Jiachen Li – Page 9 – BA Sound art

Spatialisation for Installation and Performance week 5

This week was about setting music to a fragment of a landscape, and it was a group collaboration. The first thing was to draw a sketch based on an idea, and this is our group’s sketch. This sketch was not just a random drawing; we folded the piece of paper and drew lines along where the paper was folded. The lines are drawn in different ways (solid or dashed) to express the height of the sound, whether it is a background sound or a subject. The same lines divide the whole drawing into different parts, which can be played with different instruments or devices. We discussed this a lot and then started to choose our instruments. At first, I wanted to choose a ukulele, but I found out that some people in the group had chosen to pick an instrument, and also that some people were going to sing with a microphone, so I chose a secondary instrument in case there was the main melody. This is it (P 2). I’m not quite sure what this is exactly, but it feels a lot like a finer roll of film. It sounds like a sand hammer in the water or the sound of waves. I also chose it because I thought it sounded hazy and I could imagine it as a fog sound.

I’ve been exposed to immersive sound before, but I’ve listened to it through headphones. The immersive sound is very interesting to me, especially when it’s me playing it. The group was randomly assembled; we hadn’t worked together before, and there was no rehearsal before we played. It was kind of a live performance, but I think it worked well together. It was a bit of a free and random performance that made the sound of nature.

Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReuKgv75A1w

I chose the movie named Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. The film is adapted from a novel. When I research this film, I found that the movie had two versions. One was from 1971 (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and the other was from 2005 (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). I combine the two versions. After watching all of the movies, I finally chose the 2005 version. Because I think its pictures have better visual effects than the 1971 version. And comparing the music of the two versions, the 1971 version is more inclined to individual singing, while the 2005 version is indeed a chorus.

” One of the biggest differences between Willy Wonka and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is that the first one is a musical, with Wonka himself and other characters breaking into songs (such as “Pure Imagination” and “The Candy Man”), whereas in the second film it’s only the Oompa-Loompas who have their musical numbers. In the 1971 film, the Oompa-Loompas’ songs are puzzles, and Burton’s version was truer to the book as Danny Elfman took the songs directly from the novel.”

Tyler, A., 2021. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory: How 2005’s Movie Remake Compares To The Original. [online] ScreenRant. Available at: <https://screenrant.com/charlie-chocolate-factory-willy-wonka-2005-1971-comparison-differences/amp/> [Accessed 24 October 2021].

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70028883?source=35

I also chose another film, which was called Howl’s Moving Castle. The film is really nice and is easy to add some pure music. But it has too much dialogue. I might have to do some editing of this movie if I choose it.

NikNak

Nicole Raymond (NikNak), an Oram Award-winning and history-making storyteller, is dedicated to furthering her distinctive profession as a DJ & Turntablist, sound artist/composer, producer, instructor, sound engineer, and radio presenter. She is also an outspoken supporter of varied representation in the music business, particularly in the domains of DJ/Turntablism culture and music creation, as well as artist well-being and mental health. Nicole is based in the United Kingdom, where she can be found searching for vinyl or comic books, performing, experimenting, and sharing her musical interests with a wide range of audiences, teaching students how to DJ, and organizing/curating events such as “Dub Sirens” and “Melanin.” Nicole has also performed at festivals such as Live Art Bistro’s Wilderness Festival, Handmade Festival, Chin Up Festival, We Out Here Festival, Leeds International Festival, World Island Festival, Algorave Festival, House of Verse’s Brighton Fringe Festival, Leeds Digital Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, Marsden Jazz Festival, and Tor Fest. NikNak is also a part of TC and the Groove Family, as well as The Belgrave House Band. Demon FM, Sable Radio, Worldwide FM, Balamii Radio, BBC Radio Leeds, and KMAH Radio are among the radio stations where she has made appearances.

Because of the lecture I learned more from NikNak and view her project on her own website. I really like this one which is named Sound Generator. Artists could use Sound generators to create the project. NikNak used a few months to create the experimental electronic music. I think the experimental electronic music is very cool and is one type of experiment music. Maybe I can do some research of this.

Nast, C., 2021. Venice Biennale invites artist Shilpa Gupta to showcase two installations. [online] Architectural Digest India. Available at: <https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/venice-biennale-shilpa-gupta-installations/> [Accessed 19 November 2021].

Cedrik Fermont

Since 1989, Cedrik Fermont has worked in the fields of electro-acoustic noise, electronic, experimental, and improvised music as a composer, musician, mastering engineer, author, independent researcher, concert organizer, and curator. He was born in Zaire, Democratic Republic of Congo, but spent most of his childhood in Belgium. And he is currently residing in Germany. Cedric, publishes and promotes electronic experimental and noisy music from Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent Latin America, through his label and platform in Berlin. His publications are primarily about Asian and African music. Power through networking, redefining the underground electronic experimental music scenes in East and Southeast Asia, and an introduction to electro-acoustic noise and experimental music in Asia and Africa. A book written and edited together with to be true. Della file, which won the Golden Nica Prize in the art, electronic and digital music, and sand art category.

He did a lot of electro-acoustic music or acousmatic music. For my SS&SA assignment, I also wanted to do something related to experimental music. So I listened to a lot of the music he made and my favorite was this one, which has everyday sounds and electronic music in it. It sounds very harmonious.

After listening to the lecture, I think he is a person who likes to challenge new things. And not someone who would bring a label to himself. He would try a lot of genres of music. I think it’s good to learn more and understand more types of music. It’s a fun process to explore and to develop your own style of performance along the way.

Syrphe.com. n.d. Syrphe :: electronic & experimental music | sound installations | soundtracks | mastering. [online] Available at: <http://syrphe.com/c-drik.html> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

Sam Auinger

Sam Auinger is a composer, sound artist, and sonic thinker. He collaborates with city planners and architects, gives lectures, and attends international symposiums on urban planning, architecture, media, and the senses on a regular basis. From 2008 to 2012, he was a visiting professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where he directed the Experimental Sound Design department of the Sound Studies Master Program. He is currently a Harvard Graduate School of Design associate. He’s been collaborating with composer Bruce Odland as O+A since 1989, investigating the fundamental issue of hearing perspective. Their sound installations in public spaces are famed for transforming city noise into harmony in real-time. He’s also a founding member of stadtmusik, a collaboration involving Berlin-based composers Sam Auinger and Hannes Strobl and Dietmar Offenhuber, a media artist and urbanist.

This is one of the projects he mentioned in the lecture. I was very interested in this project. I sometimes really feel that art is another way of expressing science. O+A is a collaboration between Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger. The soundscape of New York Harbor was re-tuned into a harmonic series by this temporary installation, which was combined by the moon and tides. It reintroduced visitors to the natural world, including tide and moon cycles, as well as the rhythms and might of modern city transportation. With music, light, and street furniture, Harvard Design School’s 5 cube loudspeakers changed the social interaction on the plaza for O+A.

I thought it was really interesting to combine art and technology. He also explained some of the principles of the device in the lecture. I didn’t fully understand it at first, but then I went back and listened to it again and thought it was incredible. It really takes a lot of knowledge and a certain amount of inspiration to make it.

Q&A

What draws you to work with urban spaces?

Cities have kind of a vivid narrative that they have vivid communication and discussion. And to make myself somehow competent for this discourse, I think you need to have experience (of City).

Auinger, S., Schulze, H., Schulze, H., Schulze, H., Schulze, H., Schwesinger, S., Schulze, H., Schulze, H. and Schulze, H., n.d. Sam Auinger, Author at. [online] Soundstudieslab.org. Available at: <http://www.soundstudieslab.org/author/sam-auinger/> [Accessed 6 December 2021].
BLUE MOON 2004, O+A, Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger. 2021. .

Sound Studies and Aural Cultures 1*

I think this documentary gives me a strong sense of substitution. From the soundtrack to the narration to the picture, every detail fits very well. In this documentary, I have a few favorite parts. The first one is about 1 minute and 25 seconds. The sound of footsteps and shoe soles rubbing against stones are heard from the screen, and the camera slowly moves down to aim at the stairs. The visual picture and sound cooperate with each other to have a sense of reality. And I really like to hear the sound of footsteps when walking on different roads.

At about 4 minutes and 32 seconds, the voice of the narration reverberated as if standing in an empty factory. The sound was refracted by the wall. The same sound effects based on the picture also occur at around 9 minutes 13 and 9 minutes 28. I think this is really interesting.

After that, there’s a lot of symmetry and a lot of detail in this documentary. The background sounds and voiceovers are also good, and many of the sounds are very interesting. I can learn a lot from it.

Spatialisation for Installation and Performance 1*

This is my idea. I wanted to make a 4.0 surround sound audio track and be surrounded by sound (light blue). Those coloured lines represent sounds. I think these lines are like Morse code, which records the rhythm of all the sounds, or what instruments should be added to each beat. It looks very convenient. The different colour lines also represent different musical instrument types.

Sound for Screen 1*

How sound is used in relation to point of view and story ?

The first is people’s imagination of the sound (when the sound may be more than the picture). For example, at the beginning of “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (31 seconds), a film-like picture appears. At this time, you can hear the sound of the film showing in the background, and white space (about 6s) is used to remind viewers that the film is about to be shown. The title appeared in the 37-second picture, and the sound effect of the LED light emphasized the picture. In 44 seconds, the screen shows the curtain blown by the wind, but the background sound is still the sound of the film projection, which seems to have no relationship. However, as the camera keeps closing, the background sound gradually becomes larger and accompanied by the sound of the next screen, which gives people a certain space for imagination and hints. With a roar (1 minute and 19 seconds), the two scenes are separated. In about 2 minutes and 59 seconds, the picture is facing a mass of red water, but the sound is very rich (including the sound of water, voices, and Musical Instruments), giving people more space for imagination, but it is not completely divorced from the picture that the audience sees.

The second is the correlation between sound and picture. This connection gives us a sense of reality, a sound we can hear every day. Like the noise of the crowd, breathing, medicine falling on the floor, people walking on the floor, doors opening and doors closing, birds singing. It gives a strong sense of authenticity and is easy to relate to the story.

Personal Creative Project 6*

This work is very different from my previous works. In this semester’s project, most of my works pay more attention to melody than art, so I get something completely different when I emphasize art. It’s a strange feeling. I’ve been very programmed in the last few projects, but this time I feel like I care more about my feelings. I add the sounds that I hear to it, more abstract than a traditional melody.

I want to tell a story through this work, hoping that it will exist independently rather than assist the visual effect. After hearing my work, my friends were also amazed because they always thought my major was music production, not sound art. One of my friends said, “She thought it was complete. It didn’t sound like the soundtrack for a movie or a TV show. She has many feelings about the song and recalls watching Peking Opera with her grandfather when she was a child.” I found her description very interesting and got a lot of surprises from the communication with her.

I don’t know how this work works because it is the first time I try this kind of sound with no melody. I always feel a little nervous, but I’m pleased with this one. I also went to many places to record while I was working on it, and I also found a lot of recordings from a long time ago that sound very interesting now.
Because this semester is all offline teaching, so I participated in a lot of activities. I came into contact with a lot of new things and learned a lot of new knowledge. When I was in high school, my band teacher said that music was “organized the sound.” Looking back now seems to be able to understand this sentence better. Similarly, I also hope to do better in the next project and continue to try something new (such as experimental music). In short, I have learned a lot this semester, but at the same time, I suddenly have new ideas about what I want to learn in the future. Before, I wanted to know where the music arrangement was, but now I think art is also exciting.

Personal Creative Project 5*

score

I recorded a lot of sound material, such as the sound of radio changing channels, the sound of Peking Opera artists singing, the sound of trains and so on.

This is the score of the theme. I found out that the library band can generate an electronic score, so I wrote it directly on the software.

This time I used new software, and its interface was straightforward. I think it has fewer features than other music production software and mostly simpler ones. But the good thing is that the page is pretty clean, and this time I have a lot of audio snippets. So this time, AU is perfectly sufficient.
Au also has some convenient features. I need most of the sound effects of the recorder for my audio.