Sound arts year 1

LINES – An Interactive Sound Art Exhibition

In preparation for my upcoming visual assignment, I was doing some research on sound and visual exhibition pieces and I came across this video. LINES is an interactive sound arts exhibition by Swedish composer Anders Lind. For the project, coloured lines are attached to the wall, the floor, and hang from the ceiling, working alongside sensors that form musical notes from the placement of the hand of the composer. The ambition is to explore new forms of musical interaction and expression, and to provide a unique musical experience.

I quite enjoyed seeing the interplay between the harmonies being played by a single hand. I think a visual exhibition such as this one could be an engaging experience if taken part by a group of people in unison. It would be captivating to see something like this done. What makes this project interesting to me is the fact that different parts of the lines can be played simultaneously by a group of people. On top of that, I believe that this is a way that musicians, sound artists, and admirers of harmony could come together and produce improvisational music work, which could lead to formations of songs. I’m going to look more into sound and visual projects that implement music as this is what engrosses me as a musician, in comparison to purely experimental sound projects. 

“When I Listen, I Have to be Quiet” – Jacob Kirkegaard

I stumbled upon this short documentary of Jacob Kirkegaard, a sound recorder and artist. I found it interesting to hear him talk about how he has been working with sound since the age of 6. His fascination with sounds of the world that began at such a young age is the driving force behind his work. Working with sensors, instead of regular microphones, seems to be a big factor that contributes to what puts his work apart from others. He claims that the sensors allow a closer look into the sounds, to listen to them from within, picking up things a standard microphone would not, and therefore practicing to engage with the world, or in his words “find a deeper understanding”. I enjoyed stumbling across this, especially during a time that I’ve been looking into other methods of capturing sounds. 

“What really interests me is the wordless voice of things. I think that words can say a lot of concrete things. You can also get lost in words and not understand each other at all, yet if you listen to a sound of something, of an object or of something happening in the world that you maybe don’t feel you understand, I think that can channel a deeper understanding. An understanding on another level.”

Theatre of Epidaurus

I’ve been thinking about working with a large space sonically for my upcoming assignment project. I’ve always been fascinated by spacial acoustics and the ways in which we perceive sound depending on the surrounding space. This interest guided me to research sound in large spaces which led me to learn about the Theatre of Epidaurus.

The ancient theatre is approximately 2,350 years old. It was originally designed by the ancient greeks so that attendees can see the stage from anywhere and hear every word from the actor on the stage from every single seat, no matter the distance or position. The theatre originally hosted worship, music, singing and dramatic games. The furthest row of seats is an astounding 60 meters from the stage. The impressive acoustics of the theatre have been the subject of numerous sound studies. The perfect acoustics within the stadium is something that has attracted many researches and is something that interests me too. 

There are many factors working together that enhance the acoustics of the theatre. However, one of the main factors is the circular seating of the structure. The circular geometry of sound and the way sound travels fits the circular geometry of the seating structure. Every attendee sat in the same row will be the same distance from the source of the sound, and as a result will experience the same intensity of sound. Another feature is the steepness of the seating; The steepness and height of the structure makes it so that less sound is escaping from reaching the audience by caving in the sound reducing the distance it would have to travel compared to if the structure was flat. 

Thoughts on Maze Tools 

I’ve been looking into the visual-creating software Maze Tools to learn about how I will use it to create my own project. This is something very out of my comfort zone; up until now I’ve only ever used DAW softwares to create sound digitally, never visuals. I’ve always been more drawn to the usage of acoustic sound, so learning these technological production softwares are slightly out of my comfort zone.

I did some research only and found a 101 guide to using maze tools. I want to put some time into studying this guide soon.  https://maze.co/guides/maze-101-guide/

A look into Clavier à Lumières (“Keyboard with Lights”)

A “Clavier á Lumiére,” (Keyboard with Light) is an instrument which plays not only music, but light. Prior to looking into this, my knowledge of this was very limited. I remember receiving a gift as a child which was a small keyboard with individual coloured lights that reacted to each touch of a key. At the time, I was fascinated with the relationship between the notes of the keys and the colours, however I never really thought deeply into it until now. I’ve been familiar with the term Synesthesia for some time, and although I don’t experience any strong symptoms of it, I can understand and relate to it on a basic level. I find it interesting how different sound artists and musicians can associate different notes with different colours, and that for each person it can be a completely disparate association. The mere concept of hearing lights or seeing sound is a juxtaposition that intrigues me. I hope to possibly implement something related to this theme in one of my future works. 

Wassily Kandinsky
I’ve been looking into the work of Wassily Kadinsky, a Russian painter and art theorist and one of the great pioneers of abstract art. One of Kadinsky’s missions was to search for a new language of expression, relating to multi sensory art, or the symbiosis of arts. He gave his famous oil paintings titles such as “Yellow Sound” or “Composition 8”. In 1912, he published the famous essay “On Spirituality in Art”, and through this he showed how he was able to achieve a symbiosis of colours and very specific musical instruments in his work. For example, the symbol of yellow in his work represented the trumpet, whereas blue represented the Tuba. 

I found this short video on his work interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUfBl6iIGNo

Impact of music on images (film) and how it manipulates the emotive response

Recently, I attended a screening of Park Chan Wok’s 2022 film “Decision To Leave” (헤어질 결심)

Whilst watching this, I had recently been thinking about how sound effects the emotive response in film, a topic that came as a result of looking into the work of Paul Mykietyn. This led me to notice so many subtleties regarding the relationship between the sound and what was happening in the picture that I may not have noticed had I not had these thoughts in mind. 
First and foremost, I noticed how the composer drew the line perfectly between the romantic elements and the thriller elements of the film. From the melodious strings and interweaving orchestral sounds (relating to romance) coming in and out throughout the film, to the sudden plucks of string instruments and rising drum beats (relating to themes of thriller), the composer truly blended the two themes wonderfully.
Below I’ve inserted a video of the soundtrack to the final scene of the film. I find that it fuses the theme of love and pain so beautifully. The melody of the strings really carry the piece for me; they begin to move through a lovely comforting melody (along with the flute sounds), but then at times subtly evolve into something oddly chilling. This kind of sound for screen work is something I hope can inspire my own composition work in the future. 

Pawel Mykietyn

Pawel Mykietyn is a music composer and sound artist from Poland. Personally, he is an inspiration to me and I’ve loved many of his works for some time. 

I recently watched this short interview-style film that explores his work at a great detail and uncovers more of his life and his thought processes and inspirations behind his compositions. I adore many of his film soundtrack work. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5NKj6nBLXs 

Listening to him talk about his work led me to think more about the great effects music and sound has on film and theatre, how sound alone can change the whole emotive response to a film scene and how the composer aims to achieve their vision. 

Lena Ortega (Lena Lee)

Lena Ortega is a sound artist from Mexico who focusses on the relationship between nature and culture. I watched her visitor practitioner episode and thoroughly enjoyed the meditational practice she took us through. The practice required us to focus on our breaths, to find the rhythm of our pulse and then clap it out with our hands. I had difficulty with this in the moment but found it quite fascinating. The challenge of it was to find your own bodily rhythm, remain in it and refrain from synchronising with the others. We didn’t get enough time with this exercise for everyone to find their own rhythm, but the concept of what the exercise is aiming for is something I’d like to look further into. 

A lot of her work that was shown throughout the episode consisted of an array of meditational sounds that evolved around nature and natural environments. I particularly liked her recordings of the bird songs. I also found her field recording that looked into atmospheres and embodied experience quite interesting. Images were shown of her and a sound engineer creating a live sonic ambience. The sounds were being played to a room of people who were relaxing, lying down on cushions, getting into a mediative and restful state. She played a snippet of it in the lecture and I loved the fusion between the environmental sounds and the singing flute. The relationship between the two spaces in the piece gave the piece its own personal world in which the listeners could find their own meditative state. 

A look into Hong-Kai Wang

Hong-Kai Wan is a sound artist from Taiwan. She works with sound conceptually and explores the construction of new social space. Her work is highly collaborative and relies heavily on a process-driven approach. 

I looked into her project “Music While You Work” which aimed to analyse the background noises that everyday people are surrounded by during their daily work. I found it interesting to see how she gravitated towards focusing on industrial sounds, and she highlights the fact that these sounds are something she experienced throughout her childhood, growing up in an industrial town. It’s interesting to me how this investigation is linked to her own memories and personal feelings of nostalgia, and this implementation of her past in her work is something that inspires me and my own work.

In the investigation, she attempted to take part in the work processes before realising an observational method would only be possible due to her lack of experience in the field. The investigation led her to look more into the communicative language of the workers within the field, and the recordings sparked her interest in discovering more about the process of work.

I found this study quite memorable, which came as a surprise as I am someone who is generally put off by loud, industrial sounds. I can relate to the desire to be immersed in a sonic world that relates to your childhood. I lived close to a forest as a child during the time I discovered my interest in sound. It was also then that I discovered my unwavering interest in naturalistic sounds, and I always enjoy seeing researchers implement their own personal experience into their work.