2 research outputs found
Variable 4: A Dynamical Composition for Weather Systems
Variable 4 is a multichannel sound installation that uses meteorological sensors and a multi-layered array of algorithmic processes to transform weather data into musical patterns in real time. This paper describes the work in detail, outlining its historical context, systems infrastructure and installation specifics. The piece is discussed in relation to sonification and environmental installation, and observations are made on the process of siting a complex sound work in the natural world
Sounding Materiality : Explorations In Resonant Practice
How might we explore material agency in sound arts practice to promote more
ecological ways of knowing our world? Through practice-based inquiry what
methodologies might emerge that can provide a framework for novel, open ways of
exploring the relation between sound and materiality?
Sounding Materiality is an account of arts research that works at the intra-face
(Barad 2000) of theory and practice. Through the critical analysis and portrayal of three
case-studies, the thesis contributes two novel sound practice techniques of âlive
compositionâ and âlocative soundâ, which it is proposed enable a closer and more fruitful
relationship between materiality and sound. Within the case-studies that underpin the
thesis, the process of experimenting with an expanded source bond between sound,
meaning, and materiality leads to diverse explorations with natural systems, haptic art,
phonography, sonic spatialisation, and participatory practice. Three sound-based
installations are the catalysts for these inquiries, including two place-specific works
driven by natural processes, Variable 4 and Living Symphonies, and the haptic sound
installation Tactus, conceived as a direct communicative artwork for the blind and
visually impaired. These iterative works took place over the seven-year duration of this
thesis (2010â2017) and have been exhibited publicly, with cross media documentation
of their occurrences imbricated in this text. In their critical analysis two distinct
contributions to sound practice emerge: âlive compositionâ, a framework that uses
sonification and generative techniques to drive real-time sound composition based on
live source data, and âlocative soundâ a technique that promotes the placing of sound in
the reality of the world, drawing relationships of âsynchresisâ (Chion 1994) between
materiality and composed âsonic eventsâ (Cox 2015).
A methodological framework of âresonant practiceâ inspired by Schönâs
âreflective practitionerâ (Schön 1987) emerges by reflection on these case-studies,
portraying a praxis built on specific methodologies of âmaterial thinkingâ (Carter 2004),
iteration, dialogic collaboration, and communication of knowing through an âartstextâ.
âResonant practiceâ takes an âacoustemologicalâ approach (Feld 1994), venturing that an
arts research project rooted in sounding materiality promotes unique, ecological and
vibrant ways of knowing through sound. Through a resonant practice artists working
with sound can aim to propagate a âvibrant materialismâ (Bennett 2010), forwarding
communicative, ecological and sustainable approaches to our sonic and material
environment