I read through the Basanta article after our morning lecture. I found the theory behind sound installations deeper than my initial previous knowledge on the subject. I wasn’t completely ignorant towards the initial depth an artist will go when creating, designing and implementing a sound installation. But more so the thoughts in designing and actualising. Taking thought behind every decision. To try to understand even the things we assume to be trivial and expand our thoughts on them to allow a deeper, meaningful decision-making process when curating our ideas.
I found the relationship between the so-called fifth dimension or the mobile listener and the installation. Alongside the artists meaning and time and space to be a deep subject in itself. It seemed to me like an organism when fully implemented successfully. Everything has thought and works like a well-oiled machine. Each aspect of the installation will be thought of and on purpose. Each creative multimedia aspect of the installation will take or not take consideration for each other but for it not to take consideration one must first think of the relationship between each aspect for you to decide you don’t want that to happen. I think it’s created more of my depth on my decision making. Whether for better or worse, perhaps through sketching and starting with my ideas I can find a middle balance point between the theory and implementation.
I believe an important part of this text is stating the importance of a sound installation. To think what a sound installation can present in its qualities that other art forms such as music cant and how to use that as a strength when creating an installation spoke volumes to me.
Instead of just two quotes, I have chosen five as these really spoke to me as what I’m intending to hopefully implement in my idea. I believe these qualities will differentiate a sound installation from other artforms and why I find these quotes important.
“the ‘conceptual dissonance’ between the initial idea and its problematic adaptation can be used as a critical lens through which new theoretical models
and practical techniques are developed.”
I found this quote to be perfectly fitting, deciding on an idea and implementing it can lend to problem-solving ideas. Perhaps changing how the installation works to create the means to an end. You might have an idea and how you want the installation to be. But how the actual technical aspects might change due to a number of reasons and this can lend itself to new practical techniques.
“in other words, in order to become useful in
installation contexts, traditional concert-based musical
approaches to formal structures must be adapted to
situations in which sound materials are dispersed spatially and temporally, and are experienced by a mobile
visitor at their own pace.”
The mobile visitor is something unthought of in a normal concert context. In a usual concert context, the mobile visitor cannot change how they experience the performance. And this is what a sound installation can differ and bring new territory towards its experiences. A mobile visitor can walk around an installation and approach it from how they see fit. This is something to take into consideration when developing a sound installation as using the space and design techniques can allow you to persuade or convince the free-thinking mobile visitor to engage in how you want to.
“the three Euclidian dimensions (length,
width and height) are not only modulated by the
fourth, topological dimension (time), but also by the
fifth ‘dimension’ of perceiver subjectivity: Your
Engagement Sequence (or YES), the first-person
sequential unfolding of four-dimensional experience”
Again similar to the previous quote but speaking on how all the dimensions of a sound installation work together. Thinking about not just the space-time and width or height but the engagement and the relationship between the consumer of your installation with the work. How are they going to situate themselves in this sound installation?
“placement of sound
or media-emitting objects can be conceived as a compositional decision even within the supposedly neutral
‘white-cube’ setting of the gallery.”
Something I wouldn’t have seen this as critical as it is. Placement, though seeming trivial can have a considerable important effect on how the mobile visitor interacts with the installation and isn’t to be taken lightly.
“Adding additional media-producing elements
while paying attention to their spatial placement and
the affordances of the visitor’s movement can increase
the complexity of the resulting experiential form.
Spatial configurations can thus be envisioned as
enabling a ‘bodily flow of an individual whose
decisions as to where to be [construct] the [media]
composition’”
Consider everything you add to the sound installation. And consider the relationship between each media presented alongside the mobile visitor. How do these play together?