Sound installation: Blurring the boundaries of the Eye, the Ear, Space and Time (original) (raw)
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Sound and media installations are rarely considered from a time-based, formal perspective. In order to enable a greater understanding of temporal form in sound installations, I suggest a cross-disciplinary adaptation of musical form to the installation context. Due to the differences between concert and installation presentation practices – including, but not limited to, the increased agency of the mobile visitor – I re-examine form in installation contexts as the particular temporal experience co-produced by the first-person subject as they navigate in, through and out of the work’s frame. By applying this musical perspective to macro-scale formal structures, a set of tools and concepts become available for the analysis of temporal form in existing sound or audiovisual installations. Using practice-based observation and analysis, I describe several compositional strategies through which musical concepts of material and form can be extended in space and time: each of these strategies provides means with which to shape or constrain the visitor’s co-production of experiential form. Finally, I discuss several strategies that can be used for the creation of large-scale form, with particular reference to algorithmic design principles used in my recent audiovisual installation, Room Dynamics.
The expansion of sound sculpture and sound installation in art
In this paper I study the interaction between sound and art, its development in time, and its behavior in different acoustic spaces. I will concentrate on the concepts of sound sculpture and sound installation, and on their aesthetic implications. I will analyze how they are to be found in a new expanded field. The works studied here belong to an interdisciplinary realm (often called sound art, time based art, and intermedia art), placed between the music and visual arts fields. Different types of contexts that will be examined affect these works. I will analyze sound in its paradigmatic relation to space and time. Finally, I will propose different sound organization techniques for the creation of sound installations. I hope that through this research, I will be able to understand better the complexity of these “new” possible sound aesthetic languages that bring new paradigms about our perception and understanding of sound and its relationship with visual art and other media.
Installation Art as Audible Spaces
What if the sound of music turns into a massive object and takes its position in a three dimensional space? Are there any correspondences between listening to music and looking at an artwork that spreads throughout its place? In the modern era, artists attempted to expand the dimensions of aural and visual art works. Thereby, art as a spatial and temporal phenomenon needed a new kind of approach describing it more broadly within an extensive cross-modal context. Breaking down the boundaries between different art forms opened up new perspectives for existing arts and it made the development of new art forms, such as installation art, possible. In an interdisciplinary sense, art began to appeal not only to the eye or the ear but also provided a perceptual site for grasping the conception of the work as a whole. This paper examines installation art as a total sensory experience. Focusing on object-space relationship, it aims to consider musical process and the way it shapes space in a temporal manner. In this context examples by Füsun Onur will be analyzed in terms of their rhythmic orders and musical conceptions. Füsun Onur is an exceptional sculpture-based contemporary Turkish artist whose thinking in spatial dimensions parallels the idea of music since 1970s.
Body, Space & Technology, 2011
This paper proposes reflections of an ongoing nature about the relationship of sound, image, and movement in art. Following a range of productions from stage choreographies to dance films, CD-ROMs and interactive-generative installations to videoclips and multimedia scenographies for dance and music, practical experience has shown that what may be seen as standard and complimentary elements of much contemporary interdisciplinary creation, in fact prove to offer a gamut of very different creative potentialities with each new project. This said, the question of interdisciplinary practice has also been occulted in recent years by artistic fervour and fascination surrounding digital productions that propose "new" sensorial experiences. While artists and critics alike are keen to assert how it is the technologies themselves that are responsible for "augmenting", "embodying" or "interfacing" sensorial experiences in art, the basic configuration of sound, image, and movement nevertheless remains a constitutive parameter of most productions, be they specifically digital, interactive, generative or not. Revisiting the nature of interdisciplinary creation today can be approached from various angles, for example, from the point of view of new spatial and temporal propositions or new hybridities in art. This paper chooses to look at interdisciplinarity from the perspective of intersensoriality, immersion and environment, taking as its principal reference Paroles trouvées, an installation I created in 2007 with French composer Dominique Besson and scenographer Olivier Koechlin. Conceived as a composite work involving three intertwined scores, musical, videochoreographical and optical, the interdisciplinary elements here combine in a novel way in the work's reception. Highlighting theoretical and practical issues of relevance and referring to a selection of immersive works in a brief historical overview, the paper also addresses questions of scoring, presence, interiority, texture, scale, intertextuality, and vibration.
2007
In this paper we study the interaction between sound and the visual arts, its development in time, and its behavior in different acoustic spaces. We will concentrate on the concept of sound sculpture and sound installation, and on their aesthetic implications. The works analyzed belong to an interdisciplinary realm (often called sound art, time based art, and intermedia art), placed between the music and visual arts field. Different types of contexts that will be analyzed affect these works. Finally, we propose different sound organization techniques for the creation of sound installations. We hope that through this research, we will be able to understand better the complexity of these “new” sound aesthetic languages that also bring new paradigms about our perception and understanding of sound and its relationship with other media. Note: The original paper submitted as a long paper had to be edited as a demo paper and is note complete here. F o r t h e f u l l p a p e r p l e a s e ...
The Placement of Sound in Artistic Contexts
There are a range of compositional approaches and techniques to consider when producing work of a sonic nature; from decisions about source material and location, to set-up configurations and sound diffusion. The presented case studies will examine approaches taken by the composer for indoor and outdoor spaces and discuss the artistic intention of each piece within a specified space. The case study examples will range from contemporary theatrical sound designs to sound art performance and audio-visual installations. Comparisons will be made between the various disciplines of sound art in relation to theatre sound in order to seek common ground and the suggestion of a sharing of practice.
Towards the Spatial: Music, Art, and the Audiovisual Environment
Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music, 2013
The audiovisual history charted in chapter two is here revoiced in terms of spatial expansion. It is argued that video technology did not initiate a new form of creative engagement with its performance spaces, but rather represented the peak of a spatial expansion that had been gathering pace throughout the twentieth century. As musicians explored their spatial parameters and artists included time in their work, attention was drawn to traditional viewing and listening procedures. Drawing on the theories of László Moholy-Nagy, Siegfried Giedion, Christopher Small and Brian O’Doherty, this chapter compares the conventions of gallery exhibition and display, viewing procedures and audience behaviour with the customs and aesthetics of listening in the traditional concert hall. Performance and installation art, aleatoric music and communal composition are used to propose a theory of spatialised creativity, audience activation and performativity.
With one eye on: Viewing a sound installation
The Soundtrack, 2010
In recent years, the term 'sound installation' has been created and deployed to describe a variety of interdisciplinary artwork that, in one way or another, involves the phenomenon of sound. Sometimes, we encounter a piece of sound installation that seeks to heighten our auditory experience by removing any visual references. 1 More often, we 'see' a piece of sound installation that incorporates visual elements that may or may not have direct relationship to the sound itself. It can be listened to through headphones to create an intimate relationship with the viewer/listener. Or it can be presented in a cacophonous manner that drives some viewers/listeners away whilst appealing to others. In any case, there is always the role of space that hosts the existence of sound. The concept of space can be seen as one of the fundamental elements within the art of sight and sound. Therefore, in this article, by reflecting upon my own practice, I will explore the concept of space within the structure of sound installation, and the interdependent relationship of elements of sight and sound by drawing upon the tradition of electro-acoustic music and installation art.
Text and Performance Quarterly, 2022
This research focuses on the invisible space built by sound as subject of study, developing through a practice-based methodology a creative process during a residency period in the Spatial Sound Institute (SSI), mainly to investigate the sound features of non-existing architectures. The process ended with a performance that invited listeners to experience a deeper awareness of perception for reaching spaces that exceed the limits of physical possibilities. In this sense, active listening becomes fundamental, not only for forming a personal interpretation of this expanded reality, but for creating soundspaces from a performative experience.