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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Category: Sound Artists
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:
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Halim El- Dabh
An Egyptian sound artist, who was a pioneer for electronic sound also known for his “musque concrete” and “electroacoustic” work. ‘Wire Recorded Piece’ was the earliest electronic piece of recorded tape music.