Thinking more about how we can describe sound arts, a few key words keep sticking out to me:
exploration/play, immersion and concept.
These are qualities I find in my favourite pieces, they seem to create through lines in work that makes it feel more cohesive. For example, I see the concept in Laurie Anderson’s ‘handphone table’ as the question:
How can we truly feel sound?
This piece takes sound, a usually shared, leaky substances, and traps it in the form of this table. Transforming sound a very intimate, personal object.
exploration/play
As an artist, exploration means everything. I believe there is no better way to find your voice. Experiment how many different ways that you could achieve the same effect. Perhaps, after some exploration, none of the outcomes are to your liking. Find out why. We should aim to be inquisitive in everything we set out to do.
immersion
When I say immersion I’m talking about being present in the moment. Listening and paying attention to each small detail, when your edges begin to bleed into the environment. It’s the idea that an artist or listener can completely lose themselves in the work, the research behind it or the environment the work is being made/presented in. Hans Witschi’s instagram page is probably my favourite showcase of this. He posts field recordings of everyday sounds we would usually ignore.
Wind passing through blinds, cars driving over drain covers, the vibration of a bus window.
Witschi confronts you with the musicality of the mundane and welcomes us to tune ourselves into the sound of our own environments.
concept
This is the idea that work begins as abstract ideas, like I mentioned earlier with Laurie Andersons piece. We can often times see the artists thought patterns through their work, most evident in John Cage’s piece ‘4’33″‘. Although it is not to my taste, this piece makes the audience part of the orchestra, which I do think is an interesting idea. Shuffling, coughing, squeaking or any other non-orchestral sound become the main focus, which raise some questions about silence, listening and audience interaction within performance culture on a wider scale.