Month: September 2022

Materialism in sound art

My practice and research is stems from the idea of the ‘material’ in sound art, through this practice we can achieve more immersive, diegesis focused cinematic scores. The principal movement that pathed the way for this practice is music concrete, pioneered by Schaeffer and Henry. Music concrete is composition using non-musical sounds, by considering the various qualities inherent in everyday sounds (pitch, length, percussion, timbre) you can layer and arrange these elements into a piece of music.

Acousmatic music developed out of music concrete, a complete decontextualisation of the sounds used for composition, the only matter of concern is the final noise rather than the source. This form of music is a subversion of our natural cause and effect method of listening. We analyse our environment for many reasons, to orient yourself or determine whether danger is present. We listen to a sound and immediately attach the source. Acousmatic music removes the source, and forces the audience to listen to these sounds in a musical way. I believe that it is impossible to completely remove context, the psychoacoustic and psychological elements at play mean that the audience will most likely be able to recognise elements of the noise. Either the audience can recognise the origin of the sound (such as the door and the sigh) or if the noise has been manipulated beyond recognition, the material remains. The sound of wood, metal or stone will remain recognisable.

I would like to take this methodology and approach to music making, and apply it to my project in a slightly different way. I would like to play music through a material using a transducer and record it’s vibrations in a space, this way I will achieve musical expression while maintaining the material identity. Hopefully this will result in a more believable sound than if I were to synthesise a metallic cello per say, at least this is what Mark Mangini’s postulations on psychoacoustic qualities of real recordings being more immersive lead me to believe. (DUNE research)

ANIMISM/RESONANCE

Animism is an anthropological term that refers to an ideology found in many spiritualities. It’s the concept that people, animals, geographical and natural phenomenon are all connected by an individual spirit they all possess.

You can find elements of animism as early as Plato, as in his 380BC writings ‘Republic’ he refers to the souls of people and cities. Animus Mundi (world soul) was a commonly held concept among Ancient Greek philosophers. The concept is now however associated with primitive cultures due to 18th century ethnocentrism, specifically the work of Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and his book ‘Primitive Cultures’.

The Siberian Eveny culture engage in a form of animism in which the animals that they hunt are seen as ‘master parents’ to humans. The animal’s parental responsibility is a sacrifice, however this sacrifice can only happen if a certain hierarchy is reached in which the human must eat them to survive. There is a respect there that is not present in western tradition, the hunter exclaims after the kill “you came to me out of your own free will, please have pity on us and do not harm us”.

I believe that a parallel can be drawn between animism and resonance. Every object will emit a natural frequency when struck, if this frequency is exerted on the object, a compounding of waves occurs and the natural vibrations are amplified. For example a glass may have a natural frequency of 575Hz, if the glass has minimal imperfections and a speaker is playing 575Hz next to the object, the glass will vibrate at this frequency. It is possible to shatter the glass through these means.

Resonance can be seen as a force individual to each object, that allows for an interplay between inanimate things. This phenomenon also allows for interplay between object and human, as seen in the case of the millennium bridge.

On June 10th 2000, the millennium bridge was opened to the public. In order to avoid spoiling the view of the Thames and St Pauls cathedral, the architects refused to design the bridge with any tall support struts. Instead they opted for a horizontal suspension bridge, an impressive feat of engineering with a small oversight. The engineers forgot to account for the slight horizontal sway that occurs in a human’s walk. By coincidence the natural frequency of the bridge was equal to the frequency of the horizontal sway of a human’s gate. When this slight swaying is multiplied by the large amounts of foot traffic, the people amplified the frequency and the bridge wobbled quite drastically. This resulted in the bridge being closed, multiple foot traffic tests being conducted and eventually the implementation of dampeners on the suspension cables. Like putting a sock in a guitar bridge.

There is an interplay between human and object due to resonant frequencies, I would like to explore this further for this project. I believe respecting and working with the resonant identity of each object might result in interesting sonic performances whilst also respecting the content of the narrative.

Perkins, M., 2022. What Is Animism?. [online] Learn Religions. Available at: <https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-animism-4588366> [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Swancutt, K., 2022. Animism. [online] Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Available at: <https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/animism> [Accessed 27 September 2022].

BYJUS. 2022. Resonance – Definition, Examples & Resonant Frequency With Formula. [online] Available at: <https://byjus.com/physics/resonance/> [Accessed 28 September 2022].

Strogatz, S., 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051103080801.htm> [Accessed 28 September 2022].

HESAPIA

Ive been given the opportunity to collaborate with a third year fine art student from Goldsmiths. Using software such as Unreal engine and cinema 4D they create intricate digital worlds, steeped in philosophical detail with narratives inspired by the likes of Carl Yung, Joseph Campbell and Religious texts.

The project is titled ‘Hesapia’. This is a fabricated word derived from the word ‘He Sapa’, a Native American Lakota word meaning ‘Black Ridge’. This refers to a mountain range that is believed to be the centre of the universe for the Lakota Sioux, and the origin of many Native American peoples. This land was later commandeered by western expansion and became part of the Dakota territory.

Eunjo, my collaborator has drawn a parallel with He Sapa and the Garden of Eden. In her eyes, the Garden of Eden is a false narrative, the snake (representing nature) is vilified, as too is womanhood. The real Garden of Eden (or paradise) is more that of He Sapa, a balance of person and nature, life and death being appreciated in the same respect. A subversion of the typical western ideals of Anthropocentrism. This subversion is extended beyond the idea of anthropocentrism, to a balance of good, evil, creation and destruction. This is inspired by the works of Carl Yung, in which he denounces the idea of the dichotomy of good and evil, two forces that are in constant conflict and are incapable of harmonisation.

‘Hesapia’ will take on the form of an animated short film, with the potential of being transformed into an interactive space or game. The film will include many characters, representing various elements of philosophical writings, performing symbolic actions. Ultimately, the project is a reimagining of the Garden of Eden, one which represents and reflects with more accuracy the human condition and the relationships between humanity, object and nature.

I believe that this project is ripe for sonic exploration, it offers opportunity to experiment not only with sound design methodologies, but with contextual reflection within the sound world. I’m drawn to this project specifically because it is a perfect space for me to continue the practice I developed over the last two years, diegetic/soundscape composition. The philosophical and narrative substance allows for emotional exploration within the musical side of the sound design, and world building nature of her practice gives me insight into material from which to perform the composition.

Bibliography:

An Interview/meeting conducted with the artist in which we discussed the general overview of the project. Conducted 26th September 2022

Estes, N., 2022. Go back to where you come from, the Trump fans yelled. But “we came from there!”. [online] Mother Jones. Available at: <https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/01/the-battle-for-the-black-hills/> [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Magazine, B., 2022. Paha Sapa – The Black Hills – Black Hills Visitor. [online] Black Hills Visitor. Available at: <https://blackhillsvisitor.com/learn/paha-sapa-the-black-hills/> [Accessed 27 September 2022].

Definition of my practice

The central area of praxis for my prototype is soundscape composition as a means to bring musicality to diegetic sounds in cinema, either through utilising material as a reverberant body or manipulating field recordings.

I am interested in this practice as it provides a challenge to scoring for cinema, that will in theory create an immersive musical experience based in environmental sound. By exploring this practice, i will gain an in depth understanding of how cinematic sound interweaves both music and representational sound. I will better understand the levels of abstraction on the spectrum of synchresis.

The physical representation of this exploration will be an approximately 8 minute score for an animation, comprised of hyper-realistic soundscapes gradually oscillating in and out of musical abstraction.

Sources that might be useful for this research are:

• Soundscape Composers
• Music Concrete Composers
• Cinematic Sound designers
• Writings on Cinematic Synchresis