story even when it wasn’t being deployed as ‘the voice’, it became its own entity. Through experimentation the sound department had unlocked a new story telling device for Dennis.
Technology
Denis wanted the technology of this world to be grounded, as real as possible, so it didn’t become a distraction from the story. He wanted the audience to embrace the technology spontaneously. An example was the ‘Ornithopter’, it was based on insects, he wanted the vehicle to function like an insect and look like a military vehicle. The sound, Denis said, should be close to the spirit of a helicopter, in the same family but not the same. The sound team used recordings of beetles and other insects to create a helicopter sound with a natural quality.
Mark Mangini states that we can be more successful in our sound design when we start with natural recordings. He thinks that the reason for this could possibly be that we have a psychoacoustic response telling us that the sound is real, the time arrival to the ear and the acoustic environment in which a sound lives might be a subconscious identifier for reality. Whether this theory is correct or not, I think he is right. The brain responds to natural sounds differently to synthesised sounds, I’ve created synthesisers out of vocal recordings and they are very un-natural as an acoustic sound, but retain an organic natural quality. These natural sound ‘ingredients’ are all in service to quickly and effectively suspend the audiences disbelief. We can present sounds that are decontextualised from what it really is, present them in a new context and your brain doesn’t have to understand what the original sound was it just recognises that its real.
Sound walk from a hike up Binsey, a very large hill near Ruthwaite. There was a lot of wind and I only had my phone to record, so the quality is not great.
Recording from the summit where there are wind shelters.
My only experience of sound installation work was my final major project for my foundation at CCW, I created a quadrophonic piece that was situated in a hallway. I was allocated the small hallway, with completely blank walls it was very reverberant, not an ideal place for my piece. I had finished my project when they gave me the space so there was no connection between the piece and the space, in fact the space detracted from the piece as it was mixed in a quadrophonic square formation and the hallway was rectangular. Through this I have learned the importance of keeping the space in mind when creating the piece, I think this is why this passage from my Asa Stjerna research resonated with me.
“Asa presents her piece ‘The Well’, a permanent installation in the Swedish Institute in Paris. She installed a mono channel work inside the dried out well, she talk about engaging with the stone wall’s ‘agency’ as she puts it. She describes having a dialogue with the space in question, an experimental practice, an engagement with the space.”
Although from first glance this gallery space seems quite blank, I would still like to (as an exercise) try and follow Asa Stjerna’s approach to site specific works.
Mapping the affective lines– The process of site specific exploration, this is what it means to find the space, researching the site engaging with archives etc. This is, for Asa, a very vivid/active engagement.
Establishing new connections– The artistic design process. Stjerna provides an example of installing a loudspeaker with a cable on a site, this is not just an action of laying a cable. It is engaging in a dialogue with the agencies of the space.
Becoming Non-Autonomous– It is important to understand your own situated perspective.
Ive tried to use the HM land registry and the Tower Hamlets Gov website but I have come up with nothing, the only thing I know about the space is that it’s a Georgian house. I think we might be visiting the gallery this Monday ( 10/01/22) so hopefully I will be able to collect some more information.
