Essay notes and quotes - The fundamentals of Sonic Art

 The fundamentals of Sonic Art

The fundamentals of Sonic Art - As a book, recognises the multifaceted nature of sound within art. As it can take many forms, it includes works from numerous sonic artists who work from white noise to music and probe it’s different effects. A catalogue of different ideas.

How do artists use their practice to lead their research?

Page 20

Around the first Ice Age was the first recorded time where acoustic spaces may have been used with multimedia. “Several researchers have also noted that cave paintings are often found to be in locations where the local acoustics have unusual qualities, and this has led to speculation that these places may have been venues for early forms of multimedia events.”

“No single work can hope to provide a comprehensive and detailed approach to a subject that is so diverse, and that has so many facets.”

Page 27

“What I like about the untidy mess of communications produced by the new technologies is that nothing is prescribed, nothing is complete and above all there is no pretence. Everything is wild, experimental, precarious…” Michael Jafferennou, ‘Digital and Video art’

Much like the invention of the synthesiser, developments in sound design were made at random. Through trial and error and failed products, sounds were manipulated and synthesised in very experimental ways. I want to lead with my practice and note my observations about how to add multimodality to sound using visuals. I want to push the boundaries of experimenting with sound

Max Eastly, page 48

Definition of music “comes from inside human beings or that it comes from something observed outside. I use that as a working tool because I can relate to the emotion of music but I’m also drawn to the external, the non-human, the inanimate.”

“With the kinetic things, you can’t look at them and say that you know the personality that made them but, with the music, you can sense me as an emotional, feeling person, so one is animate and the other is inanimate - it’s working with these two tensions I suppose.”

Look into Ryoji Ikeda and A/V musicians and VJ’s

How do practitioners experiment with visuals to explore soundscapes and music?

Looking at responses to multimodal experience opens up a new dimension of processing because it invites viewers to be part of the outcome the work creates. Page 32 “clearly , when one looks at a painting and it stimulates a response, there is a degree of interaction but this process does not affect the picture itself so we have only a very limited form of interactivity.”

“The eye points outward and the ear draws inward. It soaks up information”-Janek Schaefer, Page 42

Designing sound for film and video

"The true sound designer must be immersed in the story, characters, emotions, environments and genre of the film. With their contribution the audience will be led down the path in an integrated, yet often subconscious manner toward an experience that is authentic and human, a metaphor for life experience itself. Using all the tools of music, psychology, acoustics and drama,  the art of orchestration comes." Page 91

"The role of the sound designer has moved from the periphery to the heart of the filmmaking process." page 91

 

"sound design is now a process that begins before an inch of film has been shot and continues until the completion of final mixes." page 91

"central position in the narrative of a film" page 91

"The days of a fully converged multiple medium may not be far away."

sound out of a single outlet is known as MONOPHONIC

"One cannot design a structure to amplify sound: the energy that is in the original voice or instrument is all that there is. However, good design can make the most of this by focussing and concentrating the sound, or can control or modify it by reflecting it in different ways or using resonating objects that vibrate in sympathy." page 37