Category: Uncategorised

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)

x 1 projector

Gallery 6

1. How do you want to introduce your audience to the subject?

I would like an immediate introduction to qawwali music, possibly the usual introduction of a form of the music itself playing as it begins for around 15-20 seconds. I would also like to recite a Rumi poem right after as a sonically creative way to bring in the aesthetic paper itself.

2. What instructions are required?

I’m not sure if there will be any specific ‘instructions’ I will follow per se. I will try to separate the audio paper into a concise beginning, middle and end.

Beginning: A short intro into qawwali and its roots (1 mins)

from the evolutions of the ghazal, qawaalis sufi traditions

migration and mix of turkish ney and of persian ghazal, and sufi poetry to the indian subcontinent

amir khusro creating an amalgamation of indigenous musical traditions with the sufi traditions of poetry in the 20th century. Brung together different factions and religious through the music, building communities together.

Middle: The popularisation of qawwali (3 mins)

End: How it affects the perceptions of the genre and an outro (3 mins)

3. Identify what your goals are for the audio paper in terms of the information you want to share:

My goals for the audio paper are to unearth and inform my audience of the practice of qawwali as a form of music, as well as its commercialisation and popularisation into popular domains and how that has changed or formed the way it sounds today compared to its original roots.

4. What approaches to the ways of listening can be incorporated to support your goals and the representation of the subject of your audio paper?

I would like the audio paper to be formal but as interesting as it is informative. The use of panning and stereo listening could come in handy to further enhance the representation of the genre of music I am trying to present.

Possibly include interviews from family and friends.

One of the first ideas that came to mind for my audio scripts was something to do with Qawali. I remember having conversations about Qawali music briefly with my family – they talked about it with such passion, it piqued my interest. I loved the rhythm and raw authentic energy – but never really connected to it, mainly because the lyrics were difficult for me to understand.

Fast forward a few months, and I started getting really into Turkish Ney music from the whirling dervish videos on youtube – I began to lookup more forms of Islamic music after a few aural culture lessons and once again stumbled upon Qawali – this time a video in Morroco with the group Fana-Fil-Allah.

I think as someone who is both a part of the culture that produces Qawali as well as someone who is also very detached from, It will be very interesting to see what direction I take in terms of expository or performative reflection. I will also need to consider how my own cultural biases will come into play when talking about music and culture as a whole. In this way, I believe I can be ethnographically accurate, as well as informative.