Category: CREATIVE SOUND PROEJCT

The sonic dimensions and acoustics of a space play an incredibly important role in how the listener immerses themselves and perceives the work in which they’re listening to. Throughout the past 70 years, the design of spatial sound has evolved massively, from the development of early stereo systems to fully immersive audio formats like binaural recording and Dolby Atmos, the listening experience becomes not only heard, but felt throughout the body. Due to these technological progressions, artists are now able to use space as a creative element, allowing this sense of movement through sonic environments that feel like a living, physical space.

The acknowledgement of spatial sound’s significance has been a crucial understanding for centuries, long before the focus of surround sound systems. Ancient Greek amphitheaters were designed with specific acoustic needs. These huge, stone, open-air structures used for performances were built within the natural landscape, particularly built into a hillside or slope. The reasoning behind this was both, so the seating could naturally rise, but also because they understood that it created excellent acoustics, sound from the stage traveled upwards to reach the thousands of people in the arena. The semi-circular shape of the amphitheater was also purposely built to help amplify the sound from the stage, the curved positioning of the seats acted as a reflector for the sound, therefore directing it to every part of the audience area.

In religious structures worldwide, the acoustics of a space have played a crucial role for the music being sung in them. For example, many European cathedrals focused on the importance of the reverberations when it came to Gregorian chants. And in a non western approach, many indigenous cultures focus on the placement and arrangement of people in the space to carefully orchestrate the music. The use of space has long been curated to immerse the listener and heighten emotional, spiritual, and connective experiences.

In the 1930’s Alan Blumlein, a British engineer developed stereophonic sound, a method of using two audio channels (left and right) to create a more three-dimensional, directional sound experience. Recordings, that, prior to this discover only had a mono option, could now create a sense of space and movement. Many music artists, like The Velvet Underground for example, began to use stereo sound to create entirely new works of music that play with space in a way that hadn’t been done before. By the 70’s and 80’s early surround sound systems began to appear in cinemas mainly, but also in high end home set ups. Dolby stereo, a multi-channel sound format, usually four-channel, which encodes sound information onto the optical soundtrack of 35mm film, was first introduced in 1975. Developed by Dolby Laboratories, it was crucial into how film soundtracks were recorded, encoded, and played back in cinemas, and made for an incredibly engaging watching experience. The first film to use a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania (1975).

Binaural recordings use two microphones (sometimes placed on a dummy head) to mimic the human ears, capturing sound as we naturally do. Binaural recordings create a very realistic sound scape, especially when listening back with headphones, this is its the closest you can get to recording exactly what you’re hearing. Binaural recording’s popularity increased significantly in the late 1970s and early 1980s, however the first known binaural recordings date back to the 1880s. Clément Ader, a French engineer, transmitted opera audio through telephone lines using two microphones- one for each ear. As of today, with the invention of virtual reality and the popularity of gaming, binaural audio has come back into focus as these games depend on their sonic environment and atmosphere to help completely immerse the player.

In today’s day and age the use of multi track channels is habitual, with the listening experience becoming a full 360 degree environment. While newer formats of surround sound like 7. 1 or Dolby Atmos are available and offer a more immersive sound, 5.1 surround sound remains the standard and most commonly used format since the 90’s.

As well as the technical aspect to it, spatial sound has been used for creative purposes throughout its existence. One modern artist who often plays with the use of space throughout her work is Janet Cardiff, a Canadian artist known for her work within sound installations. One piece of hers that massively involves space is ‘The Forty Part Motet’ (2001). A sound installation that consists of 40 speakers placed in a circular shape, with each speaker facing inwards towards the audience. Based on the choral work, “Spem in alium” (1570) by renaissance composer Thomas Tallis. The composition was written for 40 separate vocal parts, divided into 8 choirs of 5 voices each, and so Janet set up 40 speakers, separated into 8 sections of 5, each projecting a different singers part.

Visitors are free to walk among the ‘singers’ (speakers) and get as close and personal as they would like, which they of course could never do in a real performance. The emotion of the piece creates an intensely personal and spatialised experience for each listener, as each part of the choir, each singer is directed into its own distinguishable beauty. Depending on where you stand, your interpretation of the piece will differ entirely.

As a whole, the spatialisation of is used to create an environment in which an audience can completely submerge themself in, creating a kind of route into the sound’s surroundings. Whether used throughout cinema, or in music or in an installation, the manipulation of spatial sound generates an entirely unique experience that no other kind of media does.

Additionally, here is a short extract from a practice in Milo’s lecture where I was experimenting using space within binaural recording. Specifically using the plug in; dearVR MICRO to move around with elevation and direction. This is a plug in I haven’t used previously, and in fact, playing with elevation was an entirely new experience for me, and although subtle, made a big difference the way the sound is perceived.

In Milo’s lecture last week, he briefly mentioned and explained beat frequencies, using two tuning forks to demonstrate. Beat frequencies were something I had heard through music before but had never been aware of what was actually occurring and why. The fluctuation in sound that occurs is something I find intriguing and so wanted to learn more about it, hence this blog post.

A beat frequency is the result of two slightly different frequencies occurring at the same time. Whilst you hear each individual tone, you’re also able to detect an interaction between the waves, hearing a fluctuation in amplitude. This perceived fluctuation in volume is the beat, which oscillates at a rate equal to the difference between the two original frequencies. For example, if two notes with a frequency of 440 Hz and 445 Hz, the beat frequency will be 5 Hz, meaning you’d hear 5 beats per second. The interference between sound waves can be a constructive or destructive interference.

• Constructive Interference: When waves align, resulting in a larger amplitude. 
• Destructive Interference: When waves are out of phase, resulting in a smaller amplitude. 

The back and forth between constructive and destructive interference causing the modulation of amplitude.

Beat frequencies are used for a number of purposes including-

• Tuning Instruments- When 2 notes are played together, if in tune then no beat should be heard, however if out of tune the ‘beating’ sound will be heard.
• Binaural Beats- When each ear is hearing a different frequency, the brain essentially creates its own beat frequency which can be used for relaxation and focus.
• Radars- Some radar systems like speed sensors or military and aviation radars use the Doppler effect, which is a change in frequency due to movement, to determine the speed of an object, beat frequency helps in used for this process.
• Radio Broadcasting- Beat frequencies are used for multiple aspects of radio broadcasting, including signal processing and transmission. 

Beat frequencies can also be used not just in a technical way, but also a creative one. They can be used to shape textures, add emotion and immerse the listener. Synthesisers often use two oscillators tuned to slightly different frequencies, supplying a pulsing texture to the sound- particularly noticeable in drones, these textures can add depth to a sound that without would sound rather boring. When involving spatialisation, beat frequencies can create a sense of movement, panning across speakers, – this is a useful tool in ambient and experimental music especially. When it comes to acoustic instruments and spaces, beat frequencies emerge naturally when nearly identical pitches and played or sung. For example, the larger pipes of an organ create slow, deep beat frequencies when pipes are slightly out of tune, this creates a very rich underlying texture, that although may not be noticeable, can be incredibly useful for creating an atmosphere.

Many artists intentionally use beat frequencies within their work as part of the musical emotion. La Monte Young, an American composer, musician, and performance artist, was a central figure in the Fluxus movement and is best known for his exploration of sustained tones and drone music. Young often played with microtonal tunings throughout his work as he began to focus on the physical experience of sound. ‘The Well-Tuned Piano’ is perhaps Young’s most famous solo piece of work, involving a piano which is carefully tuned to emphasise specific harmonic relationships between notes, the tuning resulted in complex frequency beat patterns that slowly shrift throughout the piece. The pulsing that is created through the beats is used to draw the audience physically into the piece, creating a meditative, sonic environment in which the audience dive into.

Another example of an artist who has worked with beat frequencies is Alvin Lucier, specifically his work; “I Am Sitting in a Room”. The piece features Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the tape recording back into the room while re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process becomes a cyclical loop. Due to the room’s shape and size, certain resonant frequencies become emphasised while others are reduced. After the cycle goes on for long enough, the words become indistinguishable and are replaced by the intensified feedback sounds of the room’s resonance. The reinforcement of the frequencies causes a distinct beating, phasing effect.

‘The Well-Tuned Piano’ ‘I Am Sitting in a Room’

These pieces explore psychoacoustics as a tool throughout composition, they’re able to shape the listener’s experience through the interference of patterns rather than traditional techniques of melody or rhythm. The pulsing that is created through beat frequencies often sounds similar to natural, rhythmic movements of the body- like the heartbeat, and so we are able to find an unconscious comfort in the sounds created. This is one reason as to why it is able to evoke an emotional, and sometimes spiritual presence that we can emerge ourselves in.

Maya Deren ( 1917–1961) was a Ukrainian born, American experimental filmmaker and artist, playing a crucial role in the American avant-garde period of the 40s and 50s. Known for her rather surreal work, she explored the subconscious and poetic potential of film, something few filmmakers were doing at the time, especially known women. Although her most recognised works lie in film, Maya was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, writer, and photographer. 

I first came across Deren’s work through her film ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ (1943), an experimental, non-narrative short film co directed by both Deren and her then-husband Alexander Hammid. It is an incredibly surreal piece in which the protagonist (played by Deren herself) enters into a dreamlike state, her unconscious mind drifts between reality and imaginary. Deren explained that she wanted “to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident, rather than to record the incident accurately.” This is conveyed through the camera capturing only her subjective focus.

Meshes of the Afternoon really established the independent avant-garde movement of film in the States, a movement now known as the New American Cinema. Through her extensive work, Deren became the voice of avant-garde cinema of that period.

‘Meshes of the Afternoon’

For the time, it was rare to find a lot of women creating such abstract work and getting the recognition they deserved for it, and so when I discovered Deren’s work I felt incredibly inspired and opened up to a world of cinema that not only was so different to previous work, but also influenced an entire life of film to follow.

Deren began her career with Katherine Dunham’s dance troupe, which was famous for exploring the mythological roots of Caribbean rituals, and by 1942 she began writing and publishing articles, specifically, about Haitian religion and dance. Focusing on Vodou, and its spiritual implications, she felt inspired to spend several years in Haiti, first to photograph Haitian dance and Vodou rituals. Deren spent eighteen months in Haiti between the years of 1947 and 1952, accumulating 18,000 feet of film taken with her hand-held Bolex camera.

Vodou, although thought to be a kind of black magic, is actually a kind of religion where Gods and spirits can be invoked directly to earth and join the festivities of rituals. The Gods aren’t worshipped as remote entities, but instead involved as one of the dancers, in which the individual that becomes possessed by the god disappears and transcends beyond their physical body. Reality becomes an expression of the spiritual world, while it also feeding the real world back into the spiritual realm.

Deren became engulfed by the Haitian ritual cultures and during her time their produced a significant collection of work including; a 52 minute documentary film- ‘Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti’, along with a book of her extensive fieldwork and personal experiences in Haiti- also called ‘Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti’, as well as, ‘Voices of Haiti’- an album of Haiti’s percussion and chant heavy ritual music, it is one of the earliest and best ethnographic documents of vodou culture in Haiti.

‘Voices of Haiti’- Ghede Nimbo.

She had an fixation throughout her life between the real and the imaginary, the rational and irrational, “I am concerned, with that point of contact between the real and the unreal, where the unreal manifests itself in reality.” Her work acted as a place in which this ‘point of contact’ could be made visible. And so it becomes completely transparent as to why she was so intrigued by Haitian Vodou culture. The overlap of a physical reality with a surreal, spiritual world in Haitian religious practices, encompasses her own fascinations. Deren’s deep involvement with Vodou, can be seen as her pursuit and interest to a living culture that gives credibility to the ‘unreal’, providing her with a presence she presented throughout her films.

I find Deren an incredibly inspiring artist, I am able to appreciate all her forms of work, however, especially her films. Experimental, surreal films have always intrigued me, the visual aesthetics and the narratives that come with the genre have influenced my style of work massively, both in my film making and sound work. I love the freedom that comes with it and I think Deren’s work is a perfect example of how to use that freedom.

Collision is one of Ableton’s synthesisers that uses physical modelling technology to simulate how objects (real or imagined) vibrate and resonate when struck. Collision uses mathematical simulations of real-world acoustic behaviour to replicates the characteristics of an instrument. Collision is primarily known for simulating mallet percussion instruments like a vibraphone or marimba, however it also allows for the creation of completely unique and custom percussive sounds and instruments that venture beyond traditional mallet instruments. Because Collision replicates real life resonant sounds, it creates this quite raw, organic sounding feel to compositions, more so than other synthesisers do, I think.

Collision’s sound consists of two oscillators called Mallet and Noise, these are fed into a pair of stereo resonators (individual or linked) – which have the most impact on the sounds characteristics.

• Mallet section- This tab simulates the impact of a mallet hitting a surface, the parameters below adjust the properties of the mallet. Stiffness adjusts the solidity of the mallet, at low levels the mallet is softer (resulting in fewer higher frequencies and longer impact time), at high levels the mallet the mallet is firmer (resulting in an increase in high frequencies and less impact time.) Noise controls the impact noise of each mallet strike. Colour controls the frequency of the noise component- this control has no effect if the noise bar is set to 0.
• Noise section- This section produces white noise which is fed into a multimode filter with a dedicated envelope generator. This section can be used alone or simultaneously with the mallet section. The LP tab next to the noise one is for filter types, you can choose between low pass, high pass, band pass, or low pass and band pass. The Env Amt knob controls the envelope generator with ADSR options. The Freq knob defines the cut off frequency of the filter.

The Collisions interface on Ableton is dived into different sections and tabs (as you can see below)-

The mallet and noise sections on the left contain controls for the corresponding Mallet and Noise oscillators. The resonators, 1 & 2 in the middle contain controls for both individual resonators. The LFO tab on the right contain 2 separate LFOs which can each modulate multiple parameters. The MIDI/MPE tab allows for MIDI pitch bend, modulation and aftertouch messages, and their MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) equivalents o be routed to multiple destinations. On the far right are controls for parameters such as; voice polyphony note re-trigger, resonator structure and output volume.

The resonator tabs are the most important when it comes to defining the characteristics of the sound you’re producing. Collision features seven resonator types, in this case resonator refers to both the playing surface and the optional resonating body behind it.

• Beam simulates beams of different materials and sizes.
• Marimba is a specialised beam. It reproduces the characteristic tuning of marimba bar overtones that are produced as a result of the deep arch cut of the bars.
• String simulates strings of different materials and sizes as found in instruments such as pianos, guitars and dulcimers.
• Membrane is a rectangular drumhead, with options for adjusting material and size.
• Plate simulates a rectangular plate of different materials and sizes.
• Pipe simulates a cylinder with one end open and a variable opening at the other end (adjusted with the “Opening” parameter).
• Tube simulates a cylinder that is fully open at both ends.

Collision has two configuration modes; Serial and Parallel . These copy real-world construction of an instrument, for example a xylophone consists of a beater, a playing surface (a resonator) with a resonating tube underneath. Therefore a xylophone is a serial configuration. Parallel setup is not very common in the real world but is where physical modelling synthesis really gets put to use: it lets you create virtual instruments that go beyond what’s physically possible.

(This blog post consists of notes taken from my synthesis lecture, as prior to this class I was only aware of small aspects of synthesis, and so I thought it was best to create a blog post documenting the key parts.)

Synthesis is the process of creating sound electronically, synthesisers generate sound waves using electrical signals, which are then shaped and manipulated to produce a wide range of tones and textures.

There are several major types of synthesis, some include:

• Subtractive (Removing frequencies using filters.)
• Additive (Sounds are created by layering multiple sine waves.)
• FM– Frequency Modulation (One waveform modulates the frequency of another.)
• Wavetable (Waveforms are digitally manipulated to create a wide range of sounds.)
• Granular (Divides sample up into tiny grains that can then be played back at different speeds, in different frequencies.)

FM Synthesis-

• A technique where the frequency of one waveform (the carrier) is modulated by another (the modulator).
• John Chowning, a composer and researcher at Stanford University, invented FM synthesis in the 1960s.
• You can multiple modulators with fm synthesis.
• Consists of multiple oscillator that you can change individually and each one affects the other, with the carrier being the final outcome.
• Yamaha DX7 is the most famous FM synth.
• Fm synth allowed a much broader range of sounds and really made a change in digital music production in the 1980s.

Synthesised sounds begin as audio signals generated by oscillators, as signals pass through the components of a synth, the basic waveforms are shaped and sculpted by filters and envelopes. Sound wave forms include;

• Sine wave
• Square wave 
• Sawtooth wave 
• Triangle wave 

Amplitude envelope – An envelope is a path through which a sound will pass, determining the length of the sound. -It determines how there sound will evolve.

ADSR-

• Attack= Amount of time it takes for sound to come in.
• Decay= Amount of time it takes to reach the next level of volume/ the decay level.
• Sustain= The sustain level is volume based, the second point in the envelope is the sustain level.
• Release = How long it takes to die away after releasing finger of the key.

More than one note at the same time= Polyphonic

One note played= Monophonic

Filters-

• Low pass filter- Removes high end frequencies. You have a cut off point for the sound, the point at which the cut of is made can be emphasised by moving it up and down- changing the cut off point- this is called the resonance, however in EQ this is called the Q (it describes how narrow or wide a filter is around a certain frequency). Depending on the db number, the filter can be more or less efficient, 12db is most common.
• High pass filter- Removes low end frequencies.
• Band pass- Allowing you to preserve a certain range, removes sound from the left and right of the cut of point.
• Notch filter- Creates a notch (a dip) so the sound at that range is removed and the sounds from the left and right remain.

Modulation-

• Modulation involves changing parameters over time.
• LFO- Low frequency oscillator, an interaction between the sound waves- commonly used for tremolo or vibrato. The LFO has its own waveform. Used to influence change in volume or pitch.
• VIBRATO= varying pitch
• TREMOLO= varying volume
• Glide control- A pitch bend, the sound will guide from one pitch to the other, the dial on the synth controls the time taken to reach the second note.

Sampling, the process of taking an existing source and repurposing it to create something new. A true foundation to hip hop, it developed in the 1980s, when DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash began sampling funk and soul records, often times isolating the drum breaks and looping them live to create new beats. Having originated from hiphop, sampling soon began to expand all over the different musical genres and communities, creating a huge impact and new outlook on sharing music.

There is quite a lot of controversy around sampling, when does it become stealing, paying homage, or creating entirely new art? How can you differentiate? Personally I believe sampling is never stealing, the whole point of creating art is that something or someone has inspired you to create what you’re making, your process can’t ever stem from nowhere. Sampling is just one aspect of this inspiration, when you hear a piece of music and feel you can take that one particular section to create something new, this is not stealing, its evolving and sharing inspiration. In todays day and age I believe that there are so many people making art and have been in the past that nearly no idea is truly ‘original’ (in the sense its just you making it) or new. Art is a reaction to a situation, it’s a portrayal that often can’t be as impactful through words or other actions, and so it is something that should be constantly shared between others, used and adapted freely. However, that said I do understand the controversy around money and artists being fairly paid when it comes to using samples. I think each situation is different in those regards and it becomes a more complex viewpoint.

I use sampling a lot throughout my work, both sonically, but also with my visual work, I have previously worked a lot with collage, taking imagery from so many different sources and using them to create an entirely new meaningful piece. Also, within my film work I have experimented with archive footage and sampling all this existing material that is just sat online, unused. I really do think if something is available to you and you can see an idea evolve from it, then you should utilise your access to it and use it.

For example here are two simple- a4 collages I have made in my sketchbook.

In Fridays lecture we spent a little time using audio samples to create a sonic piece of work, I really enjoyed this task, although my outcome is messy, underdeveloped and simple I still had a lot of fun creating it and gave me a new found inspiration for sampling.

There are so many aspects of sound and music that I have only briefly worked with or learnt about but have never gone deeper into, and as I progress through this course I am made aware of certain aspects that I know I need to dive deeper into as I am attracted to them. Sampling is definitely one of them. I would like my next focus to be sampling using vinyl as I have so many tracks that stimulate my creativity that I use more as an entertainment than a source of work.

Having recorded the script, music and sound effects we now have a much clearer idea of how we want the final outcome of our radio show to sound. The use of collage is becoming more and more prominent, although originally only intended for the script, since recording we came to a united decision to collage both the music and the recordings of the script, to keep creating new sounds. This choice happened very naturally, as the project has been evolving there have been these unanimous decisions for certain aspects that everyone in the group agrees on and they just work very well. As a whole our group has not faced any disagreements or challenges regarding ideas for the piece, we have all been bouncing off each other in a very fun, adaptive way.

SCRIPT RECORDING (unedited)

When it came to recording the script, we realised that our 3 pages of collaged script might not be lengthy enough to for fill the 15 minute piece. We first thought about repeating the script twice over, then about slowing down the pace of the reading to lengthen it out. Both ideas would have worked well for the project and our theme of perception, however when we began recording the music (live to the script recordings) Josh started to cut up, layer and distort the script reading and as we played music live simultaneously, it began to sound very put together and professional. Therefore we decided to stick with that process of collaging the voice, which of course fits the original collaged script and supports the concept for this piece well.

In regards to recording the music, this has been my favourite aspect of the project by far, it has been the most free flowing and natural part. We met up at a studio, I brought my electric guitar and a Zoom 505 pedal, Zain brought a kalimba that had an output, and inside the studio were multiple synths, an electric bass and a microphone we also used. As Josh began added effects to the script recording we began to play live with it, into Ableton recording multiple different layers- different instruments, different people playing and different effects. From this, our piece started to come together very fast, forming a distinct atmosphere and character, which we began to understand and then add to.

The next process for our group is to start to edit the radio piece together, as we now have almost our entire sound bank finished, including the script, music, foley and sound effects, we will soon begin to collage of these recordings together to create our radio piece. I am incredibly excited to see where this project goes, as although we have a loose plan of how we want it to sound, as a group I think we have learnt to leave leeway for the piece to grow and expand in ways were not quite in control of. Through doing this it causes less forced work, less problems within the group and just a more interesting, unique sounding piece.

Radiogenic- ‘Well suited in style or subject for broadcasting by radio.’

In Friday’s lecture we were learning about radiogenic factors, and I began thinking about what kinds of work are designed specifically for radio, compositions that don’t work in any other form. How can you utilise the distinctive qualities of radio to create an optimum piece?

“Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and listener.” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 299.) This quote from Marshall McLuhan in his book ‘Understanding Media’ describes radio in the exact way I think about it. It’s different from other forms of media like film as there is this ‘unspoken communication’ which relies so heavy on the persons interpretation and integration with the piece. Of course this does exist within film as everybody connects the story to their own experience’s, however because of the visual cues you are given, it manipulates and directs your thoughts into more direct, synchronised feelings that most other viewers will be experiencing. When it comes to radio, it is a very different situation, first of all when you’re listening to radio you’re normally alone, which makes a huge difference to how you perceive and react to it, as listening to the radio can give you the sense that you’re the only one who can hear it, which is (most of the time) entirely not true. – This makes for a much more personal connection to what you’re hearing. Another factor relates to two of Sieveking’s laws – ‘Imagination is central’ & ‘The voice carries personality’, I think these two ideas around radio connect massively, and influence each other. Firstly, imagination is the sole reason radio is so different from other medians, without visuals, your whole perception of what you’re hearing is made in your imagination, you’re constantly constructing images in your mind based off of the sounds, voices, and atmospheres being created, which makes for a deeply unique experiences. As each person’s experiences have taught them to how relate themselves to and conceptualise the things they hear. This ties in with the idea of the voice carrying personality, as each tone in a voice, or slight movement in sound has a meaning, and emotionally, we have been trained to pick up and understand the slightest of differences in someones voice. This is of course differs for varying cultures, however there is a universal understanding when it comes to expressing emotions. This understanding of tonal changes crosses over with interpretation as depending on your upbringing, your ideas of what each change means may slightly differ and cause for a variety of interpretation throughout people, therefore also effecting how they’re imagining the sounds in a visual way.

Although when I started this project I was unaware of the term radiogenic, the concept of it was an important factor for our groups radio piece. As I have mentioned in other blogs, we wanted to create a piece that plays on perception and the idea that each person perceives a radio show their listening to uniquely. We aimed to create something that felt very surreal, and you could join in at anytime, a kind of surrealism that is much easier to portray through radio. Playing with silence and chaos, realistic and unrealistic sounds, creating an atmosphere that can’t have one definition, it is distinct for each listener. When it comes to this idea of subjective perception by individual listeners vs objective reality, we want them to overlap, our objective being that the content we have created doesn’t entirely make sense (we have created a story based off of our own interpretation of the script, but this story is not our objective), it doesn’t have a literal meaning, other than to show how relations and perceptions between listener vary.

So far we have written and recorded the script, using different voices and different amplitude levels of speaking which we are then going to collage and create (like we did with the script) something new and manipulated using layering and editing. Our next task is to record the foley which we have a distinct list of sounds, separated into two sections, realistic and surreal sounds, which I think will be the main factor into creating our atmosphere. Of course the voice will help to portray our concept and radiogenic feature, but the sounds that are attached will allow the listener to fully submerge into the piece and therefore allow deeper interpretations.

McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding media: the extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 299.

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.

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-

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.