Launched in 2003 by artist Graeme Miller, LINKED is a radio installation installed on lampposts across 3 miles of North East London. It is an artistic response to the creation of the M11 Link Rd in the 1990s which involved the demolition of over 400 buildings, most of which were homes.
Like a ghost town, as you follow this path surrounded by cars constantly passing you, each transmission gives you an insight into the life that once existed right where you stand. I have never experienced an art piece like this before and found it very interesting. Although I was unable to travel to each radio point due to lack of time, I was able to very quickly gather an understanding of how different life was in the area simply 30 years ago. It was a rather gloomy, dark day when we visited this project and so the atmosphere that came from this experience was rather melancholy, however after talking to Graeme afterwards, this actually suits this piece of work. Hearing his reasoning behind- how his house was destroyed with no sympathy or care, all simply for a road. It is sad.
One thing that stood out to me and inspired me was how Graeme had composed each recording, although rather simple, each recording was composed in a different way, some with music and more complexity to them, layering voices and cutting them up. These recordings stood out to me because although he had treated the composition more like making a piece of music (or at least that is how I interpreted it), the story was still clearly told and it added to the effect that was trying to be conveyed, it became much more emotional.
I have a new particular interest in working with voice and sound and so this was a great piece of work to experience and understand how impactful just voices can be. As well, the use of radio transmission was very interesting as it is such a common thing that is happening all around us in another sort of dimension really, its something I am so unaware of most of the time, and so by being forced to focus on it made even just walking around an entirely new sensation.
Post modernity emerged as a cultural movement in the mid 20th century, post war, but started to gain popularity around the 60s and 70s. Post modernity was not the end of modernity, but simply a continuation of modern thinking just in a different way. Moving away from traditional practices, post modernity focused on the relationship between the artist and the audience, between absence and presence and the fusion of genres. I would say absence and minimalism were key to what post modernity was about, using repetition to shift listeners focus onto the subtle differences within the sound. There was a real aim to move away from such heavy structures that artists and musicians traditionally focused on and create a more fluid dynamic between each person.
Post structuralism and rhizome were 2 movements heavily involved with post modernity.
Post structuralism emerged in the late 1960s as a reaction against structuralism, which pushed against the idea of having full knowledge, arguing that meaning is not fixed, but instead fluid, and constructed through culture, language and power dynamics. Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher known for developing ‘deconstruction’, a method of analysing texts to reveal ambiguity and multiple meanings. Deconstruction shows that meanings are not permanent but instead, are constantly changing, challenging this idea of a single meaning. Questioning western philosophy, Derrida became central to post-structuralism and had an immense influence.
Rhizome was introduced by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their book ‘A Thousand Plateaus‘ (1980), it is a model for understanding society in a non-hierarchical way, contradicting the tree like structures traditionally used. The term ‘rhizome’ comes from a type of plant root system that spreads horizontally through connected points, without a clear beginning and end. Rhizome focuses on this idea that there is no hierarchy controlling the flow or importance of ideas; every point is relevant to the next. You can enter or exit from any point you wish to choose from. Rhizome structures are found everywhere in contemporary life, a massive example being social media, there is such a lack of organisation in terms of the hierarchy of social media, nobody is really incharge of it and everybody can enter or leave as they wish. In fact, this probably stems from the structure of the internet, which again is a structure that can be seen as a rhizome, it holds a vast network of interconnected sites and links, there’s no central hub; any page can link to any other page.
When it comes to the impact that post modernity had on sound arts, it was big. It influenced how sound is created, perceived, and understood. Post modernity encouraged the combining of various musical styles, genres, and influences. This approach allowed sound artists to take from traditions, break them down, combine with the new technology available and create something entirely new. It created this hybrid form of art where sound artists were using other medians such as sculpture and fine art to combine with sound, like they were in modernity, however on a different level. Post modernity also created the remix culture, where artists rework existing material, something that has been incredibly influential for the music world and is still used and is crucial in contemporary music. Although a slightly later aspect of post modernity, arising in the 80s/90s, like I mentioned earlier, the internet is a significant aspect to post modernity. Embodying many of the characteristics and themes associated with post modernity, it runs off a complete non linear structure and is arguably the most influential aspect of post modernity affecting society now in 2024.
Rhizome and deconstruction were perhaps the most integral aspects to post modernity as this lack of structure was something very new, something that pre war would be looked at with disgust and chaos. It is more accurate and relevant to how artists, of all medians, work in modern society. And personally I think it was an incredibly important movement. It created a way for artists to share their work without having to go through such a tedious and destructive process. It encouraged sharing and destroyed the huge amount of competition that lived within the art world. Although, this competition is still present, it is less so and in less of a hierarchy way.
One thing I have noticed about sound arts, specifically as a female, is how heavily male dominated it is. This isn’t uncommon when looking into artists of the early and mid 20th century, but even still today, more men are well known than women within the sound arts world. One female artist who was very influential for post modernity was Laurie Anderson, a multi media artist known for blending sound art with performance and visual media. Her work often incorporates voice modulation, synthesizers, and experimental techniques to create immersive experiences for the audience. Her most famous work is “O Superman,” an iconic sound piece combining pop, spoken word, and minimalist elements to create a rather indescribable feeling .
Laurie Anderson is often associated with the Fluxus movement, which was as an avant-garde art movement that emerged in the early 60s, defined by a focus on experimental practices and the blurring of boundaries between art and everyday life. The term “Fluxus,” comes from the Latin word for “flow,” reflecting the movement’s emphasis on the process and change of making art. Fluxus artists were those who combined medians and art forms to create multi media pieces, breaking down the boundaries between the different styles. Live performance was a big aspect of Fluxus, focusing on making the act of creation become the artwork itself, often involving audience participation. This use of performance and multi media was all part of this idea to challenge traditional art forms, which is what modernity and post modernity was all about really.
Overall, post modernity, to me, was more about breaking down things than adding more, it focused on the importance of absence and how challenging social norms can be incredibly useful when it comes to creating art. It gave society an entirely new perspective on things that hadn’t changed previously for hundreds of years, and this change was good, it was fresh and it allowed for a chain of change to continue and is a movement that has affected us now in a big way.
As I look around me at the four walls that encapsulate me, I cant help but notice the slightest of sounds I have become accustomed to. Footsteps above me that once created the most annoying of sounds, that creaking noise, is now unconsciously shut out, ignored.
But it’s in my bed when I became aware once again.
Your bed is a thing of such comfort and safety, yet at the same time, frustration and inability. My bed remains a place of familiarity, unlike its surroundings. In this very moment my bed is my workspace with pens, pencils, my sketchbook and various charging leads scattered around it, however, in 4 or 5 hours it will become my slump, a place to watch tv and fall asleep. The versatility of a bed is what makes it so amazing, I can feel so unable and incompetent in my bed but also so uplifted, intimate, and at peace.
My bed once became our place, and then back to mine, and soon will be someone else’s.
Recorded in bed, very true to style.
The sounds of a bedroom are most obvious when first moving in, with the empty room and white walls that sound so easily bounces off of, an echo is present. As you move each of your items in, piece by piece, posters on walls, clothes hung up, bedding made, the sound starts to be absorbed. Your room becomes your sound.
Considered a modernist movement in music, emerging around the 1940s, Musique contrète is a type of composition using recordings as raw material, which are then manipulated and edited. It can consist of recordings of voices, instruments, your environment and/or electronic/mechanical sounds, instead of relying solely on instruments to create the music. Musique concrète is composed directly from the recorded sounds- which is where it gets the term ‘concrete’ from, as the sound exists in the physical world, (unlike musical notes). The genre emerged from the new music technology developed in the post war era.
Once recorded the sound can be manipulated in various ways to create the desired effect, these can included; cutting the tape by hand, speed changes, reversing the sound, looping, distortion and filtering. As a result the composition usually appears as a kind of sound collage, combining and layering many different sounds with many different effects- often in a non traditional form.
Pierre Schaeffer, a french composer, writer, broadcaster and engineer was one of the core developers of musique concrète, in 1948, he began experimenting with phonographs and tape recorders to manipulate sound. In 1951 he formed ‘Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète’ which was a center for research, experimentation, and production of musique concrète. It was a place where composers and engineers could collaborate on creating music using tape recorders, sound manipulation, and electronic equipment. One of Schaeffer’s earliest musique concrète compositions was “Étude aux chemins de fer” 1948, using recordings of train sounds. Pierre Henry was another early artist working with musique concrète, his most known piece “Symphonie pour un homme seul” (1949–1950) was a collaboration with Schaeffer, combining various sounds; vocal fragments, whistles, footsteps, doors slamming & metallic sounds to create the narrative.
“Symphonie pour un homme seul”
It’s the lack of structure, the embrace of experimentation and overall rejection of traditional music that makes musique concrete modernism. Wanting to use technology to create something entirely new, soundscapes became abstract and experimenting was welcomed, which pre-war would have been met with, most likely, a lot of skepticism. This is due to the culture of both music and the arts in general being both very classical and traditional, generally, people’s tastes were much more conservative and so the arts was expected to follow these societal norms. Aswell, early technology of the 1940s was just starting to become popular and musique concrete chose to embody this technology which completely changed the sonic practices of society. Although at first it was a small population of artists who’s practice it changed, the rates at which it grew and inspired other artists and movements of modernism was vast.
Although founded in the 1940s, musique concrète is still relevant and used today by many sound artists and musicians as it lay a groundwork for sound design and sampling. When looking into how it is involved in contemporary practices, I chose to look into jazz and soul artists who have used techniques of musique concrète. Musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, Madlib and Alice Coltrane all use techniques reminiscent of Musique concrète. Each use samples and sound manipulation in their own way, to create their own unique sound but which all stem from the process of Musique concrète.
Below is Herbie Hancocks album Sextant (1973) which features electronic sounds and synthesized effects that use techniques of musique concrète, including the manipulation of recorded sound textures.
The reason I chose to research Musique concrète and look into how these typically jazz and soul artists have used Musique concrète techniques in their work is because my current practice is more catered to creating music rather than sound art installations or other pieces of artwork. And so I wanted to look into a historic practice that is most relevant to what I want to create, especially within the genres of music I work in ( soul and jazz). From my research I not only feel more comfortable in my choice of course ( as I know I can relate what I learn into my practice) but am also more insightful into how the introduction of technology drastically changed the sound and music world, in my opinion, for the better.
The ambiguity of the term sound arts is what first attracted me to it and why I chose this course. It being such an open form of art, made me excited and inspired to produce work, and understand where I want to go with this work. It is only as of recently that I have found an enthusiasm for sound and music, and although I am new to the practice, I can feel it now has huge relevance to who I want to be as an artist. Previously to this I have worked much more as a visual artist, filmmaking is something I have great admiration and love for. So when it came to choosing the next step, I knew I wanted to explore sound, however, not leave film behind entirely. I felt sound arts was a choice that can still be relevant to film if I would like it to be, but, is also a separate thing in itself which I can explore.
At this moment in time, sound art has more of a musical meaning to me as my current work has been mostly guitar and vocal based. However, I am expecting my understanding and interpretation of the term ‘sound art’ to constantly change depending on the piece I am working on. This fluctuation of understanding is something I look forward to as it will keep things fresh due to my viewpoint changing throughout each period.
