My sound work draws inspiration from the altered Nixon speech using documented archived material to shift a narrative created by Coleman Barks of an altered, changed and orientalised Rumi. I want to create a stereo piece, with each channel representing voices as as both original Persian poetry performance and Coleman barks’ performance almost “fight” to gain control of the central sonic field.
I initially wanted to create something of an audio documentary, as I did with my project on Qawwali, with it being informative and enlightening. However as I continued to find performances of Coleman Barks, I wanted to leave my voice out of it, choosing to opt for a slightly more abstract piece that relies on the audience’s thought, and although arguably biased already, the removal of my voice reduces this. My main objective with the piece is to remove myself as an authoritative voice and allow the sonic medium, cuts and edits to speak. I have used panning as well as spatialisation techniques to separate the two voices within the piece, representing voices “fighting” for representation and to be heard. It demonstrates the nature of which the poetry is seen in the world and how it must go through layers to be eventually heard.
