Category: INTRODUCTION TO SOUND ARTS

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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.

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.

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.

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.

28/10/2024

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.

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.