Carbon meets silicon

Annie Morrad, Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design, University of Lincoln Ian McArthur, UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Australia, Sydney Abstract: Paradoxical (Data Driven) Space. This paper takes the form of a twenty-minute performative audio/visual presentation that explores and plays with the thematic of sound disruption and the puncture of a linear visual. It seeks to involve the audience with the intent to present instants of sound across a social landscape that also includes paradoxical sounds that juxtapose a dichotomy of tangled engagement. In using data from day to day activities based on the above Morrad and McArthur produce-interwoven compositional structures from which sound and image projects are produced. These sonic experiments are formed from the interplay of live and electronic sounds placed with images; projects exploring urban crowds (Canetti 1962) and their movement through structured and architectural urban space. This will be combined together with social noise interspersed with blank silence - this noise spread across into the silence a continuous rhythm that changes only through layering and an improvisational process of adding to or subtraction. The rhythms that are imbued within a social structure that create a time based pattern, are consonant with ideas referenced in Lefebvre (Lefrbvre 2004) with his understanding of daily rhythm the social pattern of time with opening and closing of places, the structure of time in the work place and within visual frames such as television and cinema. This includes the part rhythm plays in society through work and the very involvement of our bodies in keeping us alive. This method also echoes the approach of jazz saxophonist Steve Coleman who writes about rhythm and improvisation (Coleman 2007, Coleman 2011). As we are affected cognitively, emotionally and aesthetically by our temporal experience of all the myriad modalities of sound, natural, urban, musical (Fonseca, 2014) our awareness of time shifts – compressing, expanding, each conscious and unconscious moment or event reflexively re-making and narrating the self. Morrad + McArthur will be live performing this understanding of disruption, data and urban with video and sound

The penetration of sound on the still photographic digital image.

Traditionally sound has supported a narrative with a moving image, and often is used to compliment rather than direct that narrative: What happens when the image is a digital still photograph

A Visual and Sound Response to the Space and Place of Nettleham Hall

Trace: A Visual and Sound Response to the Space and Place of Nettleham Hall Clementine Monro & Annie Morrad Abstract The practice led research of Clem Monro and Annie Morrad are visual and sound collaborations of space and place. Trace is the first visual and sound response that we have made on location, the former manor house and ruin of Nettleham Hall in Lincolnshire. The responses made at this location act as an experiential inquiry into the communication of absence, trace and the phenomenologically experienced. We experience absence and trace through ourselves, our consciousness and in particular, awareness of the senses. The perception of architectural space involves the body as an entirety, as Merleau-Ponty suggests in The Phenomenology of Perception. When we perceive space and place, all our senses are affected. Through awareness of the senses our bodies react physically and emotionally to the ruin, this reaction is felt through mediation of the body with that particular place. The felt sense of absence and trace is possible through the body’s reaction and interaction to the space that is particular to the ruin. It can also be felt through the presence of the remaining space and through the body’s keen awareness in detecting the way jagged natural light moves through curious open crevices and surfaces within the buildings’ remaining structure. ‘We are forever in the here, and it is from that our experiences take place,’ the here, being the present. It is through the body that multiple sensory information such as; vision, touch, sound, smell and taste interact with the environment around us. It is ‘through our senses that we receive stimuli from the environment and can convey them to the brain.’ Each architectural place has an individual existence. The live film and sound recordings for trace were made on location at Nettleham Hall. Capturing and recording duration and time within multiple spaces, the recordings have contributed to a heightened sense of experiential quality of the ruin. This has enabled Annie to explore through experiential and experimental improvised sound using a tenor and alto saxophone. By using improvisation, the essence of the place in atmosphere, history and spatial architectural elements was transformed into sound. Through its intuitive approach, this method of working produces a unique and profound understanding, engaging with essence and nuances. Improvisation gave an immediate as opposed to mediated connection, one that conspired to unify all aspects. As a reaction to the ontology of space and sound within the ruin of the Hall, Clem made film recordings that responded directly to Annie’s live improvised sound. The film recordings act to mediate a discourse between sound, absence and trace. Based on the functions attributed to the Hall the visual and sound piece forms a universal presence that then refers back to this place, through art installation. Key Words: Phenomenology, lens based media, sound, response, trace, absence, ruin, collaboration, practice, research

SAXOPHONE LIVE EXCHANGES. AN EXAMINATION OF INTERCONNECTIVITY IN ART PRACTICE THAT DEVELOPS NEW WAYS OF WORKING THROUGH DIALOGUE BETWEEN ART, MUSIC, SOUND, RHYTHM & TONALITY.

I am an internationally exhibited UK mixed-media, multi-disciplinary artist based in Lincoln and London. My artwork incorporates migration, ecology and dialogue through nonhierarchical methods of working. I work with the development of sound, words, saxophone playing, photography, silent/non silent video, and share my art practice in co-productions and collaborations. The artistic practice-led research project was initiated in order to discover how specific artists’ tools and media can impact and expand my own art practices when saxophone playing. Through this art practice-led Phd I aimed to discover, critique and understand what are the notable changes in tonality and rhythm that occur in my improvised saxophone playing, when in dialogue with another’s art practice during a live performance. During this research visual and sound files were collected through a series of three live events, working with three different art practitioners to produce case studies that could be used in an art practice research framework. Each art practitioner was chosen for their use of different media: visual or sound materials. The artists included a fine artist; an artist working with spoken language (performed by avatars), and a sound artist who utilised sound files, electronic sound devices and computer software. The case studies documented the live production of an ‘art work’ and the resulting written reflection analysed the changes made in my saxophone playing techniques. This artist research project is practice-led, and not only resulted in me making my own work but also involved an in depth analysis of the video and sound recordings made during the live performances. I set up the use of dialogue and not-knowing as a method to induce risk taking, the results of which were later used in live performances with performers and musicians. When comparing the three case studies, I was able to recognise how and when my playing responded to other art practitioners’ tonal shifts and rhythmic actions. As a result, I was able to apply this new knowledge into my own art practice. The contribution to new knowledge is in how artistic practice-led research produced critical insight into the development of tone and rhythm in my improvised saxophone playing. Demonstrating how different art practices produced different responses both from each other and those using a music score. Furthermore, through discussion with art and music practitioners, these practitioners have adapted dialogue and other aspects from the findings, that include not-knowing as an apparatus and tool in their practice. As this is an artistic practice-led research project it is essential that the reader listen to the practice as they navigate the thesis. I have embedded the video and sound files throughout the chapters, to illustrate my points. The three live events formed case studies establishing interconnections between Bracey, Dutton and McArthur, and my saxophone sound. The live events can also be listened to or watched in their entirety through the following links

Carbon Meets Silicon

This exhibition was is in association with ITA(15), the 6th International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications. The conference drew together researchers and developers from academia and industry across all fields of Internet computing, engineering and art and design. The inspiration for the title of this exhibition came from the work of Alan Turing and his exploration of artificial intelligence versus cognitive psychology. The key questions surrounding whether thoughts and consciousness can be produced by a mechanical systems have fascinated computer scientists, mathematicians, cognitive psychologists and artists since the 1950’s. Many thought that the difference between these two fields was concerned with whether the mechanical system in question was carbon based brain or silicon based computer (Sternberg, R.J. and Kaufman, J, C. (2013). How do we begin to explore these questions? According to Michael Polanyi (1962) ‘aesthetic insight motivates the early stages of much scientific research’. This exhibition offers tacit knowledge embodied in the artwork that may or may not question the above, but certainly explore the concept of carbon and silicon as metaphors for the changing face of art practice over the last fifty years. Carbon references the materiality of the art object, the tradition of art materials such as paint, bronze etc. and silicon references how this materiality is questioned in the light of new media utilizing the digital or the virtual bringing artists closer to scientists and engineers. When carbon meets silicon it creates silicon carbide, a compound that exists as artificial diamonds and star dust, a transformative process that is akin to the alchemy of making art. References Sternberg, RJ, and Kaufman, J, C. (2013) The Evolution of Intelligences, Psychology Press. Polanyi, M. (1962) Personal Knowledge: towards a post critical philosophy. London Routledge The exhibition has been curated by Dr Susan Ligget

Tactics of interruption

Improvised tal

Conflict

I was chosen by the curators to produce a piece of work based on the ‘Cable Street Riot’, which was being celebrated after 50 years. This was a mixed show including internationally renowned artists, such as Jon Kaine and John Latham. Although the exhibition was entitled ‘Conflict’, I chose to work with the idea of ‘change’, using the river Thames as a metaphor of change and also because of the history of the ‘docks’ Limehouse and Wapping and their physical location to Cable Street. I placed images of local housing, layering these into this water backdrop. This became a photographic image on clothe 50mm by 20mm. The work had little in common with previous work, it felt like a departure

Technoparticipation

Presentation of the use of Skype in art practice https://vimeo.com/13903793

Encounter: Five year project

This video demonstrates a three to five year project, titled ‘encounter’. The produced project artwork is realised through sound recordings, written and spoken word, composed music, saxophone playing and computer sound editing. The encounter is always in one location and with the same set of individuals, who are Canada geese. They freely come and go from this place to various locations, some miles away. Neither the geese or I speak each other’s language so a bond is formed through exchange. The geese bring me knowledge and friendship, I bring them friendship and goods, in the form of seeds. The knowledge I gain is through observation of their lifestyle, seeing myself very much as other to them. There is respect between both species. The intention of the project is to raise awareness on our relationship to other species. Asking, especially in our ecological present, why other species are viewed as inferior as opposed to different. When the various artworks are transferred to the gallery or internet; they are therefore re-situated to an encounter between the viewer, or listener and the artwork. Annie Morrad Oct 2020

Laced

Asked to provide a music piece and score for Andrew Bracey's film Lace Works for the Lace Archive in Nottingham. https://www.bummock.org