Last night Dot and I reviewed the recordings made on our path through the mall. Her video is focused on the top of her shoe as it passes over the various floor surfaces (granites, laminate wood, escalator grills, carpark concrete etc). The movement is almost twitchy and weightless, and the click of the camera hitting her leg is the only indicator that steps are being taken. The background (the floor surface) swims in and out of focus depending on the autofocus of the camera and the distance the leg is from the floor. She recorded the ambient sound as well, which gives a larger scale to the restricted image.
My sound recording is the direct result of a bamboo cane dragging along these floor surfaces, sending the vibrations into a contact mic. It varies from hushed brushes along smooth vinyl to white noise along rough tarmac. When we reached escalators I pressed the stick against the brush at the side. The sounds, although abstract (acousmatic) are still identifiably "the sound of a bamboo cane against a surface", which is very interesting. I want to try other materials too, but I like the familiarity of that particular sound quality: everyone knows what that should sound like.
The combination of the two recordings is very interesting, because when either of us was walking behind the other there is a delay between encounters with a particular surface. It adds another space to the piece: you become aware of two explorations going on at once. When they correlate exactly it's wonderful, and allows the brain to make complete sense of the experience for a few seconds. And then we're off again.
