soundart
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Month: January 2022

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Suiting the Voice To The Aesthetic

Podcasts are episodic series of audio files. As the term developed I realised the scale of different genres involving podcasts. During my radio project, I realised the importance of the voice. A human voice is a key instrument that many many people begin to forget. When recording a podcast or audio project the voice must fit the aesthetic and theme of the piece. Like an electric guitar to a rockbound, the vocal aspect is a jigsaw puzzle in the overall performance. When the voice is less suited I found that layering the piece with sound effects and different levels became a way of masking this. However, when the vocals are suited, the piece only needs minimalistic sounds added on top for effectiveness. In future, I will consider this and ensure that my vocals used are always suited to the aesthetic of my art piece.

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First Year Sound Artists Thinking & Doing Sound

Soundscaping:

Soundscaping is an acoustic environment made by sound to imitate an environment for humans. This was first coined by the Canadian composer Murray Schafer in the 1960s. Schafer was a naturalist composer who centred his work around realism. I took inspiration from Schafer’s work; he quoted “A soundscape is any collection of sounds like a painting is a collection of visual actions”. This can be fascinating, I believe it’s possible to portray any type of environment even better than a composed piece of music can. By capturing a sense of reality soundscaping serves me as the composer an opportunity to immerse the listener into my work. Playing with realism makes the listener believe they are the main character immersed by the feelings the composer is trying to create. When creating my audio podcast I chose to use soundscaping throughout the entire piece. I aimed to create the most realistic performance possible. Adding narrative audio on top will make the story clear and effective, almost as if the listener can paint the story inside their heads. As I continued this creative process I found that the more immersive the piece – the more it affected it became to the listener.

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Stereo + Panning Throughout Radio

When working with radio projects I discovered the importance of panning and stereophonic sound. Stereophonic allows the listener to hear a piece from a human’s most natural form – multi-directional! Despite first being used in 18881 in Paris with several telephone transmissions, stereo-only became popular when it first aired on radio in 1961. This then got used in the late 1960s / ’70s during the psychedelic movement within the music. Famously bands such as Pink Floyd showcased this as normality on many of their albums.

In my experience, I have found that panning allows the most immersive experience possible. It adds another dimension to the sound which creates room for the listener to become truly immersed. Creating sound which reverts to a human’s natural state of hearing makes the piece realistic. This realism leaves the listener vulnerable to feeling and provokes certain emotions throughout the performance. When creating car sounds in my piece I could pan these to create a realistic vision of cars passing. I find this useful as it gives me chance to shatter reality and create a more atmospheric effect on the listeners’ mood and feelings. In future, I will always make my art pieces in stereo due to such success.

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Impressionism and Expressionism within music:

During a lecture, I recently learned the differentiation between Expressionism and Impressionism. Impressionistic music first took its spin on music in 1918. Being a sound that is not trying to grab the listener attention and aims to fit a mood or aesthetic. Theodore Adorno stated “eliminate all of traditional music’s conventional elements, everything formulaically rigid. In contrast to expressionist music which presents different levels and pitches throughout the piece. 

Admittedly I came to realise that all the pieces I make and the most definite expressionist pieces of art. From this, I would like to experiment more with the field of impressionistic music. It fascinates me how despite there being fewer elements to attract your attention, it still holds the power to be something so atmospheric and moving. A blend of sounds can be as beautiful and thought-provoking as an expressionist can. Although within expressionism it is easier to create a specific mood with individual elements such as speed, pitch or instruments; impressionism leaves a space for the listener to reflect. Without their attention being constantly grabbed the free space and sound levels within the music send the listener into their self-reflection to provoke any mood they want. Its effects are more internal than expressionist. 

In the future, I hope to try and create more impressionist sound pieces and learn more examples. 

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First Year Sound Artists Thinking & Doing Sound Visiting Practitioners

The advancement of technology and how it has affected creative performance:

Christina Wheelers lecture made me reflect on her views on creative performance. Christina talked about the endless opportunities in which performance and sound art can be presented. She asked questions such as, where and how should the audience be positioned? Where should the performance be shown? How should they hear the sound, and where would the sound be played. In my previous blog posts, I have talked about the importance and effects spatiality can have upon sound; how the room in which sound is played is an additional instrument in itself. In a study by ‘Yueying Li’, she claims “an increasing number of theories and studies addressing spatial topics have argued that these two fields are closely linked and one would not be complete without the other”. Without exploring speciality your sound would have no uniqueness and space within the audio. I truly believe that this area has only been able to be truly explored due to the rise in technology. Before the 1900’s sound was limited and concert halls stood as the heart for live performance. This generic positioning of audience and performer has been able to outlive itself thanks to new realms of technological advancements. With arrays of speakers and microphones; sound can be heard from different directions meaning that the audience themselves can also change direction. The advancements in a film it has allowed a parallel for sound and can create artistic performances in any format or area.

Thanks to these advancements it has not only allowed space to affect the initial audio and recording it has also allowed effect to take place during performance. Experimenting with your surroundings can change the way in which the audience portrays your piece. I find this interesting as I believe it can add another layer to my work and create a more immersive experience. Vicky Bennet showed us a clear example with her exhibition performance ‘Gone, Gone Beyond 360’ where she incorporated the visuals of a 360-degree screen. After all, the way your listener views your piece is the most important aim of creating it in the first place. I hope to use this in future performances to capture a true aesthetic and mood in line with my artwork. It will help me go to that extra length of expanding the listeners mind and opening areas for them to feel my work rather than listen.

In conclusion advancements within technology have allowed room for us to break the barrier between audience and performer and create harmony for everyone to experience art at its fullest capability. The advancement of technology and how it has affected creative performance: