Are Field Recordings My Friend or My Foe?
As the title of this blog suggests, I have a big question on my mind. I have traveled from video to sound, to installation and back to video and now I’m again using video and sound. My work takes a documentary stance in that I don’t synthesize and invent sounds but rather, record from life and present my findings objectively alongside photography or video works.
I haven’t used synthesizing very much, although I have had a recent adventure involving Pd (puredata) though an audio workshop. Pd is an open source program for sound design where users build map-like structures and create sound-producing objects, filters and controls. This was my first foray into utilising my computer to create sound with no reference to the field so to speak. I found this process quite strange and I struggled with what I felt was a lack of reference and context in what I was making over the two week workshop. I feel that my art practice needs a cultural or historical reference point gained from field recordings as I present sound the way I hear it within an environment or space.
I find that the issue of reference and specificity presents itself to me within live performance and installation environments. As an artist using field work as a significant component of my practice, I find the idea of a live performance quite an anxious one. One event that comes to mind was the exhibition Waveforms 09 at Heaven Gallery, Chicago. There was a range of work from artists including kinetic sculpture, video installations and a program of performances by artists. The sound performances were all of an abstract nature using synthesizing and constructed objects and instruments with one exception. The artist Bethany Childs collaborated with a poet by accompanying her spoken word with a composition of field recordings mirroring the dialogue. I found this work to be the most interesting and challenging, as I was presented with various sounds to work through and to assign a context and meaning related to the spoken word.
I find that I am fascinated and drawn to the beauty within field work, and with the sound remaining as it is within the real world.
www.bethanychilds.blogspot.com
