Thursday 6th December
This morning I took full advantage of the rain: I attached a contact mic to the old metal lamp I found in the photography studio and put it outside to collect the sound of the raindrops. It did resonate a bit anyway, so you could hear the raindrops without amplification, but the recording has picked up some particularly high, crisp, almost electrical elements. Like the birdseed piece I did, it is a very percussive sound which I wouldn’t normally choose to create when ‘playing’ an object. I like the simple illustration of chaos theory in generating sound; setting up the structure and leaving the content to chance.
I have borrowed a signal generator from the physics department. It emits a sine tone which I can vary. When the students have left this afternoon I will take it down to the white stairwell to see if I can determine the resonant frequency of the space. If so, I might make an installation using that frequency and its harmonics, so that the architecture is directly influencing the sound content and behaviour. Site-specific art for purists… I’ve tested it out in the studio, using a rudimentary oscilloscope (the record volume bar on my minidisc recorder!), and the studio appears to have a resonant frequency of 400Hz. I expect the stairwell to be much lower because you can hear male voices better than female ones.
Monday 3rd December
I have compiled my six static shots of spaces with their respective binaural recordings as a simple ‘slideshow’-style film. Each image remains on screen for 1 minute whilst the audio plays. I listened to it using headphones so that the stereo remained accurately spaced around my head. The whole effect was a lot more powerful than I could have imagined, because the audio presence of movement (such as passing speech or opening doors) actually tricked my brain into momentary illusions where I thought I saw the figure move through the static image. The images do not have any figures in; they are purely architectural. This is a fairly well-known effect, explained by Gestalt psychologists, in which the brain is trying to make sense of a number of stimuli to form a whole perception of an event. It is for this reason that I am so interested in the role of the visual in the work of a sound artist. The brain is always trying to form links between all stimuli it receives, so it is important that all perceptual elements of an artwork have been considered by the artist if the work is to communicate any consistent content to the viewer/listener.
In this age where music has started to lose its visual context (the increasing use of downloaded mp3s, divorced from the packaging and explanations of printed material; the commonplace laptop performances with little guide for the audience as to how the sounds are produced, or indeed whether they are ‘live’) I wonder how sound art can exist in the physical world without shifting entirely into download territory. One important way is perhaps to reconsider the Gestalt: how will the audience perceive the work from a combination of sensory stimuli?
Friday 30th November
I spent today editing the field recordings and performance recordings. I now have six pieces edited to one-minute tracks, which I will add to the still photographs next week. The space recreated by the binaural recordings is so accurate that I have to keep turning around to see if someone has come into the room. The loops recorded from the Wednesday performances are great; I’m really pleased with them as tracks, not just as documentation of a demonstration. The one the students (Dew and Nina) did is brilliant; clunky but really interesting. It is obvious that it is by someone else, despite the same objects being used, because the choice of rhythms and speed is something I don’t usually explore. I am looking forward to a group improvisation in January to see what we all come up with.
Monday 26th November
Today was spent exploring the campus. I am looking for areas of the college with interesting acoustics, either for future recordings or installations, or for a sound map. I will be drawing a plan of the site according to sound quality and relative location rather than physical buildings. Psycho-geography and psycho-acoustics in one… I have started making notes about noisy radiators, but the best discovery of the day is a white stairwell. All the surfaces are hard and reflective which produces the most fantastic resonance, especially from male voice frequencies. It layers and extends the sound so that conversations sound like Gregorian chants.
Wednesday 28th November
I have just finished giving two presentations to students about my work in relation to public performance. See www.myspace.com/babygrandbabygrand for some of my musical pieces, and www.flickr.com/photos/hollyrumble for two images of an installation I did using birds feeding to generate sound. My public work is about using objects to produce sound, and the relationship between the visual and the aural perception. I have found that it is important that the audience can see what I am doing, or are aware of the sources. I do enjoy making acousmatic works, but currently I have been considering the visual side of live performance: what is the audience going to be looking at when they hear the sounds? Should I go to one extreme and perform behind a curtain (or in the dark) like the Wizard of Oz, or should I display my objects like a physics experiment?
Thursday 29th November
I did a few binaural recordings at some of the locations I noted on Monday. I will be assembling a series of static location images with these field recordings, as a visual experiment to see whether the audio affects the ‘visual interest’ of the photograph. There are some particularly tuneful doors in one corridor which I might play around with when the students have gone one night…
The afternoon was different, because I joined in with the previous artist in residence’s etching workshop. So much fun! I can see why printing can be addictive. I drew some owls…
