jbrownbbbwc2019

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Critical Self-Evaluation

The nature of this project has allowed for experimentation far beyond anything I have previously considered making. The brief has lead to developing my working process past anything I have attempted previously, expanding my creative possibilities. As of yet, I have not completed the project due to the lack of recording facilities caused by Covid-19. However, through the writing of a project proposal, combined with the experimentation undergone during the project, I will be able to complete it individually. I found that a project proposal is a useful tool in terms of allowing the ideas behind the piece to become more succinct, allowing you to define your ideas, aiding in the development of a project.

The piece attempts to bring an audience into an awareness of themselves and nature through the unexpected interruption of the place around them. By placing aeolian harps within branches of a tree and amplifying the signals from the strings and branches, the natural world becomes augmented and new. This gives reason for an audience to sit and listen to themselves and the immediate space around them encouraging introspection as well as consideration for wildlife. I feel that the piece will effectively achieve this initial goal and that the continuation of the piece will allow for further experimentation, giving it an afterlife. This element of the work will lead to working with software such as Sibelius, Logic and Ableton, further developing my creative process.

This was my first time working solely with sound as the medium for expression for a major project. I have had previous experience within the medium however found that whilst researching for this project there are many contemporary practices within sound art that I was not aware of, this is something I hope to explore further and develop my artist capabilities within this field. I also found that in terms of documenting and showing the piece, I have learnt about many new technologies, how they work and why they should be used in different scenarios. When making films, I will be able to draw upon the knowledge gained from this project to enhance the credibility of my other work and develop it further.

I found working outside of conventional exhibition methods to be something that I aim to continue in future projects. I feel that the freedom from established spaces of the art world allows for further creativity and artistic progression that is exempt from capital-focused art or academia. It also draws an audience that views the work through a different lens, this allows for different meanings to develop and varying audience readings. It situates art outside the exclusive world that it so often attempts to create and withhold or destroy from within.

Overall, I am content with how the project has progressed and feel that I will be able to achieve what I set out to. The meaning and purpose of the work is apparent within the method as well as being an effective way to achieve what it sets out to. I aim to finish the project, exhibiting and recording it over a year and look forward to furthering the creative possibilities in the future. This project has taught me a great deal in terms of what is possible in the medium of sound art as well as outside the gallery, I feel that venturing into this new medium is an exciting way to enhance creative opportunities and improve my creative vocabulary.

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Project Proposal

Summary:

This work comprises of a series of aeolian (wind) harps within the branches of a single tree in natural wooded or forest environment. Through the ebb and flow of the wind combined with the swaying branches of the tree, these harps will create atonal harmonies with one another that continually change pitch and tone echoing the changing winds and transitional essence of nature.

Location and duration:

The work is within the woods at wild park, on the outskirts of Brighton (Exact location on my blog). I aim for it to stay up for a year acting as a long-running performance of nature and the changing seasons. It can also have periods of amplification where I will use a combination of pickups and speakers to bring more awareness and further exemplify the ideas present. The piece will then become a record of these ideas, I will go throughout the year in varying conditions to gather recordings (both of the harp and field recordings) to create a sound art composition that reflects the seasonal changes within nature.

Project, creation, and creator:

This project aims to bring the viewer into a present awareness of themselves and nature through enhancing the natural sonic qualities of a space. When the piece is dormant, passes by can notice or not notice the piece and choose to sit and listen or walk on. This reflects attitudes towards the environment and the piece makes conceptual connections to the continual degradation of nature without choosing to confront people but instead by making an audience aware of the space around them, allowing and encouraging reflection on themselves and the environment. Through amplification, the piece will also have an active state where the sounds will be exaggerated to more effectively draw in audiences and give the piece a greater presence. It works in a similar way to the natural soundscapes of Bernie Krause or Jonathon Storm insofar as it opens up avenues of thought related to the natural world which can be an effective method of helping to change people’s perceptions of nature and may help towards better treatment of the environment on an individual level. As the piece is located outside the city, in the tranquillity of nature, introspection and a present awareness are also potential effects that this piece will have on an audience. This is achieved by the harps through sudden and unexpected interruption, it gives people a reason to sit and listen to sounds rarely heard, in a location rarely paid an adequate amount of attention. I feel that it is important that people take time to allow their mind the space to think, especially in an age of constant information. As this piece uses no screens and instead simply asks you to listen, it will naturally encourage this introspection.

The piece then becomes a permanent comment on the ideas reflected in its initial stages in the form of a sound art composition. The main elements of the later piece will consist of the sounds of the harps taken from recordings at seminal points of each season. The timbre, pitch, and tone of the instrument will change in different conditions due to both the way that the tree and weather change throughout the year. This will be combined with recorded sounds of the forest which also drastically change due to the varying animal and plant diversity throughout the seasons. This signifies change over time and the cycles of nature present in the world and our own lives. To take this idea further I will create an actual score that reflects the four seasons, both versions would be realised and created to appeal to the variety of audiences allowing both for a sound art and musical piece as well as provide these audiences with a similar but virtual effect of the original creation.

The last major project I worked on involved creating a soundscape for a visual piece to be exhibited within a gallery setting. This meant that I was able to explore the medium of sound further than I have before, breaking constraints of structured music and instead allowing for a conceptual

approach to sonic composition which can have a significant effect on the psychoacoustic space of an audience. This project allowed for exploration of the public space allowing for exploration and examination of audience reactions to sound. As a medium, I feel that it is the least intrusive but most effective way to enter an audience’s mental space. Not asking to be seen but forcing you to listen, sound allows the mind time to be present. In an attempt to exemplify this, I chose to create a simple soundscape drawing meaning from the space and an audience's connection to it. As I have previously mostly worked with film, I have not explored conceptual approaches to sound and I have not yet taken the opportunity to embrace the public space within a work, this project embraces new avenues of exploration both through audience and medium. Environment and the natural often plays a part in the thought process behind my work and is more prevalent now than ever in the minds of audiences due to rapid climate change. This work is my first step into conceptual approaches of psychoacoustic spaces and how this can affect an audience’s relationship to the natural world.

Audience and participation:

The work approaches its classification as an art piece in a different way as it purposely distances itself from music, installation or sculpture and instead operates on a personal individual level. Instead of choosing to engage an audience who are there to participate in an active and established way as they would in a gallery space, it surprises an audience and allows for them to choose to participate however they wish, outside the confines of predefined audience roles, allowing for unjudged introspection, appreciation or ignorance. The most common audience will be people walking around the forest, who already chose to engage with nature, however, once the piece progresses to the later levels of recording and performance the way that an audience interacts with it will drastically change. The compositional recordings would be available online meaning that the audience can be anyone anywhere, this detracts from the location of the harp and means that some of the original intentions are lost due to lack of presence in the natural space. It does, however, allow for more a more intentioned and academic audience to view it as a piece of sound art or musical composition and therefore appreciate some of the conceptual qualities. Live amplified showings of the work will also change audience perceptions, technology would be used to amplify the signal, detracting from the direct relation to nature but adding intrigue due to the usually imperceptible sounds. These showings would be advertised, hopefully attracting a wider range of people as well as situating the piece within the art establishment.

Professional and artistic developments:

This project leads to indefinite new possibilities within my work, the creation of an instrument alone allows for endless digital manipulation creating a library of previously unexplored sounds which I can use for film soundtracks, musical compositions, and sound art works. The future possibilities of this project mean that I can further explore formal, notated composition, something I have not spent time doing for a few years. It also allows for the opportunity to put on showings of the work outside of university or the gallery space enabling conversations with the passing public allowing for the development of the ability to perceive artworks from an outside perspective of the art establishment. This is my first step into sound art as a practice, something which greatly interests me and allows for greater experimentation and development within film but also outside of the medium. This also allows for a view of extended works, lasting over a year this project will allow for consideration of how time influences a work and what some of the positive and negative effects of working over long periods of time could be. I am excited to complete this project and see what the products of its creation lead to.

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Design method for the final harp

for the final harp intend to keep similarities too the early models but with changes that allow for a better sound to be recorded. Firstly this version will be made directly on the tree, this avoids the sounds created by the wood as well as giving a subtle finish to the look of the harp it will also mean that the shape of the harps are more directly connected to the shapes of the branches and no would longer conform to the straight lines that using wooden planks force. I will use a series of metal and nylon-stringed harps, the metal would be amplified by magnetic pickups and the nylon would use piezoelectric pickups. both will not be permanently fixed meaning that I can record or amplify the strings whenever necessary and would not get weather damaged.

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This article briefly explains what a Piezoelectric pickup is and how it works, it will give an idea of how I intend to use them for use with the nylon harp strings.

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This runs through things to consider when drilling into trees, this is now unfortunately unavoidable as the tension of the strings has to be matched by a screw and a wire rigging will not be able to give the string the clearance over the tree.

The second design of the harp features a simpler and more effective method in order to prevent the buckling of the strings which are so apparent in the recording experiments. shallow holes in the tree cause less damage and as the tuning pegs are stainless steel it will avoid rusting.

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Recording of the experimental harps

this recording session has taught me a lot about the fundamental aspect of recordings aeolian harps. as the wind is what causes the sound it means that a microphone is quickly not such a viable option for capture. I attempted to adapt two condenser microphones to become contact mics by putting a ring of blue tack around their edges, this resulting in picking up a lot of the signal from the wood leading to loud buckling of the strings and swaying of the trees. in future the design would involve piezoelectric pickups for the nylon strings which would eradicate the wind sound but still pick up the sounds of the tree, this would also mean I have more control over being able to select which area of the strings would be amplified as well as being able to spread a wider range of strings than just a left and right microphone. Magnetic pickups would be used to record metal strings also eradicating wind noise and amplifying specifically the sound of the strings without picking up any noise from the tree. the combination of both of these input sources would allow for effective recording and amplification capabilities, also they are inexpensive methods and both can be made at home with simple components.

when recording this we weren't able to listen back to the sounds being captured so had to record blind, like using a camera without a viewfinder. it meant that the recordings weren't to the standard I intended but they do give an idea of what the harps sound like.

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In this recording, you are able to clearly hear the tops of the branches hitting against each other in the wind creating the rumbling, cracking sound, I love the way that the tree echoes this throughout its branches and believe that piezoelectric pickups will capture this sound as well.

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this showcases the metal stringed harp, you can hear the buckling of the strings under the bending tree branches. from this, I realise that I have used the tuning pegs incorrectly and have overlapped the wind. also using pins to secure one end is not an effective method. for the final instrument, I would use a reel of piano or harp wire with tuning pegs on either end to allow for a purer sound. 

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This was captured with the left-hand microphone on the nylon string harp and the right-hand microphone on the higher up harp that had metal strings, the result allows you to compare the two as well as having the effect of creating a larger sound space.

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Sometimes, I get shy, and tell people I'm a "nature sound recordist." But actually, I'm a composer for the instrument-or orchestra of instruments-called "nature." And, I'm composing through the whole process of my work.

Jonathon Storm

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Bernie Krause has been recording the sounds of nature for his whole life, in this talk he showcases the beauty in the accurate documentary recordings of animals and wildlife, giving backstory to each case. He uses these recordings to produce a spectrograph of the landscape and is able to compare the sounds of animals before and after significant events proving the effect that activities such as logging have on the biodiversity of an area. 

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Images of the early versions of the harps.

these are mostly taken from behind so the bits of wood are clearly visible however when viewing the harp from the path they are barely visible. they use a combination of metal and nylon strings as both have different effects in different levels of wind. The nylon strings create a higher tone and are able to create sound in lighter breezes. the metal strings amplify the sound of the top branches as well as create different drones when your ear is put to the wood.

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final test location.

As I have chosen to submit this project as a proposal I will treat the work I have done as experimentation. This product will be the basis on which I intend to continue this project. Funding or better methods of creating this structure would allow for a better final outcome as I find the design of this adequate but not ideal. I would take this further by making the structures holding the harp more appealing as well as more easily amplified.

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Final test location.

This location was selected as the tree has good branches to use but also because of it’s natural tranquillity, it is a spot that is occasionally passed by walkers but people do not appear often enough to become intrusive. it also feels like you are deep within a woods and the clearing allows for a better relationship to the forest around you.

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This aeolian harp uses bamboo with holes cut in it to allow the airflow, there was a point where I intended to use pipes in a similar way but decided they looked ugly on the tree in comparison to the almost invisible strings harps. bamboo would be a viable other option. 

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Risk assessment