One of my modules this year was called 'Noises, Sounds, Gestures' and we recently had to hand in a final portfolio of all of our electroacoustic work we'd been doing this year. This project was a small part of my portfolio.
"This project is motivated by
the consideration of the relationship between the sonic and visual worlds, and
the concept behind how one world could represent another. I was inspired by the
idea of a ‘Soundaroid’, which works like a Polaroid camera, but instead of
capturing a perfectly defined image, it catches a visual representation of the
1 minute of sound it just recorded. I like the idea that we can’t see sound,
and that we can only judge the beauty of it just by listening. I was interested
in the idea of visual representations of sounds, and in turn sonic
representations of visual objects.
My
idea was to use photographs I had taken as graphic scores, and create a sonic
world inspired by the image in front of me. As I began to think about my
project more, I decided that it would be hard to take these photographs without
my choice of composition being influenced by an idea of how I wanted my sound
world to take shape. Instead, I decided to use photographs that I already had
hidden away in the depths of my room, on my computer, in my desk drawers, and
on my phone. I am a hoarder by nature. I think it stems from always being
creative from a young age as my mother refused to buy anything for my sisters
and I that was large and plastic, and instead encouraged us to make the things
we saw in TV commercials ourselves. I became a magpie as a child, collecting
anything and everything that I could use to make and decorate my creations. Now,
still, I find myself amassing objects that I find myself drawn to, or treasuring
objects that others would usually just throw away.
Every
photograph that I have chosen for this project is one most people would have
usually discarded, as when I took it, it was not a faultless image of the
moment I was trying to capture, and therefore did not serve the purpose it was
taken for. However, I found that if I took each image out of that context, and
considered it as an entity in itself, I uncovered a hidden beauty I had not
noticed before. Looking at the photographs now, I only have a vague
recollection of where they might have been taken, what I was doing, and who the
hazy ghostly figures might be. The strange etherealness of the images seemed so
tangible, yet so lost in the haste and bustle of life and the world we live in,
a world so disturbed by the capability of technology and the constant strive
for perfection. In this media age, and for my generation, there is an
overwhelming need to document our lives in perfect clarity. These photographs exemplified to me that if we
take the time to stop, and engage, we’ll see what we are missing as we rush on
by.
These
images were no longer useless photographs, soon to be deleted and replaced by another
in a matter of seconds; they now had an extraordinary splendour in themselves.
I became interested in the distortion and the way my movement, and the movement
of my surrounding had been captured by the smudges of light and colour. The fog
and tonal depth of the images seemed to suggest a sonic world, and by choosing
three images, which worked together as a set, I created my graphic scores.
From each graphic score, I
studied in detail how the rhythm of light and the pulse of the colours moved
over the three images. I tried to draw out elements in each photograph which
hinted towards the moment it was captured - the hazy blushes of colour, the
distorted shapes and layering of objects, the suggestion of human form - and
thought about the relationship between each image and the next, to create a
sonic identity unique to those set of images."
1. Tinnalilt
For ‘Tinnalilt’, I focussed
on smaller, more tonal sounds that are drawn out and heard through the ‘mist’.
The images together have a feeling of something being obscured behind a
smokescreen, of concepts in the dark that are just that little too far away to
grasp. The light strokes in the first image are reflected in the more sinewy
and whispery sounds of a prepared guitar, whereas the haze in the second image
is heard in the darker rumbling static. The large orbs of colour in the final
image spoke to me as a form of cadence, drawing the piece to a close.
2. Rumour
‘Rumour’ draws on the idea
of the perception human form in the sonic and visual worlds. As humans
ourselves, the human form is easily recognisable to us, and the same goes for
the human voice. In he middle image in particular, what at first looks like
smoky globes of light, at a closer inspection can actually be recognised at two
faces. In the sonic world I created in response to these images, I used a lot
of recordings of the human voice, which, although edited, can still be
recognised as a ‘voice’. I found it interesting how difficult it was to try and
detach the sound humans make from our instant knowledge of its source and the
perception of it being a ‘voice’, rather than just a ‘sound’. Instead of
battling with this, I embraced it as a concept to benefit creating a sonic
response.
3. Halcyon
hal·cy·on
n.
1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon.
2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher,
that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it
nested on the sea during the winter solstice.
adj.
1. Calm and peaceful; tranquil.
2. Prosperous; golden: halcyon years.
4. Twinpulse
‘Twinpulse’ was inspired by
the idea of two similar things interacting. The light dabs in the first image
reminded me of a DNA chain, where there are two strands that twist with
connecting ladder-steps between them. The flecks of light seemed to suggest to
me a twisting form. In the second image, I liked the tonal contrast between
bright light, fading light and the pitch-black background. This ‘laser beam’
seems to split into two wing-like forms, though we can only see a suggestion of
the second and furthest away wing as we are viewing it from a peculiar angle.
The final image shows two thick bands of light that cross over one another. The
energy and suggestion of a progression of movement in this image attracted me,
and I was interested in how studying one of the bands of light affected how
bright the other appeared. I tried to experiment with this idea by continuing
two ‘twin pulses’ throughout the track, and playing off the idea that if you
ear latches onto one, the other is heard differently.
5. Whorled
These images have a strong
sense of circular movement. The smudges of light seem to spin in and out of
focus as you look at the two photographs as a pair. I tried to create a sound
world that reflected this feeling of infinite spinning and motion in and out of
darkness and light. The different timbres and pitches represent the tonal
depths of the colours of the lights, and the layers of the sounds mirrors the
layering of these colours as they ‘whirl’.
