Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T06:58:55.764Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Acousmatic Approaches to the Construction of Image and Space in Sound Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2015

Peter Batchelor*
Affiliation:
Music, Technology & Innovation, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK

Abstract

This article considers ideas of image and space as they apply to acousmatic music and to sound art, establishing overlaps and compatibilities which are perhaps overlooked in the current trend to consider these two genres incompatible. Two issues in particular are considered: compositional (especially mimesis and the construction of image, and what shall be termed ‘ephemeral narrative’) and presentational (in particular multichannel speaker deployment). While exploring several relevant works within this discussion, by way of a case study the article introduces the author’s GRIDs project – a series of four multichannel sound sculptures united in their arrangement in geometric arrays of many (in some cases potentially hundreds of) loudspeakers. These permit, by virtue of being so massively (and geometrically) multichannel, the generation of extremely intricate spatial sound environments – fabricated landscapes – that emerge directly from an acousmatic compositional aesthetic. Owing to their alternative means of presentation and presentation contexts, however, they offer very different experiences from those of acousmatic music encountered in the concert hall. So the latter part of this article explores the various ways in which the listener might engage with constructed image space within these sound sculptures, along with the relationship of the audio content of each with its visual and situational setup – that is, its environment.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batchelor, P. 2007. Really Hearing the Thing: An Investigation of the Creative Possibilities of Trompe L’oreille and the Fabrication of Aural Landscapes. Proceedings of the 2007 Electroacoustic Music Studies Conference. www.ems-network.org/spip.php?article289 (accessed 7 September 2014).Google Scholar
Birchfield, D., Phillips, K., Kidane, A. and Lorig, D. 2006. Interactive Public Sound Art: A Case Study. Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME06). Paris, France, 43–8.Google Scholar
Coulter, J. 2007. The Language of Electroacoustic Music with Moving Images. Proceedings of EMS 2007: The Language of Electroacoustic Music. www.ems-network.org/IMG/pdf_CoulterEMS07.pdf (accessed 5 September 2014).Google Scholar
Emmerson, S. 1986. The Relation of Language to Materials. In S. Emmerson (ed.) Language of Electroacoustic Music. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Emmerson, S. and Landy, L. 2012. The Analysis of Electroacoustic Music: The Differing Needs of its Genres and Categories. Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference Meaning and Meaningfulness in Electroacoustic Music. Stockholm, June 2012. www.ems-network.org.Google Scholar
Fischman, R. 2007. Mimetic Space: A Conceptual Framework for the Discussion, Analysis and Creation of Mimetic Discourse and Structure. Proceedings of the EMS07 Conference, De Montfort University. Leicester: Electroacoustic Music Studies Network. www.ems-network.org/spip.php?article266 (accessed 15 April 2015).Google Scholar
Fischman, R. 2008. Mimetic Space – Unravelled. Organised Sound 13(2): 111122.Google Scholar
Harrison, J. 1998. Sound, Space, Sculpture: Some Thoughts on the ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of Sound Diffusion. Organised Sound 3(2): 117127.Google Scholar
Hoffman, J. 2011. Personal communication (24 September 2011).Google Scholar
Jerram, L. n.d. Tunnel Vision. www.lukejerram.com/projects/tunnel_vision. (accessed 15 September 2014).Google Scholar
Labelle, B. 2010. Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Landy, L. 1994. The ‘Something To Hold on to Factor’ in Timbral Composition. Contemporary Music Review 10(2): 4960.Google Scholar
Leitner, B. 2008. P.U.L.S.E.. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. 2014. ‘LEXICON’ – Behind the Curtain. eContact 15.4. http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/15_4/lewis_lexicon.html (accessed 5 September 2014).Google Scholar
Licht, A. 2009. Sound Art: Origins, Development and Ambiguities. Organised Sound 14(1): 310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarren, F. 1995. The ‘Symptomatic Act’ Circa 1900: Hysteria, Hypnosis, Electricity, Dance. Journal of Critical Inquiry 21(4): 748774.Google Scholar
Norman, K. 1996. Real-World Music as Composed Listening. Contemporary Music Review 15(1–2): 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Callaghan, J. 2011. Soundscape Elements in the Music of Denis Smalley. Organised Sound 16(1): 5462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, J. 2002. In Conversation with Jonty Harrison. 21st Century Music 9(1); republished in eContact 10.2 (2008). http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/10_2/HarrisonJo_Palmer.html (accessed 5 September 2014).Google Scholar
Parry, A. 2000. Limits of Abstraction in Electroacoustic Music. Unpublished PhD thesis, City University, London.Google Scholar
Parry, G. and Butler, J. 2011. Towards Ephemeral Narrative. Image & Narrative 12(4): 5677.Google Scholar
Prior, D. n.d. Another Poisonous Sunset (1998–99). www.liminal.org.uk/portfolio/another-poisonous-sunset/ (accessed 26 November 2012).Google Scholar
Prior, D. 2010. The Cochlea Unwound: A Case Study for a Listening Aid Using a Sonic Crystal Array. Performance Research 15(3): 95102.Google Scholar
Salazar, D. 2009. Portfolio of Original Compositions. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Schäfer, S. and Krebs, J. 2003. Sound – Time – Space – Movement: the Space-soundInstallations of the artist-couple <sabine schäfer // joachim krebs>. Organised Sound 8(2): 213225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smalley, D. 1986. Spectro-Morphology and Structuring Processes. In S. Emmerson (ed.) The Language of Electroacoustic Music. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Smalley, D. 1992. The Listening Imagination: Listening in the Electroacoustic Era. In J. Paynter et al. (eds.) Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought Vol. 1. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smalley, D. 2007. Space-form and the acousmatic image. Organised Sound 12(1): 3558.Google Scholar
Toms, S. 2013. To Flower Out… YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Hudtm1xBE. (accessed 15 September 2014).Google Scholar
Tubridy, D. 2007. Sounding Spaces Aurality in Samuel Beckett, Janet Cardiff and Bruce Nauman. Performance Research 12(1): 511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tutschku, H. 1999. Das Bleierne Klavier programme notes. www.tutschku.com/content/works.en.php (accessed 14 September 2014).Google Scholar
Windsor, L. 1995. A Perceptual Approach to the Description and Analysis of Acousmatic music. Doctoral dissertation, City University, London.Google Scholar
Wishart, T. 1986. Sound Symbols and Landscapes. In S. Emmerson (ed.) The Language of Electroacoustic Music. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wishart, T. 1996. On Sonic Art. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, M. and Cook, P. 2003. Project Arbol:Deer-B-Gone: Journal of a Guerrilla Sound Installation. Organised Sound 8(2): 133137.Google Scholar
Zanési, C. and Gayou, É. 2007. A House of comPosers. Organised Sound 12(3): 277278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar