Uncategorised – Page 13 – Sound Arts Year 2

Vocabulary and Frameworks Activity

We were given one page at random from a book and had to remove words until the ones remaining fit to explain our current work. This was my outcome.

Connections. New transportation. We’ll ditch the. And the rest is history. We’ll try to make a difference. Make a difference. Serious now.

I felt these words really connected with my thoughts and ethos as an artist at least currently. Connections is something i cherish a lot, and dont make the jump to build in depth. I find shallow connections easy to acquire which is why i prefer to be alone than to be involved in it. I’m very much against major corporations controlling art such as music and because of this i’m very much a DIY artist. Connections and community is something DIY artists rely on to share and build together to stand against the Goliath like entities that corporations are.

New transportations, i want to take things forward. I find when you look back at artists that make a huge impact and difference they were pioneers in their field. I found myself these last few years of being artistic being certain that they were correct in their art forms and how modern ones didn’t live up to it. But at the time i’m sure the same was being said those artists work, for example Madlib. I’ve learnt more recently to expand my current passions to try and take things forward for my generation.

And the rest is history is my almost self fulfilling prophecy. I’ve decided my path and the rest is history as they say.

We’ll try to make a difference, make a difference. serious now. In my work i think there is serious room for political conversation. I think it’s important to raise voices of people who don’t have them. I come from a poor working class background and even being at an art school makes me want too, if i get the opportunity too. Help give a voice to other people who are marginalised.

Define your voice

In this exercise we had a task to define our voices. We had to first write a short three sentence bio about ourselves and our practice. mine came out like this.

My names Dereck, I’m an artist interested in the possibilities of sound. Immersive experiences and recycling audio are a big interest as well as escapism. Combining and collaborating with different formats to gain interesting results.

My partner in this task was Yusef, we had to swap each others recordings of the short artist bio we wrote and write notes for them on the sonic identity that emerges.

Yusef short artist bio

“My Name is Yusef and i am interested in the ways in which sound can be used to explore unknown avenues of creativity.”

He’s making a statement that he’s interested in sound and how it’s used. His bio is advocating that he’s also interested in the unknown. He likes to explore beyond the norm. In terms of a wider field i’m guessing that perhaps it would situate him within more of a research perspective of sound arts.

Audio Paper initial feelings.

Until this point i’d never really heard of an audio paper. But now i think about it it does make sense for it to exist. A medium so powerful as sound is able to convey creativity and flair which a written essay couldn’t or perhaps cant in the way audio can.

When thinking about the audio paper i feel like a written essay would be easier to convey my thoughts and feelings. I find it difficult to combine creativity with academic research. But maybe this is due to lack of practice. I find the world of academia and creativity to be interlinked and combined but creativity goes further but being a world of action and physical reality.

I watch a lot of video essays and this is as close to an audio paper i can imagine from my first glance. Instead of using visuals to support the ideas, themes and topics in discussion we instead use audio. Creatively in perhaps a less linear way or linear if we wish.

I think i will enjoy the process but i’m not sure if its one hundred percent something i will do for my third year option. I find the process and at this point its just speculation but for it to be a bit tedious and lacking the depth a normal essay can convey but just being more long winded.

Do Nothing

In milos lecture we were handed a card from his Oblique Strategies deck and mine said “Do Nothing”. I find this interesting as i feel i usually end up not necessarily doing nothing but feeling distracted.

My work ethic is going extremely fanatic and obsessed and working overtime until i complete the project and then extreme downtime to let living and life influence me. “Do Nothing” can be interpreted in a way as i do not often do nothing. As even going on my phone, or watching a movie to relax isn’t nothing but a semi conscious aware state.

I find in todays modern age we have machines and programs/apps designed to soak our attention span. To make us constantly feel like we’re missing out or need to check on what’s going on. I think i will try to schedule in some time to do nothing. To walk in the park and lie down and just listen to my environment.

Discussing John Akomfrah ‘The Nine Muses’

I read the article on the discussion of this movie. What really stood out to me was a few things, number one was. The removal of the voice of “god”, the voice overs we usually receive in documentary type pieces that almost remove us from immersion. This tends to as written “creates a less than centred objectifying gaze on migrants ” Which i found interesting as well. To think that instead of seeing it as an observational video we feel like we are on this journey with the migrants. Instead of this over seeing god watching down. Again another technique that can do a lot to the visuals.

A Feminist Approach to Sound in We Need to Talk About Kevin – Thoughts

After reading this article from Brett Ashleigh where she notes her thoughts about the techniques and approaches towards the sound design and story telling used in “We Need to Talk About Kevin”. I found it interesting how she mentions the decisions with the stems was to split up the the story to the audio. That they all worked together separately, the music/score, sound effects, and dialogue.

The narrative spoken with separate mediums working divorced from each other as Brett says is a new way of communicating story. As is two messages are happening at once. The use of acousmatic sounds to convey a feminine message isn’t something i was aware of but it does make sense. To not rely on on language to convey the message.

Helen Cixous’s revolutionary treatise The Laugh of the Medusa introduced the theory of l’ecriture féminine says Brett. Feminine cinematic art has the ability to display a narrative that depends on emotional and affective techniques rather than those based in language.

I think this technique is really interesting, i’ve always known that sound/music can effect the viewers perception but i never thought it in a patriarchal sense. I guess male and female humans have a different way of embracing their sonic landscapes and it wouldn’t make sense for the movie to depict the trauma the mother is going through with the same techniques used for a male leading movie. This blog post has made me think about sound techniques to convey story differently than before. I never thought to think about conveying the thoughts of character on screen from their specific POV (point of view) soundscape experience.

Studio Praxis – Storm piece (lighting, chaos)

Going of the ideas we had in the lecture we all were given a task to create one part of the piece using synthesisers only. I decided to go for the middle chaotic lighting storm part as i felt i could embrace that part mostly. And it would allow me to be more experimental than the other parts. When creating the piece i was feeling a bit grumpy and stressed out and i think this enhanced the creative process.

When creating the piece i started out with a max for live instruments available on Ableton and i wanted to create a room tone or background drone sounds before creating the others.

I started using the Tree Tone synthesiser and it creates natural drone sounds based off natures architecture of trees. The arms on the trees create different resonance frequencies and on the left you can change certain parameters. I then resampled it onto another audio track as its a generator and does record the output onto its track.

I also used the wavetable synth messed around until i got a sound i felt embraced the chaos. I picked out a waveform and frequency resonance that didn’t clash with the original drone sound set as i wanted to attempt to fill out the complete frequency spectrum of the lightning part.

My effects process was also based of experimentation and trial and error. Using overdrive to dirty up the sounds and delay/ eq to mix it accordingly to my vision. A thing i found interesting was when creating the piece and the synthesisers i initially started playing chords for the piece. Which i felt was strange and not something i wanted to do. I wanted to create noise, a primordial soup sort of soundscape. No order just pure chaos.

The most funnest part was the vector fm, i really went crazy with it and added lots of fx that added towards the chaotic energy. Delays, bit crushing. Echo, redux effect.

i layered up a few vector synths and changed and pitched plus resampled to add octave automation.

this was the outcome which i felt very happy with, i’m not usually to into synthesisers but i think i’ve always used them in a musical sense but for sound design this was so much fun.

Storm piece by dereck de abreu coelho

Studio Praxis, The storm concept

In class we discussed the idea of a metaphorical storm and how that would be created. We also spoke about the development and order of a “storm”. The composition and structure of a sound piece.

We spoke about the calm before the storm and how it should start simple, perhaps slow and setting the scene. Then to possibly change its tonality and consonance and develop into the lighting part. The chaos, the thunder the crazy eq going from loud to quiet. Filling out the frequency spectrum once it reaches the peak point and explodes. Then to decrease and reach a state of the same but different towards the ending.

I found this related a lot to my music production ideas of arrangement and structure. But the main difference being its not about music but how sound can take you on a journey and how us as sound artists are capable of creating a structured or perhaps not structured piece that has thought and reasoning behind it.

Bossa Nova and The Rise Of Brazilian Music In the 1960s

Another huge element i’m interested is cultural history. More towards all the aspects of my multi cultural ethnicity. I find at times overwhelmed and unknowing of my cultural history. I grew up in Brazil before moving to England at age nine and since moving here i’ve lost a lot of my Brazilian heritage. I love Brazilian music and decided to take out this book to learn about the albums released throughout the rise of Bossa Nova. I did an essay on the history of it last year and more importantly this book shares the covers and back story of all the important albums. It also shares the history of the socio political aspect of Brazil at the time and how it came to rise.

Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan

When looking back at last years blog posts i realised that a lot of my reflection was internal and related to mental health issues as well as how i responded to sound as a relieving healing process. I find sound itself to provide me with escapism.

I’ve read a couple paragraphs and find a lot that relates with my thought process. It starts by speaking with escapism as a more geographical thing. Escaping the harshness of the wild we used to live in. Escaping the rain, the cold weather with a warm city home. But it continues to speak about cultures as a escapism perhaps the largest one. I think this will influence my piece towards the end of the assessment hand in. I think sound can transport us and immerse ourselves more than we think. Am i able to use sound to help people with mental health.