transitional spaces: these are in between spaces, liminal spaces - harbours, stations, corridors, usually have background sound or 'furniture sound' or music. the habitual listener only notices differences rather than monotonous sounds. airports: Brian Eno called this discreet music - music that is just meant to occupy the background, without too much feeling or emotion... Continue Reading →
experimental sound: buildings and urban space
recap: examples of sound art exploration includes 'I am Sitting in A Room' by Alvin Lucier where the room becomes a composer as it effects the frequencies generated. also, art/sound installations by Bernhard Leitner looks at sound as an architectural material, as sound gives you a complete sense of space/room - through sound the sense... Continue Reading →
experimental sound: how sound travels
how and why sound travels: the movement of people is the key drive about the evolvement of sound. the migration of people from rural life to urban life generates and evolves sound experience and production. it also allows sound and music to develop from different cultural origins. e.g. southern Moroccan group 'Archach', where the song... Continue Reading →
experimental sound: scores and notations
scores: scores can take many forms - e.g. text score, e.g. a little yellow book called 'grapefruit' by Yoko Ono. some are short and read like a poem which the viewer/reader can imagine and hear in their head. others have instructions which are the score for the piece - a set of instructions for a... Continue Reading →
some experiments with sound
experiments in sound: I took a recording of water dripping sound, and played with two different speeds playing against each other which run concurrently and sychronise at times and at other times do not, creating a rhythm of its own - an obvious nod to 'Steve Reich is Calling. I also played with layering different... Continue Reading →
project: playing with sound rules
project: explore different spaces and different contexts and understand what sound rules are at play there and what are interesting to you. decide what the rules are then play with the rules - invert the rules, add a rule, switch the rules from one place to another. consider frequency, density, perspective, density, the material frame,... Continue Reading →
bands and socially engaged art practice
some guest presenters jen delos reyes: this artist talks about social practice at the museum and beyond. galleries started to open up to the ideas of social practice and consider the gallery as a public space, and changing how people interact with the space, the art works and with each other. she is interested in... Continue Reading →
social conventions and sound rules
the hunk: played at different times, different tones/timbers and has a function - to alert to be noticed. frequency plays a role depending on the place/culture. a twice a day event. consider concurrency - what are you listening to, what comes together - several layers of sounds happening simultaneously. they might not be related to... Continue Reading →
the sound of athletes and traffic
the sound of athletes: grunting of tennis, weightlifters dropped weights, splashing of divers etc. - athletes and their environment create sound. all sports have rules - length of game, number of players, type of space - they can therefore be considered musical because they are organised, linear in time, and they use and create sound.... Continue Reading →
social practices: demonstrations and fan culture
(sound) demonstrations: how sound operates and transmits meaning in demonstrations and has agency for social change. check out 'air horn orchestra' where people gather in front of governmental buildings/people and play airhorns together for several hours. also consider silent marches - the first being in 1917 where people of colour demonstrated against their treatment by... Continue Reading →
duration, streaming and the studio as instrument
duration: this becomes increasingly important especially in relation to art as everyday life. art can be considered limited in its temporal frame yet life is continuous. many artists want to confuse or blur the difference between art and everyday life, often creating pieces that are long and have a challenging duration. 'the dream house' (1979)... Continue Reading →
timber, rhythm and synchronisation
timber: the sound of sound, the given textural quality of a sound - rough, smooth, glassy, sharp etc. take the note C, it sounds different on a keyboard, voice, trumpet etc although its pitch is the same. music artists play with timber all the time, and you will notice this in cover versions of songs... Continue Reading →
elaine crowe 