“Sound art installations come in various forms, and this metallic ball piece is an excellent example of how something so simple can be transformed into a masterpiece. Trend Hunter Kamal Musharbash talks here about the piece, titled The Wave of Matter. This modern artwork makes the sound of waves when pushed back and forth, creating a calming effect.“
I really like how much of a visual piece this is, it combines both senses so well, blending a harmonic synthesis of both visual and sonic coherence which is what seems to create the calmness of the piece. It is both as visually satisfying as it is sonically.
“For our project, we created a Nature-Themed Interactive Installation containing both audio and visual elements. Our team of four was split up based on our strengths having two people on the technical side (Adam Alcock and Henry Fulton) and the musical/compositional side (Ioana șelaru https://www.instagram.com/selaruioana/ and Rudraksh Bhateja). This is a proof of concept video to show the potential to make an immersive environment for the public at a music festival or art gallery space. We created this project as part of our collaborative practice module at Leeds Beckett Headingley Campus.”
Another very interactive/interaction based soundart installation using a (as described in the video) “relatable” object – a plant to create interaction. What I really like about the installation as a whole was the thought process and the technicality that went into the process of its creation. In many ways – it felt both as organic as planting a tree but as synthesised and calculated as building a machine.
This video is my first introduction to the concept of “sonic fiction”.A compilation Sound art created through the coronavirus pandemic presents the idea of a dystopian future through sound. A really enjoy how the installations have very abstract descriptions allowing the audience to come up with their own conclusion – perhaps a play on the agency of the audience within a dystopia?
“The listener sits at the middle of four pipes, which are hit by motors producing percussive patterns. Four recordings were taken with a microphone pointing at each one of the cardinal points, at different times of the day; the pipes’ length is tuned to the corresponding “keynote” of the soundscape. The rhythm is also derived from an analysis of the sound attacks in the recordings. Made with Arduino Uno, 4x solenoids, 12x Pipes”
I think one thing that strikes me the most about this is how sonically different it is to the environments soundscape. The percussive nature of the installation seems to fight against the background. This could easily have been in a gallery space – a clear intention was made to put this in a place where the dynamic percussion stood out.
“An analysis of experiential form can also extend beyond the perceptual categories of loudness and clarity. For instance, the act of walking towards a speaker contains a psychological dimension: the visitor is encouraged (due to the lack of barriers in the room) to explore an unfamiliar environment until arriving at the object of attention and investigating it from a more intimate perspective. Depending on the placement of the speaker, various experiential affects can be afforded: pressing one’s ear against a speaker reproducing quiet sounds and mounted at head-height is considerably more intimate than looking up at an inaccessible (and perhaps imposing) speaker mounted overhead.“
A look at the way in which speaker placement affects the way in which the audience interacts with the sound installation provides a contextual more 3-dimensional image and narrative of gallery space than one might initially perceive. Where the speaker is placed in relation to the initial introduction of the piece to the listener affects the way in which the piece is perceived – as well as the way the listener moves/does not move. This is different to say a performance space, where the listener is more than likely fixed in one postion from the sets inception to its end.
“Due to limited time in the installation space, it is unlikely most visitors will perceive macro-scale developmental arc structures in full. Rather, depending on the temporal frame enacted by the visitor –the points at which they choose to enter and leave the installation, as well as the elapsed duration of their stay –most will only perceive fragments of macro-level structures.“
The duration in which the listener stays in the space is also important. The agency of the listener extends to how long they will stay in the gallery space as much as theyre interaction with the peice. The listener is also in a way a consumer – how much the listener ‘consumes’ the art within a set period of time can be vital to the peices exposure.
“Twelve tuned (brandy) glasses are mounted on MIDI controllable turntables, creating a playable/ scriptable mechanical acoustic instrument with beautiful polyphonic voice.“
The use of water here is what attracted me to the piece the most as well as the way the glasses become MIDI controlled instruments for a live performance. The use of an everyday object creates a mystical orchestra.
What I really love about this installation is the way in which the artist gives a ‘synesthesia-like’ visual colour to the frequency of the sounds produced. There is a binary separation of tones and colours that create a really surreal energy and atmosphere. The use of a phone to create interaction is also really nifty, allowing the audience to create different shades.
A really unique, interaction-based sound installation creating a contagiously happy environment. It’s funny, positive, light-hearted yet sonically really intuitive. It feels really refreshing to see something so simple and casual in a world of very uppity art. The piece not only blends physically within the nature-based space but also sonically as if the other participants laughing are not only a reaction but a part of the piece itself.
” Using simple and functional components, Zimoun builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, his installations incorporate commonplace industrial objects. In an obsessive display of simple and functional materials, these works articulate a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. Carrying an emotional depth, the acoustic hum of natural phenomena in Zimoun’s minimalist constructions effortlessly reverberates.“
I find the minimal simplicity yet technical complexity of these pieces incredible. The repetition on the first one causes a rain-like patter – the textures of each piece and what it hits displaying an immense importance to the sonic nature of the peice. Each different one can be clammer, patter, spit but each one has a resonating pattern of repetition that creates an environment of immersive listening.
Above: above: representation of stereo (1) and quad (2) formation as a visual graphic score
the main aim I set out to achieve for my installation is to create a piece that explores the nature of listening from behind in a surround space. I want to use both spatial and film sound techniques to emphasise the differences between a stereotypical frontal stereo listening formation and a wide oppositional, surround formation. After listening to examples of surround pieces that made use of the octophonic ring, through 8 channel speaker formations whilst making use of the doppler effect, circular movement, and momentum-based rhythms, I wanted to see what a more rigid surround piece based upon solely listening in front of you and behind you would sound.
Although my piece seem like a 6.1 formation, I still like to think of it making use of all 8 channels with the speakers not playing sound just as important as the ones that are. This creates a separation, creating a further departure from the average surround piece that would want the audience to feel the sound moving around them. As well as separation in terms of channels, there is a separation with frequencies and tonalities. Higher pitched sounds come from the front, with the lower, more bass heavy tonalities coming from behind. This is based upon film techniques by sound designers such as Wendy Carlos, where the bass is used to slowly build up tension. Using such disparate tonalities allows for a more binary projection of the pieces spatialisation.
Above is the original idea I had which after testing has developed into a more concise version below.
There will also be a visual element, where I will create a projection of the graphic score as the piece progresses through the use of generative art in a blacked-out room to further develop meditative and immersive listening.
Tech Specifications:
x 8 Large speakers (possibly 6 large and 2 small)
x 2 Raspberry Pi (one for video and one for the speakers)
