Author: Flora Braddell

Categories
CREATIVE SOUND PROEJCT

Gregory Whitehead.

Radiophonic Sound Artist.

Gregory Whitehead is an American sound artist, radio producer, and writer. His work focuses on experimental, abstract radio and sound art, blending unique soundscapes with storytelling to create an incredibly emotional and immersive experience for listeners.

I first came across Gregory Whitehead through his work “Pressures Of The Unspeakable”. He was invited to spend six weeks in Sydney, Australia working with the Australian Broadcast Corporation in the role of Dr. Scream and his Institute for Screamscape Studies. A 24 hour phone line named the ‘screamline’ was set up and people were invited to phone in their screams, thus creating his ‘screamscape’. Whitehead then used these screams to curate a rather beautiful, unsettling radio artwork.

“Pressures Of The Unspeakable” -1991

“In radio, not only is the voice separated from the body, and not only does it return to the speaker as a disembodied presence- it is, furthermore, thrust into the public arena to mix its sonic destiny with that of other voices.” (Whitehead, 1992, p. 253). After researching his work, I thought this quote of Whitehead’s expressed a main theme for his work as a whole. Gregory uses voice as a central element in the majority of his work, often deconstructing and manipulating them to create a new interpretation of the story. He focuses on this idea of the voice being a separate entity that exists independently, which is something that can only really be done through radio, (music and sound art pieces too) but compared to film, it’s an entirely different thing. In radio there is no visual context, or visual depiction to rely on, your brain almost has to work harder to understand what’s going on, the listener is using their own interpretation to create an image and relation in their head.

Whitehead’s work often has a rather eerie, haunting aspect to it, which, from my understanding, is what he wants to create, to show how disconnecting the voice from the body can create an unknown, entirely new sensation formed from a sense we use everyday. In his work, voice no longer belongs to a person but is floating in a disorienting soundscape. He manages to capture these incredibly uncomfortable atmospheres and plays around with them in ways that is very distinct to his work, using collage, layering and voice effects to create his radio style.

It’s all very physiological, both due to the fact that every listener will have a different perception of what they’re hearing, and also due to this separation of voice from the body that Whitehead talks about. Sounds link very closely to memories and traumas and so without the visual cues that TV and film give us, we relate the sounds to our own personal experiences to give what we’re hearing relevance and context. Whiteheads uses fragmentation to cut up the voice and orchestrate the story, and this disruption to the work not only represents and relates to the the mental fragmentations of our memories, but also gives you these periods of silence that your brain fills in the gaps for. And these gaps are filled with the relations made previously, relating the eerie, ambient noises to your own eerie, uncomfortable memories. -Thus enhancing the atmosphere even more, just through perception.

Shake, Rattle, Roll. -1993

“I used every category of material at my disposal, and every compositional and editing technique, explored in shorter castaways; digital audio tape was part of my studio by then, used in tension and interplay with my workhorse Otari reel-to-reels. To decay or not to decay, among my questions.”

Sound is used in his work to show how words and communication fail to fully capture the depth of our experience as humans, and that there are so many layers to our brain that hold intense emotions, that can’t really be accessed through speech alone. We need music and sound to reach and confront them. I have found a lot of inspiration through Gregory’s work, he works with these themes of memory and trauma that I am incredibly interested in and have already created multiple pieces of work on the subject matter. His work is incredibly complex and there are definitely aspects of our radio piece that are similar to Whitehead’s work, especially this idea of creating disconcerting spaces through speech. As we’re using this collaged script that doesn’t have any context, structure, or main theme to it, I think we will be able to create an atmosphere that does have an uncomfortable, slightly ominous feel to it.

Whitehead, G. (1992) ‘Radio as a prosthetic imagination’, Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, edited by D. Kahn and G. Whitehead, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 253–270.

Categories
CREATIVE SOUND PROEJCT

Script Construction.

For our script, we decided on a concept where Zain wrote a block of writing, diary entry like writing- circulating a range of different topics that don’t really connect, however all written in first person and linking small factors together. This writing was then given to me as this ‘raw’ material which I printed out and began to cut out phrases/words and collage them together to create an entirely new script. This cut up script is even more discombobulated and disorientating, however is a cyclical script, where the end of it connects to beginning- almost as if it’s a never ending story.

Below is the original material written by Zain.

“BASE” SOURCE MATERIAL-

I’m smoking foreign cigarettes on a beach. The heat beats me into a haze. If i could stay here, i’d want to live forever. The past weeks have been a blur. Bars, nightclubs, work, taxi’s, night buses. I can’t sleep but I’m tired and my body aches. Two black dogs followed me on my way home tonight. Straight down beck road and left on mare street, they watched as I waited for the bus.

I’m on the a12, 23:10. The driver plays Marvin Gaye while his app gives him instructions on the route home. “In a quarter mile turn left on the high road”. The trees are wrapped in fairy lights and the whole road has a warm orange hue. I can’t believe I have to work tomorrow.

I wonder if the sun will ever come back – I’ve been sleeping through the day and I can’t face leaving the house.

I told her I’d been thinking about my own mortality recently, how visceral it feels. How my skin tightens my body becomes static, almost paralysed. I wonder if I’ll be scared, If it will hurt, if I’ll be alone. She goes to speak, then pauses. We stayed silent.

I’m often thinking of starting over, or if I could go back and do things differently, I wonder if I’m stuck in the past or just scared of the future.

We’re sitting in a cafe and he’s talking about himself, but I can’t quite make out what he’s saying. He’s sitting right next to me but I feel so far away from him – he keeps talking. “So what about yourself?” I don’t know where to begin.

I feel like a psychic, we’re sitting here in a dark room, eyes locked and It’s almost like we’re talking. I’ve never felt so connected. I spent the next three days doomscrolling.

Me and Frankie leave the house, I can’t remember what for. But it’s the same as any day. Keys, phone, wallet, check. There’s two ambulances on our doorstep and, just down the road, the paramedics are fast at work. Our pace slows and the intrigue takes over. I glance. It’s clear he’s gone but they can’t stop yet, they have a job to do. They’ve covered him. The female paramedics movements are clinical, death is no stranger to her. She retrieves the stretcher and the two of them take him away. I’m thinking about his cat, the white one with patches of black and amber.

The fireworks shops have had steady business this week. Tonight’s the night. 23:55. Some start early. Small shrills and bangs echo and build into a cacophony of sound. It reaches its climax as the windows shake & rattle, dancing to their rhythm. The sky is painted in swathes of pink, orange, red and green. It feels like the clouds are breathing. Weaving in and out of the choreography. I’m here, on the ground, but I want to be dancing with them.

I worry my brain rot will give me dementia. Although I think the asteroid will probably take me out long before I cause any serious damage.

A reoccurring dream of a deer in the forest. The midnight sky is a deep indigo, almost black. But the stars are keeping everything clear, breaking through. Its antlers are touching the tree branches, Almost melting into them. It’s staring at me. It runs and I follow. I’m Inching closer and I can see it through the tree line. I push through leaves and foliage and enter an opening. A fairy ring, untouched by the woods surrounding it. Still. The deers centre and I’m on the edge. The ring is made from rocks and cairns inscribed in a language I can’t understand. Which I can only assume is either an attempt at my brain filling in the gaps or is language long since forgotten. I step into the ring and look down. my hands are vanishing before me and I can feel myself fading. On the down beats of my exhale I watch myself becoming increasingly transparent. I am a ghost and I can’t leave. I watch the deer dance as it begins to catch alight. Whipping itself into a frenzy. I watch the deer dance in the fire. Dancing until its tissue is gone and it begins to fall. The white heat is burning me up. As soon as it hits the ground I awake, drenched in sweat. I’ve fallen asleep with the space heater on.

It’s 11:33 and I’m walking barefoot down the high street. The ground is hot to the touch and I’m hoping for respite in the park down the road. Further down the street, he’s leaning against a wall outside the cafe. Denim tuxedo, brown boots and a wide brimmed cowboy hat. He looks so out of place, from another time. I approach him and we exchange pleasantries. He tells me he’s waiting for the showdown at noon. I told him he’s got a long ways to go. We share a smoke and part ways. I never saw him again.

I’m spending the day ripping the logos and tags of my clothes. Wearing my t-shirts and sweatshirts inside out. I’ve either sold or given away any prices of clothing with colour. I’m feverish, jittery and agitated. Jumping from task to task. I manage to organise the laundry. A black wash. I take a break to rest and wake up a couple hours later. The suns gone.The dogs are back. This time they’re doing loops around the block. I’m on the top floor, watching them from the balcony. His neighbours have the front door open and are arguing. I can’t tell what about. The dogs are on their third lap. Round the corner, out of sight, then back again. They stop, jaws agape and tails wagging. They’re trying to call me down. Dark clouds above.

Blonde, Brunette, Bleached, Crushed, Compressed, Composed, Distorted, Void. Black walls, Leather interior, Cowhide rug, Crawling, Like a baby on all fours, Screaming, Crying, Knife. Eclipsed, Engulfed, swallowed, Spit, Cuffed to the radiator, Waiting, Damaged, Mother, Child, Holding, Cell, Prison.

I can feel the kinks in my spine as I’m pressed against the doors of the train. It’s rush hour and we’re all fighting for air. I can feel the nylon of his suit against my face, there’s no respite against the biting cologne he’s covered himself in. Her bag is stabbing my thigh and I’m flinching every time the carriage bumps. The people here are tense. You can feel it, building and building through murmurs and mutters under their breath. It comes to a head, In the middle section, someone started screaming – he’s reached his crescendo.

SCRIPT COLLAGE-

This script is comprised of multiple different sections, each involving different story lines but being told by the same man. The script itself doesn’t have a linear order, it is surreal and doesn’t quite make sense. Going into making this I had no idea what was going to come out of it, I didn’t go in with an idea of the story I wanted to tell and so making it was this very free, loose experience. This complete lack of planning was intentional as I wanted to expand on our theme of perception and show that my perception of this base material is completely different to what somebody else’s would be.

Whilst creating this script, a clear concept shone through; there is this man who is telling quite unhinged and unrelated stories that are essentially dribble which he is either thinking or saying, its unclear at times which one it is. He took on this quite psychotic personality as he’s created these other personas in his head, whom he thinks are real people he is interacting with. This portrayed throughout the script a whole becomes a very surreal story, yet is something that does affect people in everyday life. Therefore making this connection between surreal and real, which will be used through the radio piece to give the listeners snippets of context.

MARKED SCRIPT-

Once everyone had read the script, as a group we went in and marked the script, we first sectioned off each scene in the script to understand timings for the sections. Then went in highlighting each scene, annotating whether the sound effects should be foley or more abstract ambient sound effects. The reason we chose to do this was so we were able to distinguish what sounds we would need to record in studio and out of studio (field recordings). We want our radio piece to feel very abstract and surreal, however still have these very recognisable sounds from everyday life. The reason for this is so that the listener gets lost within the world we create, unable to identify quite what is going on, however still have these aspects of sounds familiar to them so they don’t get too lost in the piece, as I feel, sometimes when people aren’t able to connect or relate to a work, they often shut off and disengage.

Annotating the script meant that we could plan studio bookings and other aspects of the project like the music, it showed us what sounds we need to collect, which we can then use and manipulate to make other sounds. We have since began accumulating our field recordings and have booked out the foley room for a day this week to record the studio sounds and record the speech.

Categories
CREATIVE SOUND PROEJCT

Project references.

In terms of references for this radio project, as a group we decided we wanted to use multi media references to each portray how we have interpreted the ideas we created for the piece. Making sure to references music, films, artworks, etc. This diversity in references means that when it comes to making the radio piece, not only will each member of the team understand everyones ideas of what they want to create, but it also allows for this plethora of styles and artworks to be used within our work. Making it overall a more stimulating and interesting piece to listen to.

Below are two of my references-

Cassetteboy- Fly Me To New York. -Music/sound collage.

I chose ‘Fly Me To New York’ as a references for this project, less for because of what the piece is saying but more because of it’s collage aspect. Going into this project this idea of collage was a strong theme that as a group we wanted to work around and so I thought this music collage is a great reference as it does it so well, whilst also portraying a message very clearly. Having completed the script now, collage was indeed a huge aspect to it as I used three pages of writing by Zain, which I then cut up to form an entirely new concept and script idea.

Takashi Ito- Spacey. -Short film

Although quite a different piece of work, forming entirely around the visuals, I thought to include Takashi Ito’s ‘Spacey’ for its surrealism and constant looping. This artwork is incredibly disorientating and as you watch it, it becomes harder and harder to place yourself within it and grasp an understanding on what’s going on. This lack of realism is something again, we knew we wanted to include in our radio piece, we wanted to portray a very surreal, abstract show that the listener becomes lost in, never really having a grip on what is going on. As well, this cyclical structure of starting in one place and ending up back there by the end is another aspect included in our script. I made the conscious decision to connect the end to the beginning by cutting up sections from the same block of writing and separating it, placing one sentence at the beginning and the other at the end, both set in the same location. The reasoning behind this cyclical structure is so that as a listener, who will become lost, you can almost jump into the show at any point, trying to grasp an understanding on what’s going on but never fully doing so, therefore playing on this idea of perception.

As well as my own references, here are some from other groups members.

Headache – That Thing with the Rabbit- https://youtu.be/s5BsP8eRqUE?si=8WgQ8PAhLpeqysxa. (MUSIC)

Chris Morris, Blue Jam- https://youtu.be/E8VG6HUimsQ?si=fnUv_Z740AEkBJAK (SPOKEN WORD)

Having these group references makes it so much easier to grasp an understanding on how we want the outcome of this radio piece to be, it allows for a look into each persons interpretation on our ideas. -This in general is just one way were working with perception.

This first reference- ‘That Thing with the Rabbit’ is a great reference as it combines music with this speech that all connects but doesn’t make much sense as the listener. This has a similar effect to what we want to create- a lack of awareness. The speech itself in the video is represented through text messages which are cut up and then assembled together, which makes for a story to be told, but one that doesn’t quite make sense, it almost does, but it doesn’t. This concept of having each part of the speech connect, but not be understood, is one that I adopted when reassembling our script. It all connects but doesn’t give enough context to make it comprehensible. Similarly with ‘Blue Jam’ the randomness of it is what makes it so beautiful and unique. He is telling these quite arbitrary short stories that somehow become so gripping and interesting because of the way he chooses to tell the story.

Overall these references have had a very helpful part to play in not only creating the script and final piece,allwoing different opinions on the work to be represented, opening up a new level of communication throughout the group.

Categories
CREATIVE SOUND PROEJCT

Foley practice. -25/02

Filemail.com – screaming students

Having used foley before in filmmaking, I am aware of just how hard it can be to create an accurate representation of the sound you are visually conveying. The slightest increase of a movement or positioning of a mic can completely destroy the sonic image you’re trying to create.

In todays session we were using the foley to create sounds that we didn’t have visuals for yet and what I took from that was, without a visual guide for your sounds it is even harder to accurately reproduce the sound. When paired with visuals your brain has something to work with and can match the movement of the visuals to the sound. But without, it separates the sound from the image and makes it an entirely separate thing, which of course it is, but as a viewer you never make that separation. If that separation does come into play for the viewer, it can completely take them out of what they’re watching and so it is incredibly important to make sure your sounds are as accurate as possible.

However, when it comes to radio, our perceptions are very different as we are relying purely on the sonic aspect. Perception is so important for radio, you’re thrown in blind and each individual will interpret the sounds differently. Perception is the main theme to our groups radio piece, and upon reflection of the challenges of creating foley, our group has made the decision to create our foley + sound effects once we have written the script. The reasoning to this is so we have something to work off of, without it, our foley sounds would be lost and not relevant enough to the script and our piece in general.

When creating foley for radio, the importance of the sound comes more from how you want your piece to be portrayed and interpreted. As you’re not creating sounds for visuals, you have much more freedom into how you make the foley sound. Playing with this different way of creating foley will be interesting to work with as it is a new perspective on it, one that is quite different from using foley for film.

Categories
INTRODUCTION TO SOUND ARTS

Sound perceptions.

https://aporee.org/maps/?loc=47817&m=roadmap

This recording is from the depths of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, capturing an extremely chaotic scene of wildlife. In this recording the sounds are pretty unknown to myself as I am unfamiliar with the vast amounts of species that live in the Amazon rainforest, however I can distinguish a few sounds that I recognise like crickets chirping. The reason I chose this recording is due to this unfamiliarity that I had to the sounds, they’re clearly non human sounds, however one clear thing stuck out to me, and that is that the noises coming from one animal in particular sounds very similar to a baby fussing.

When, coming across unknown sounds, as humans, we try to relate the sound to something that we do know, something we’re familiar and comfortable with, otherwise our brains find it hard to relax around that sound. The sound coming from this one animal in particular, which I think is some kind of bird, is incredibly intriguing, it is a huge unknown, yet through anthropomorphism I am able to relate it to the everyday sound of a baby crying. Making it now, a sound I am extremely aware of and comfortable with. Through these connections comes an association, we have determined ideas of sound through living with them and making connections to each sound. And so when we connect unknown sounds to known ones, these perceptions come with it, giving us a predetermined judgement of something we are yet to fully know about. For example in this recording, because I have made this connection between the noise of the animal (an assumed bird) and a baby I now view this noise to be a rather innocent one, it is calling to other for attention or just simply trying to interact with the other animals. Because the noise it is making is more like a baby cooing or gurgling, I don’t think of this animal to be in danger or calling for help. Instead it is making noise for another reason, and this allows my brain to relax and be more at ease with the sounds I am hearing. Since looking back at the information provided with the recording, I have realised they are the sounds of Zogzog monkeys, which has now changed my perception on them even more and the relation I had to the baby makes much more sense now. Babies are primal beings, they work on instinct and know what their basic needs are, and so I think from a human’s point of view it is very easy to link babies and monkeys together. Although grown monkeys are incredibly intelligent and aware of their surroundings, much more than babies are. However, because of this distinct separation that both babies and monkeys have from the complexities of our adult human lives in today’s society, we can relate them to each other. As well, we of course are related to monkeys and so this link becomes even stronger, therefore the fact they make a sound similar to babies is less surprising, and again more comforting for us.

In terms of rhythm, this recording has a kind of beat to it, the crickets chirping in the background add this kind of continuum, and an ambience to the recording. The noises of the monkeys are timed evenly apart and follow a distinct rhythm that we can easily become a part of, expecting to know what is coming next. Because of this continuous beat from the monkeys a clear rhythm is established, however around the 3 minute mark these noises start to die down and all that is left are the cricket like noises and some higher pitched bird noises further away. This change in sounds completely shifts the atmosphere from chaotic to calm, with simply the subtraction of one animal’s sounds. From someone who is unfamiliar with the sounds of the rainforest, this change in rhythm allows me to understand very quickly how much the atmosphere in the forest can change, from sound, from weather, from interactions, there is so much differentiated life in this area that one small change can completely shift the dynamic that this forest works with. As someone from a western world, where we are much more out of touch with our roots as human’s, its hard to understand this rapid change in atmosphere as I think it is something that rarely happens here. Things are constantly changing but the dynamic remains similar throughout, there are so many people who live by the same routine everyday that even if something is to happen, there will always be a percentage of people who don’t change and therefore keep this dynamic the same, especially in a city like London. I think for rural towns and villages it is different.

I think overall, the recording of an unknown place can have a huge impact on how you then perceive that place, this is all through relation, and therefore this perception can often be wrong. It is easy to fall into this idea that you think you have a good grasp on a place through it’s sounds, but I have learnt you have to consider both audio and visuals to get an accurate perception of a place.

Categories
INTRODUCTION TO SOUND ARTS

WALKABOUT- Sound and music.

In Roeg’s 1971 film ‘Walkabout’ sound and music plays a big part in creating the atmosphere that is integral for the film’s story, enhancing the contrasting relationship between humans and nature. The scene I have chosen below to analyse is when the girl and boy first come across the aboriginal boy on his walkabout.

SCENE FROM 34:19 – 37:46.

In this scene, both we as an audience and the boy and girl in the scene are meeting the aboriginal in silence, the only sounds available, both diegetic, are the noises coming from him as he catches the lizard and from the wind around them. As we are introduced to this boy, it is clear straight away that the sounds he makes are much more in tune to the surrounding nature, they’re man made sounds yes, but are all noises that can be easily replicated by nature and so are brains easily relate the two together. And in fact, it is vital for him that his sounds do blend into the nature so we instantly become aware that he is part of the desert.

The silence in this scene is in fact one of the most noticeable aspects, this new boy being introduced is of such an unknown to the other two that they can’t help but sit there and watch in silence. The lack of speech forces us as the audience to focus on the sounds that are present, and where they’re coming from. The closer the boy gets to the two, the sound of the wind continues, and in some parts even becomes more intense, this empathetic sound helps create this feeling of uncertainty and unknown. The reason the sound of the wind emphases these feelings is due to the perception we have as humans for wind. Wind usually suggests worse weather is coming and so it makes us feel we need to hide away and protect ourselves. Thus creating this ominous feeling that both the audience and the boy and girl are feeling.

Once speech becomes involved there is this build up of tension due to the lack of understanding on both sides, the language barrier creates this intensity that we haven’t yet seen since the kids have been alone in the outback. Once an understanding is made between them, we then see the boy helping the other two, which completely changes the atmosphere of the scene. Music then becomes involved. The music, a non diegetic sound, feels hopeful and adds this immediate sense of safety and acceptance to the film. It’s as if now these kids have come across the boy, they are going to be safe and guided through their unknown journey. As they begin to move on, the music becomes almost choir like and because of this, this sense of a powerful ‘god-like’ presence is introduced, someone to look out for them. The camera pans back looking down on the 3 as they wander off, as if to say they can go off by themselves now, and the music just adds this entirely new atmosphere to the film. Those prior feelings of uncertainty are removed completely. This is done simply all through the sounds we hear.

For a film that doesn’t involve an awful amount of speech, sound is incredibly important for telling the story, both the diegetic and non deistic sounds create an atmosphere that without, we as an audience wouldn’t be able to understand the film. The use of sounds, both in an empathic and anempathetic way, directs the emotion of each scene, giving us clues to what to expect with each new aspect we come across, and how the scene is going to pan out. This scene is a pivotal moment in terms of the narrative, and offers a rich soundscape to explore, setting the tone and exploring the contrasting relationship of lives between the two kids and the aboriginal boy. Although from completely different lives, they find themselves in the same situation and realise quickly to stay together. The drastic change in atmosphere made through the sounds represents this fast understanding of the fact they should stay together. What was first an unknown quickly became reliable.

Categories
INTRODUCTION TO SOUND ARTS

LONGPLAYER- Gallery visit.

Jem Finer’s Longplayer is a one thousand year long musical composition that started on the first moment of the year 2000 and will end on the first second of the year 3000. It is composed with 234 singing bowls and is designed to stay relevant for every period of time it is playing.

When listening to Jem talking about the piece, he talked about his reasoning for creating this 1000 year old composition, as a child he was always interested in time, and this interest continued throughout his adult life. I think it was more a lack of understanding we have for time and this structured concept we have made to understand it better as to why Jem had an interest in it. Approaching the millennium, Jem wanted to create a piece of art that was relevant for the years we were about to approach. He talked about other arts who were focusing on creating artwork for the millennium but noticed that nobody was making work relevant to a thousand years. Therefore, Longplayer was created. He chose to incorporate singing bowls as his instrument as he wanted to create a composition that wouldn’t be outdated in 20 years or so. Music comes in and out of fashion and constantly changes every decade, and so Jem used the more traditional sound of a singing bowl that can’t really be linked to a certain point in time.

Gem found it hard to get funding for this piece, and was rejected for it by most people, however in the end was given funding from the people of the millennium dome, which too was opening relevant to the new millennium. Because of this, Longplayer was shown inside the millennium dome for its first period of time. Just opposite the river lies Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse, which is where Longplayer is currently living, which I think is a much better suited location for the piece. The space of the lighthouse has a much older, more original feeling, although the millennium dome (the o2) is very different now to what it was when it first opened, I still find it hard to picture Longplayer fitting in there. Being inside the lighthouse, you feel quite separated from London, it is in a very quiet, isolated area and being directly next to the river makes it feel as if it’s on its own. The space Longplayer is in affects the work massively as because it is constantly playing, your surroundings are extremely important. You are going to interpret the piece very differently depending on your environment and so I think for this period of time, the lighthouse is a good place for it. It makes you feel separated from the fast pace of the city and because the music produced by Longplayer is quite slow paced, it enhances this feeling a lot.

Longplayer consists of 6 loops, all being played at different paces, simultaneously, at all times. Longplayer chooses and combines these sections in such a way that no combination is repeated until exactly one thousand years has passed. The loops involve singing bowls of all different sizes, being hit and played together to create a kind of orchestral sound. Currently it is being performed by mostly computers, using code that has been written in supercollider. However, being aware of the changes that are to come throughout 1000 years, Jem has made Longplayer to not solely rely on technology and is prepared to work without the use of technology.

Jem describes Longplayer as “a living, 1000-year-long process – an artificial life form programmed to seek its own survival strategies. More than a piece of music, Longplayer is a social organism, depending on people – and the communication between people – for its continuation, and existing as a community of listeners across centuries.” And so from this I can understand the theme of the work, if you had to give it one, is to create this kind of life form that is to be observed and looked after for generations to come, creating this relationship with people throughout this long period of time. A relationship that might not have been formed without Longplayer.

Overall, I would describe Longplayer as a piece of artwork that can be viewed as both open and closed. There is so much room for interpretation from each person’s point of view when listening to Longplayer, and many aspects that can completely change the effect Longplayer has, like its location, the weather around you, the time of day, the point of loop it is on and more. And so in that way it is a completely open piece of artwork. However the reason I say it is closed is due to knowing Jem’s reasoning for creating Longplayer, these social aspects that Jem intended for Longplayer are happening, it is creating a communication between people who want to continue caring for it. However, as a whole this is an open piece of work, it doest tell you a direct message when just listening to it, each listen is a different experience for each person.

Categories
SONIC DOING AND THINKING

Sound Walk.

7/10/2024

Having never done a sound walk before I found this experience extremely calming, your vision provides an enormous amount of stimulation that your brain is so used to, however when your vision is taken away from you, everything calms down. Your focus first moves onto your movement, at first it felt like every step I was taking I was falling off a cliff, but this soon went. Once you learn to trust your partner you’re able to shift your focus onto the sounds, this is when it becomes really interesting. At first we were in Greenwich Park and the walk became extremely peaceful and solitude, however we soon moved onto the Greenwich footpath tunnel, and as every sound zooms past you in an echo, the whole thing becomes a lot more disorientating and chaotic.

The difference in both locations was important to experience I think, the first walk was so beautiful and the sounds were very slow paced, natural and serene. But as you begin to enter a more urban environment, the whole atmosphere changes and you start to become conscious once again of your movement. The sounds of a city are also much less tranquil than nature and so this obviously makes a huge difference. Even just the sound of groups of people talking, all in different directions, different languages and at different paces, your brain is trying to keep up but very quickly becomes overwhelmed. Therefore you have to learn to shut out a lot and only focus on what is relevant to you, this is actually one thing i’ve taken away from the sound walk, to focus less on irrelevant sounds around me, as I find I can get very easily overwhelmed by them.

Categories
INTRODUCTION TO SOUND ARTS

Key words.

SOUND COLLAGE– Sound collage to me, is the breaking up and reconstruction of sounds, taking one composed sound and creating an entirely new one from it. I have experimented with sound collage before, using peoples voices to create one continuous story. It’s fun, and definitely something I would like to continue working with. The reason it appeals to me is because of this idea of creating something new, its hard to create something new especially when it comes to music, everything is a variation of every other sound, however with sound collage, because you’re using sources that don’t traditionally go together, you’re creating something unexpected and unique.

ACOUSTICS– How sound behaves in different spaces, although this isn’t something I know much about, it is something I want to learn about. Sound is an interesting thing and its behaviour with space is even more interesting. Why and how is it affected by its surroundings? I am interested in how architecture is built around sound- specifically buildings like churches, where sound isn’t their sole purpose but it is a very crucial part.

EXPERIMENTAL– Within both sound and film it is the experimental side of them that interests me, I like to not know exactly what I’m watching or hearing, that element of unknown is what keeps me engaged. I think most sound work is experimental as there is so much you can do with it, peoples artwork is them just experimenting, however experimental music is more of a defined thing. Breaking down traditional boundaries, exploring different genres within one piece, this attracts me as it is more music than sound that interests me but I want to learn about its more experimental aspects.

Categories
SONIC DOING AND THINKING

Personal Vision Statement.

My work, previously to this course has been film based, working with mixed media specifically, stop motion. My practice has gone through a whole plethora of medians. Starting with drawing and painting, moving to film, and now to music and sound. Its only as of last year, January, that my interest for music sparked, I was given a Fender Strat that someone found on the side of the road in Stoke Newington, and from then on, I started teaching myself guitar, creating music my voice could accompany.

Truthfully, I have no clue of what I intend to up end doing in the future, and don’t really want to in this point of time, I enjoy exploring new practices, new techniques and I think if I had a solid idea of where I want to end up, it would prohibit me from exploring as much as I want to. However I can say I lean more towards the world of music rather than sound arts, this doesn’t mean I turn away from sound art practices, like I said I want to explore and I want to learn, thats why I chose the sound arts course. I think the music industry is slightly fucked in modern days, it runs on power and money (much like every other industry)instead of people and their work, and so I chose to study on a less musically conventional course as I didn’t want my studies to be so industry focused.

Within my current practice, I feel specifically drawn to voices, and voice patterns, how emotion shows through the voice, and so this is what I want my next portion of worked to be focused on.