Sonic Art & Sound Design- P10 potx

p45 3 rd (Job no:76098C2 D/O : 22.03.07 Co: CM3) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 45 p45 2 QC Preflight Point 3 rd 1111 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M11 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C2 D/O : 22.03.07 Co: CM3) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 45 44 45 p45 3 rd (Job no:76098C2 D/O : 22.03.07 Co: CM3) VICKI BENNETT Do you use a consistent way of working or do you regard each successive work as demanding something different every time? I make all my work on an Apple PowerBook. The sound is currently composed using Digidesign® ProTools®, and the video is made on Adobe After Effects with final editing in Final Cut Pro (see pp.92–93). This is also used in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop and Image Ready. My work is partly defined by the systems that I use. For instance I use plugins.The availability of these plugins makes a difference to what it looks and sounds like. I ought to decide what I want to do, then find a way to do it but more often than not, I find what I have and then work with that. My editing techniques follow a certain course but each new project is approached as if I’d never done it before. The nature of found sound and visual collage is you can’t tell it what to do because it already happened. You are part director and part follower. It is sometimes a very rewarding and magical process, watching for instance the way that two sources dance together, and sometimes it is annoying not being able to get them to talk to one another. I tend to choose two sources to start with that I can somehow get to communicate with, or jar with one another. That is the starting point, and then I start to ‘hang things on it’. Sometimes the source material may be very specific, like the album Stifled Love , where lots of people were cut off vocally from being able to express themselves in love songs, or sometimes it is very nonsensical and thrives on chaos or disobedience which leads to it being humorous. Do you aim your work at a particular ‘market’ or target audience? If so, to what extent do you tailor the work to their ‘expectations’? I tend to aim it at people like myself (hence People Like Us).The aim is to elevate the mind through the various methods used in making humorous work, or by other means – using more conventional methods like emotional content. I only tailor to my own expectations, which, I guess, would be like other people’s. The aim is to pick up from one point, and land somewhere else. Or at least go on a journey somewhere, and be invited to a different world. I’m interested in the work of female artists in what is predominantly a male genre. Does this concern you and, if so, do you have any thoughts on how some sort of rebalancing might be achieved? I don’t think it’s necessary to rebalance males and females in any profession. I only believe that people need to be rebalanced when people are suffering as a result. Females have as much access to this genre as males, at least in the world that I live in. I’ve never had a problem, so I would put a lot of the imbalance down to males naturally being drawn to making this kind of art, just as females naturally do other kinds. I don’t believe in any kind of discrimination. Another reason why I’m called People Like Us is to take away such things as gender from the equation, and also to be approached and evaluated by the content of the work, not who or what I am. 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 45 p45 3 rd (Job no:76098C2 D/O : 22.03.07 Co: CM3) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 45 p46 Left: ‘We Edit Life’ ‘Experimenters in visual perception are using computers to create weird and random patterns that never occur in real life to find out what and how people see when these patterns are shown to them.’ Image courtesy of People Like Us. Left: People Like Us performing live Using samples of audio and visual footage, Vicki Bennett’s work is renowned for its witty and ironic take on life. Image courtesy of People Like Us. ARTISTS AND THEIR WORK 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 46 p46 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 46 p46 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 46 p46 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 1111 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M11 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:51 AM Page 46 4746 p47 Right: ‘The Remote Controller’ As a collage, this work can be interpreted and entered at many levels and uses narrative from a public domain film from 1950, a story that still remains relevant 57 years later: ‘In amongst change there are always the very basic fundamental things that make up what it is to be human, the hope to be less isolated and to feel and do more. However, the more we surround ourselves with objects that plug us in, the more we can become disconnected.’ Image courtesy of People Like Us. Right: ‘Story Without End’ This sound and video piece samples sonic and visual footage to historically explore ‘the subject of experimentation in the human body and machine interfaces – its successes and pitfalls – in the twentieth century.’ Image courtesy of People Like Us. VICKI BENNETT 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 47 p47 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 47 p47 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 47 p47 2 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 1111 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M11 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 47 p48 QC Prefli g ht Poin t g 2 nd 11 1 1 1 11 1 1 J ob no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals O f Sonic Art C lient : AV A S cn : # 1 50 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm C o : M11 C 0 (All To Spot)( C oa g l ) Dept : DTP D/ O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) . 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 48 p48 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/27/07 3:23 PM Page 48 p48 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 48 A RTI S T S AND THEIR W O RK p48 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) B iograph y t ernationall y M ax Eastle y is an in t o se work combine s r eco g nised artist wh o u res and musi c k inetic sound scul p t u m . In 2000 h e i nto a uni q ue art for m e xhibited six installations at S oni c B oom in London a nd tr a velled t o J a p an to exhibit and p erform wit h D avid Toop at ICC Tok y o. He was also a r esearch fellow at Liver p ool Joh n M oores Universit y . The previous y ear a p ermanent scul p ture was installed a t t he Devil’s Glen , Co. Wicklow , Ireland . I n 2 00 2 he exhibited at the Festival d e A rte Sonoro , Mexico City , and wa s c ommissioned b y the Siobahn Davie s D ance Compan y to write music for the d ance p iece Plants and Ghosts , which s toured the U K. His latest collaboratio n with David Toop , Doll Creature , was e r eleased in 2004. Also in that y ear h e e xhibited an installation at Cologne , G erman y . In 2005 he created tw o i n s t a ll a tion s in Irel a nd a nd a n interio r w ork in Riga , Latvia. In 2006 h e p erformed with the instrument make r a nd musician Victor Gama , for Radi o 3 ’s Mixing It a nd will be performin g w ith him , Thomas Köner and Asmu s T iet c hen s a t the London Atl a nti c Wa ve s Fe s tiv a l. He i s a l s o involved i n t he Cape Farewell pro j ect , whic h b rin g s to g ether science and the arts t o b rin g awareness of the effect of g loba l w armin g on the Arctic environmen t < www.ca p efarewell.com> . Intervie w Could you give a description of your work? I ’ve alwa y s been interested in visual thing s a nd in sound , painting , drawing an d m usic. It started out as q uite a narro w s ense but the third thin g I’ve bee n a bsorbed with is movement , which is a k ind of ghost , which unites them. Th e w ork I d o uses movemen t an d t ime a s m usic d oes b u t i t ’s also visual an d s cul p tural: it uses colour and sha p e. S o y ou could call me a sound artist but the n t hat would be leavin g out the visua l b ecause I d o use soun d in an ar t con t ex t: t here are different contexts in which y o u u se the same techni q ues and whateve r c ontext that is tends to form the sub j ec t o f t he work . How would you describe your working methods? I use the techni q ues of an architec t s ometimes – of makin g a mental interio r m odel that I kee p ref e r ring to , wh ic h i s q uite interesting. Quite a lot of com p oser s w ork in that wa y – the y see it as a kind o f f our-dimensional structure. I find m y sel f t hinking as a com p oser and a gra p hi c a rtist – usin g drawin g to formulate idea s v ery q uickly. But really all these thing s n eed to be p ractised so if I’m workin g w i t h music I fin d t ha t I have t o d o a lo t o f music p ractice. When I’m working wit h M ax E ast l e y 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/27/07 3:23 PM Page 48 p49 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 49 p49 2 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 1111 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M11 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 49 MAX EASTLEY 4948 p49 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) installations, that’s quite a different way of working but each one informs the other: I couldn’t do my kinetic installations if I didn’t play music. If it’s an installation, you have to absorb architectural things: you make a model or a drawing so you know that the space is five metres by seven and the ceiling is this height and you assemble your tools for a particular kind of work; it’s like a computer – you have a particular desktop for each activity. Is there a structure or an approach to your work that’s common across all these media? I think I’m quite unusual in that I’ve managed to keep all these things working without concentrating on one particular area. I see what I do as an expanding horizon: with each work, I get more height and more horizon appears which is frightening because the subject is enormous: it covers musical instruments, composition, musical forms, architecture. I don’t see any edge to that horizon. I did a work in Oxford that used a block of ice that was manufactured – it was done in layers so there was a layer of water that froze into ice and then a layer of gravel, then another layer of ice, then another layer of gravel.This was suspended above metal plates and as the ice melted, the stones fell – you could see them hanging on so there was a tension. It was about climate change and melting glaciers. What leads you to use technology in your work and do you sometimes find it intrusive? I don’t use it all the time but if it’s necessary I do use it and you find that after you’ve used it, it’s added another dimension. In the piece with the ice, the metal plate was amplified – it had its own speakers attached so that was a necessary part of an open-air sculpture. I find that using amplification is great if it has a degree where it goes to zero – acoustic sound – and then up to amplification so the space is gradually filled. You don’t need to see what a computer is doing: it’s like with architecture. To see a really good piece of architecture you don’t need to see all the engineering that went into the roof before you can understand what it’s doing. In the Cape Farewell TV programme, you were working with quite organic materials but your music track sounded very electronic. Some of the sounds were produced by a monochord – an electroacoustic instrument – but some of the sounds, the bearded seal for instance, recorded underwater could be mis-interpreted as electronic sound.The Aolian harp sounds to us like feedback, but to a listener in the eighteenth century it could seem like the voices of angels. Music is defined in a technological way by recording. This is something that I found when I first started to use recordings of the work I do. If it’s on a CD, it will be heard as music whereas if you hear them out in the environment, there’s something else going on – it’s organic, not fixed or edited. This was a huge dilemma for me when I first started recording things because I thought, ‘this is not the actual work’ but in a sense, it’s like a photograph of the work.The definition of music in that way is ‘if it’s recorded and it has a duration, it could be called music’. Another definition is that it comes from inside human beings or that it comes from something observed outside. I use that as a working tool because I can relate to the emotion of music but I’m also drawn to the external, the non-human, the inanimate. Maybe music is the personal touch and maybe the other things I do are very impersonal: with the kinetic things, you can’t look at them and say that you know [anything about] the personality that made them but, with the music, you can sense me as an emotional, feeling person. So one is animate and the other is 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 49 p49 2 nd (Job no:76098C1D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_040-071.qxd 3/24/07 5:52 AM Page 49 . never done it before. The nature of found sound and visual collage is you can’t tell it what to do because it already happened. You are part director and part follower. It is sometimes a very rewarding. another. I tend to choose two sources to start with that I can somehow get to communicate with, or jar with one another. That is the starting point, and then I start to ‘hang things on it’. Sometimes. Eastle y is an in t o se work combine s r eco g nised artist wh o u res and musi c k inetic sound scul p t u m . In 2000 h e i nto a uni q ue art for m e xhibited six installations at S oni c B oom