Author: Harry Charlton

Future Aspirations shaped by course

Throughout my time at UAL I have been exposed to many different disciplines within sound arts, this has not only shown me what I want to do but also shown me what I don’t want to do.

Although I see the value of each discipline, there are some that I just don’t identify with, namely ethical discussions within sonic ethnography. I feel that there was a large focus on ethics within our degree. I believe that within this area of study there are important conversations to be had, such as the place of the documentarian in ethnographic works. However, I did not identify with this line of study, I am interested in sound for film, composition and sound design. I found the constant ethical enquiries tiring and most of the time the links were quite a stretch. Although I will consider that ethics implications of my works when appropriate, the focus of my work will not be ethical analysis of sound arts practices.

I think that an important element of my degree that informed my future aspirations greatly was the classes I had with Tim Harrison. Firstly, it was reassuring to be taught by someone currently working within my practice, having previously enjoyed his work made my investment into the class a lot greater than others. Secondly I found the structure of his lectures to be easy to understand. Although the assignment was short I feel I gained a lot of insight into sound design for film within that time. Particularly one lesson in which Harrison showed us a film he had played the role of sound editor on, he then broke down the project into its individual sections, and explained the processes behind forming a cohesive sound for a feature film. The specific techniques Harrison discussed were perfectly suited to my research at the time into diegesis and scoring. Harrison described finding environmental sounds that normally go unnoticed by the audience (eg. air conditioning), and tuning them to dissonant chords to create a sense of unease with an unidentifiable source. This subtle manipulation of environmental sound is the crux of my practice, and emotionally influencing audiences with an unidentifiable source is a practice that I have since spent a lot of time trying to refine.

Harrison’s breakdown of the post production sound process made it clear to me that I wanted to work in ambience and composition, these two elements of sound design combined seemed appeared to me to be the most apt tools to achieve subtle emotional manipulation.

Visiting Practitioners- Lindsey Wright

Lindsey Wrights presentation was particularly useful to me because they work as a composer for film and television, and they outlined the experiences of a composer. They described their process from start to finish, how they draw inspirations from the material, how they transcribe this into musical expression, and the processes of re-editing and the relationship between the composer and director.

Similar to my own interests, Wright described how they merge traditional orchestra score with experimental methodologies. One of the most useful concepts Wright touched on was the idea of frequency occupation, something I was unfamiliar with. This is the consideration of which instruments and textures to use in order to avoid butting against important aspects of the sound design. The example Wright provides is her process of scoring a documentary about DB Cooper, in which there were many talking head style interview cutaways. In order to preserve the clarity of dialogue, Wright would transition from Violins, and guitars, to low frequency synthesiser sections when the dialogue came in. This would maintain the narrative intensity and pacing. This is a very important consideration which I maintain throughout my work.

Something else that made this talk particularly stand out to me was the fact that Wright and I had common musical influences, namely Keaton Henson and Angus McRae. It gave me an interesting insight into the type of productions draw this kind of musical palette.

Wright also talked about the importance of balancing individual works with film productions. The way she discussed her work ‘Lines’ expressed a sort of resetting philosophy, engaging in work inspired only by yourself as an exercise in creativity. This is something that I also find, and a practice I will maintain throughout my working life.

Lastly, it was interesting to hear a composer breakdown the exact sonic qualities to consider when scoring, and the categorisation of these qualities, this categorisation influenced my approach to composition. Wright described them as such:

• Timbre 
• Constant motion 
• Cyclical Layers 
• Texture 
• Rhythm 
• Harmony
• Instrumentation 
• Structure 
• Slides 
• Bass 
• Space and Depth

Wright provided me with an insight into the possible pathways into professional composition, namely maintaining relationships with independent film makers and building your portfolio through working on small films. Through this gradual progression it is possible to eventually land in larger productions once you have proved your abilities.

BA Hons Sound Arts- Y3 Professional futures module

I thought it best to talk shortly about this module as it is a part of university that has helped shape my future career. I think that it is easy to exit university without considering the steps it takes to transition into working life, most people take a break and then have to figure that out on their own. Being able to talk with other students about their plans and methods for entering careers in sound arts has been incredibly useful, people have shared companies, websites and useful connections. Having the time to reflect on this upcoming transition has made me feel more comfortable and prepared.

I think one of the most useful things I have taken out of this assignment is creating a website and CV. Through comparing websites with other students I ahem been able to refine mine into a professional display of my work. The ability to receive feedback on this important aspect of presenting yourself as a professional from working professionals is also an invaluable resource. This has given me an enormous sense of reassurance about my professional future, I now feel as though I have somewhere for people to easily access my portfolio and contact me. This tool has already led to prospective work.

I often fall into the trap of not recognising my own efforts or achievements, I find it easy to work continuously without looking back. Reflecting on my time in university has made me recognise the work I have put in, the practice I have developed and has supported my confidence in myself as a professional.

The appraisal has outlined an approximate plan for the future, I feel I have a clear idea of what it takes to get where I want to be in terms of career, and I have already started the first steps. I think I am a few years from applying to festivals and grants, but it is useful to have these organisations and funding programs outlined, so that I when I am at that stage I know how to apply.

BA Hons Sound Arts- Y3 Pt1

I think that third year served as a means to develop my practice in a very concentrated way. I was able to further pursue my lines of enquiry and research, which in turn resulted in a further refinement of my creative methodologies.

Building from my investigations into diegesis in second year, my dissertation focused on the link between environmental sounds and composition through the lens of soundscape composition as a score. I feel that the wide variety of sound arts practitioners and scholars have given me a much deeper understanding of ambience and the creative potential it possesses in terms of emotional influence.

Stand out references include:

Michael Gallagher- Gallagher argues there’s to be a compositional nature to field recording and even playback of said recordings, from this it would be possible to argue that recording and assembling ambience for a film is a form of soundscape composition, a musical expression.

Bernie Krause- Krause’s the great animal orchestra reveals the similarities between the natural frequency distribution found within environmental recordings and the organised sonic expression of humankind. This further agues the musical nature of ambience for film.

Martin Stig Andersen- Andersen provided a comprehensive break down of the correlations found between different forms of soundscape composition and abstraction. Coining the term audiovisual correspondence, Andersen replaces an undefined multidisciplinary term (abstraction) with a focused clearly defined term, which can then be used to talk more clearly about the subject. Andersen provides examples of work, some of his own and some conical works of sound art, that display the relationships between emotional expression and audiovisual correspondence.

Cristobal Tapier De Veer- While scoring the 2013 TV series ‘Utopia’, De Veer utilises techniques such as extreme time stretching and bit crushing to create synth pads from organic sound. He describes these processes as disrespecting or torturing sounds. Through these methods, De Veer uncovers the hidden rhythms inherent within the essence of the sound.. These tortured organic sounds are then used as instruments to construct a haunting score resulting in a profoundly unsettling blend between the organic and the synthetic, an extremely effective auditory representation of the narrative. This approach to scoring influenced my considerations of palette, and the contextual links that survive processes of extreme manipulation.

BA Hons Sound Arts- Y3 Pt2

Later in the year during the portfolio assignment, I was able to put the techniques and ideas researched for the dissertation into practice . As of writing this I am still completing this project but so far I have found that the techniques described by Andersen have proved most useful for my specific film. My collaborator has created detailed animations, the first film is set in an environment full of metal, the second is stone and sand. The low number of animals present in the animations negate the use of Krause’s techniques, but the material centric writings Andersen fit perfectly. The techniques I used for these projects have been drawn from all three years of the degree: music concrete composition, transducers on material, vocoding and custom impulse response in convolution reverbs. My goal was to focus on the ambience and music, then attempt to blend the two. I found I was able to do this, however a large portion of time was spent creating FX. The necessary elements of a film (FX and foley) without which immersion is depreciated, caused me to have to divide my time. I feel this allowed me to utilise some of the same techniques I had used on ambience for FX, but I think that dividing my time like this diminished the quality of the ambience music relationship I was trying to cultivate.

In conclusion I have found the projects and assignment in third year to be incredibly helpful in the formation of my practice and the development of my methods. This methodology developed through research and practice will continue throughout my career, I have a project lined up for shortly after I graduate in which I’ll be utilising these same techniques. I believe the structure and form of the assignments have guided me to create a refined and unique style of sound design for film.

BA Hons Sound Arts- Y2 Contemporary issues in sound arts

I wanted to write a separate post for this one assignment because I believe it to be a very important one. The contemporary issues in sound arts assignment was a particularly formative experience because I believe it was the first time I had articulated my ideas in an effective way. For the first element of the assignment I wrote an essay on why film scores so often are non-diegetic, and the wasted opportunities within this. I feel I touched on some important literature during this research, multiple sources along the sound arts cannon led me further and further towards my initial inclinations. I became convinced that a diegetically anchored score was the key to truly immersive scoring, these academic sources directly informed the second part of the assignment, the practical element. In my opinion this assignment was the perfect process of practice based research (My current interests and processes led me to research this topic), that developed into research based practice (I took inspiration from the scholars I was reading). This whole process resulted in me developing my practice into something more refined. In contrast to my previous somewhat semi-improvisational work, I would describe this one as well thought out and academically based.

My practical implementation of this research was a music concrete inspired composition, which would then later be utilised as a score. I placed a binaural microphone in the middle of a large room at average ear height, I then had approx 10 people walk around the room creative footsteps. On my cue, the people would gradually synchronise their footsteps, from the outside to the inside. This gradual synchronisation created a rhythm that slowly increased in intensity, but that also slowly transitions from what would be considered diegetic, into non-diegetic. I am going to hold onto these recordings diligently, because I am hopeful that at some point in the future I will have an opportunity where it will fit, in which case I am confident that the work that comes out of that will be an excellent score.

This assignment made me realise that this kind of practice based research was the key to good work, and this is a process I will definitely continue through my career.

BA Hons Sound Arts Y1-

Covid heavily impacted my introduction to BA Sound Arts. We began the year in person, I believe we had approximately three opportunities to meet each other as a class before being transitioned to a solely online education. I appreciate the difficulties everyone faced during that time, I’m only speaking on my experience as a student and how these circumstances shaped my further education and work.

The majority of my first year of BA was experienced from my bedroom, luckily due to my previously established interest in music production I had a more than adequate workspace. My initial impressions gained over zoom was that this course was going to follow a similar funnelling type route to the foundation degree. I remember feeling that the tutors were painting extremely broad strokes of academia, exposing us to as much of the fine art sound arts cannon as possible. Although this later provided useful as deeper investigations into my interests led me back to some of the names mentioned, at the time I did feel that it soon became tiresome. After I had found my interest (visually influenced sound art focused on material) I felt as though most of my academic year was spent writing about areas of sound art I didn’t care for. In retrospect, I realise that this is exactly what a first year is for, this was a method to expand areas of interest to then be later refined. However this feeling of time and effort being spent unwisely was a common theme that lasted until very late in third year.

I think that the most impactful feature of a Covid influenced first year was the lack of collaboration, and perhaps the lack of forming common interests. Being unable to work with or talk with your classmates properly meant that when we eventually came to meet in person, maybe we hadn’t developed the ability to collaborate easily, or even the want to. I think that through continuous isolated working, I had been set in my ways, and had later found it difficult to relinquish complete control of a project.

One of the most vivid memories of my time in first year was the collaboration project, I remember it being a disaster. We were tasked with creating a collaborative sound piece between approx 7 people, which would be played on a radio station. I understand that a lockdown is unusual circumstance, but organising a collaboration of this scale under these circumstances was ridiculous. We also hadn’t been given a proper briefing of the creative licence afforded to us, which resulted in a last minute rush to censor a huge amount of expletives. Granted, perhaps this is something we should have thought of but I would like to think that a tutor might review the work of their students before the hand in. The one positive result I can take from this experience is that it provided me with experience of how to deal with difficult clients.

I have found it slightly difficult to reflect on this time, firstly because the lockdown obscured the perception of time, secondly because the year was mostly spent absorbing knowledge. I think of myself as more of a practical learner so this was not the most engaging time. Useful and necessary, but not engaging.

Foundation year (CCW)-

I began my academic career with UAL in Camberwell’s Wilson Road building, taking part in their Foundation Degree. After a term of rotation, experiencing the different specialisms on offer, we were told to categorise ourselves, to stay within our chosen specialism for the remainder of the course. At the time I had a keen interest in music, writing and producing my own songs and albums, but this had served as a supplementary hobby to my pursuits in painting and photography conducted in educational settings (A level). When this time to categorise myself came, I landed on animation as it utilised my abilities in visual media but also satisfied my interest in sound and movement. After starting the term, I soon realised I wasn’t fit for this specialism at all, my peers were talking about animation with a passion that I reserved solely for sound and music. I then decided that I would attempt to pursue sound within the structure of the foundation degree, which previously had shown no signs of accommodation for this.

Through talking with other students, I discovered that there was a specialism named ‘Photography and Time based Media’. I jumped on this opportunity and transferred. This class offered me an in to working in audiovisuals. Although the class was highly photography centric, I was allowed to pursue sound, I produced paralleled works of photography and sound.

Something that is still a point of contention in my mind about the course was the fact that none of my tutors within this degree had any background in sound. The reason I label this a point of contention is because I’m still unsure whether this was to my benefit or deficit. On the one hand, I wasn’t provided with resources to investigate sound art academia. On the other, I was afforded a great deal of freedom and I was able to receive feedback from a place of objectivity within the practice. The feedback was purely that of aesthetic from a fine art perspective, which I think allowed me to produce work with a less restricted approach. I see a thin line between less restricted and less refined, hence the contention.

In conclusion, I believe that this segment of time in my academic career laid a foundation (No pun intended) from which I built an interest of sound art with a heavy visual influence.