Category: Contemporary Issues in Sound Art

Find a further book or article relevant to your topic and post a short synopsis (at least 200 words) on your blog about it.  Add this to the draft of your Annotated Bibliography.

Begin work on the first draft of your essay by making an essay plan and post this to your blog. Write a 300–500 word introduction to your essay that sets out your areas of interest and argument.

This week I’ve borrowed some new books from the library, focusing on the relation of art with technology. I’ve found some nice dedicated books in relation with this subject, and in particular I’d like to focus on ‘Art, technology, Consciousness’ by Roy Ascott. This book features the most up-to-date discussions about art and technology. It argues about the importance and ubiquity of the information, telecommunication and multimedia technologies and also about that it is impossible to obviate the relationship of these technologies with art movements, making us reflect about the fast growing and complexity in contemporary technologies and how it can cause euphoria and anxiety at the same time, approaching it from a theoretical research in new media and art. Again, this book is more focused in visual art than anything else, but I have chosen it because it features a couple of essays related with sound installations and computer music, speaking about the new paradigm of the production of sounds or the changes in music and digital communications around it.

Essay plan – Introduction

After having researched widely different technologies involving sound art I came across with some different topics which are of relevance on the subject, from whose I’ll be selecting one, in order to be as specific as possible within one field. These are some of the most important topics from my point of view:

• History of technology and sound art
• The speaker and recording devices
• Electronic devices
• The sound installation
• Obsolete media
• Recycling and sustainability 
• Coding and programming 
• The computer

For this essay I’ll be researching in depth the topic of Creative Coding. I’m selecting this topic with preference from the other from a variety of reasons; first I think that this field is going to push me into new knowledge more than researching about audio gear which is a field in which I’m more familiarised, but having started this year with some audio programming in Pure Data during the first units, I still feel curious to keep investigating about this subject which is also of great relevance in nowadays sound art and installation works. Secondly, and although I love matters like obsolete media and historical events, I will stay away of this topics as I think that computing and coding have a great industry and employability opportunities in comparison with more obscure and minority practices like tape recording for example; at the end of the day all this research has to relate with my future career, which I would like to be involved in audio engineering, sound design and interactive media, and that’s why I want to explore quite a lot new technologies, and programming languages are at this point ruling the digital era, having turned in a essential tool at all levels. However, I will always approach coding from a very artistic point of view, learning how to take advantage of the different techniques to get the best results in our practice.

I would also like to say that I’m choosing this topic because is highly related to my practice and interests which are the electronic music and digital sound, the synthesisers and different forms of media, and I think that I will enjoy by researching the field much more in depth and theorising about specific issues. I will also combine it with my own work where I’d like to learn different languages, like Python, Super Collider or Java, apart to the ones that I already use which are only Pure Data and Max Msp. Looking forward to the third year and the project proposal too, I would like to keep investigating related fields, but going much deeper and into probably advanced technologies, like interactive installations, biotechnology or artificial intelligence.

Having been inspired for some books and texts, investigations, and my visit to 180 Studios I have started to experiment with different techniques, always trying to find this important relationship between the technology and our studies. Here I will show you some shorts videos with line-in audio recording of course, experimenting with different techniques and devices that have arisen from my most recent research.

Coding: Making Visuals with Pure Data

Following my installation at Gallery 46 and my recent research in creating visuals in Pure Data with the ad-on library Gem, I keep making investigations in order to improve my skills in this field and possibly I will use these techniques during the third year. In this case, I’ve used a new object called [pqtorusknots] with which we can create complex geometrical forms; I have also researched the Midi compatibility in PD and I’m controlling the rotation and some other parameters in the visuals with a Midi controller, as well as some parameters of the sound at the same time. I have also combined this with some drones coming from the modular synth.

Combining a Cassette player and an old portable console.

In this experiment I wanted to combine some obsolete media devices in order to create a sonic composition. I’m using the cassette player with a pre-recorded melody that I created with another synth; the cassette tape is going to add some warmth and vintage feel to the sequence as well as the iconic noise sound when pressing play or stop. On the side I will use an old Nintendo 3ds with a special software from Korg called ‘DS-10’ which tries to imitate the classic modular synth Korg MS-10. I achieved some kind of synthetic wind sounds with it, and I also manipulated it with a FX pedal, Electro Harmonix Oceans 12. I also added some background sound with the modular synth and I’m mixing everything in the Tascam Model 12.

1)    Write a short synopsis (at least 200 words) about the text that you chose for discussion. 

2)    Continue reading and collecting quotes, and follow up material cited in the texts that you read. Locate at least two of the sources you think you will be including in your Annotated Bibliography.

3) Start developing your creative ideas. Post reflections and considerations on your blog and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. How does your practice overlap with and feed into your research?

The Engagement Aesthetic – Francisco J. Ricardo

This is the first text that I’ve chosen as a guidance for my research, it describes very closely this relationship between technology and art, taking as an example cinema. Cinema is a contemporary form of art which is closely related to technology and development, and the text has profoundly surprised me because I didn’t even thought in Film practices in this way, but it is a clear example (Probably one of the most clear, with Photography too) of how visual art has changed with the implementation of technology since the late 19th century.

Some keywords that have arisen from this text are Installation Art and Electronic Art for whose I’m starting to research and I find interesting for this topic.

New Media Art (Book) – Mark Tribe & Reena Jana

I also found interesting this work, explained in the book New Media Art. I enjoy the concept of hacking code creatively like in this case with the game “Super Mario Bros” from 1985. Video game techniques and toys in general are also used in sound practices like chiptune or circuit bending and I love the naivety and humorist touch of this piece by Cory Arcangel and the experimentation with old media nostalgia iconic products which are clear examples of digital art.

I’m not really sure if I will be adding these two books on my annotated bibliography, definitely ‘The Engagement Aesthetic’ is a really good book and I love this text so this could be one of the chosen ones, ‘New Media Art’ is a collection of famous works in the field and I don’t know if these kind of books can be used on the bibliography, although is a super interesting and interesting book and I love every work there and in special video game related works. I have taken some other books recently which are speaking more in depth about t these subjects and I will be speaking about them soon.

In conclusion, I’m finding these texts and experiences very inspiring; I love electronics, new technologies and art, and I’m happy to find dozens of studies about it. I think that I can relate this fields with my practice, where I experiment with synthesisers, computer software and other kinds of media with the purpose of creating experimental music, ambient and sound design. Technology is a very important subject within any modern studies, but specially in the field of sound art; and the majority of great classic sound artists and experimental musician that we study to like Pierre Schaefer, Pauline Oliveros or Stockhausen had a close relationship with electronics at some point, that’s why I’m really interested in that relationship between technology and sound and how can we use it and find a good balance to create amazing artworks.

I have visited this last weekend an immersive experience at 180 Studios, a well known exhibition space in London, which usually commissions audiovisual installations with works of renowned artists from all around the world featuring great works in contemporary and new media art. On this event the show has been created by United Visual Artists “UVA”, a London-based collective which focuses on the integration of new technologies with traditional media, having collaborated with at other sites like Printworks or VA Museum.

I really enjoyed this show, it was a perfect combination of visuals and lights and the sound design was just incredible. It perfectly merged together the engineering work with the most artistic approach and the result was an uplifting immersive experience where although it was formed of eight large installation I was able to stay fort about two hours, discovering the full length of the audio and movement patterns and enjoying different points of view of the pieces, due of their large scale. Maybe I missed a bit more of variety of elements or interactivity with the pieces would have been great and the installation motifs were a bit linear with the use of lights and led in all of them. Anyway, really inspiring visit to analyse from a Sound Art perspective; 180 Studios is a great gallery that never disappoints and where I also visited Electroshock, a couple of years ago, another amazing show that really gained my attention into these kind of practices.

This exhibition has made a bunch of questions to arise within my research, ‘the importance of the technology on immersive art’, ‘the coding or programming used for these installations (If there is any)’ and the computer used for this; what kind of computer is it? Where is it hidden?. All these subjects are helping me to find the direction of my research, and I think that the technology used on these kind of installations is a really important issue in contemporary Sound Art.

Independent Study/Personal Creative Practice

Post your practice-research questions to your blog. Write a blog post (200-500 words) reflecting on your possible choices of topic for this unit and the various advantages and disadvantages of these. 

As this unit is quite extensive and taking into account that we are researching for our practice in the next 5 years, I have started my research in a quite wide spectrum of different practices which is Media Art, or New Media Art. This field involves different categories of contemporary art in which Sound Art is one of them and its main fundament is that new emerging technology is normally implemented in the creation of the art itself. New Media art is compromised with the audiovisual realm, and in its creation, electronic media technologies are used. Other aspects that I’m interested in, apart from sound are: computer graphics, internet and video games.

These fields are really extensive but I will choose a specific related topic to research in depth for this essay and I will keep evolving this research looking forward to the third year. Some specific topics that I’m thinking on could be Creative Coding, Immersive Experiences or the sustainability of electronic devices. These topics will be also supported by my own practice in which I will keep implementing generative computer graphics and electronic music production, looking forward to more projects at university as well as personal work.

Another aspect where I’d like to put a special focus is the activism behind these practices, to make it a diverse artistic field, where all sectors of the society are equally represented without distinction on gender, race or cultural background; and differencing this new forms of art from older visual art, music or high culture where many of these sectors were underrepresented. Also to create awareness about the impact of new technology in the environment, being committed with recycling methods, and also approaching technology to disadvantaged people, by supporting humanitarian projects and charities, or developing open source software and affordable hardware for example.

In conclusion, New Media Art is a subject that really fascinates me and englobes many factors that I enjoy apart from sound, but the majority of practices on this discipline include sound. Because I like the visual aspect, but always when the experience is audiovisual, and never something just visual which is definitely not my practice. This is just the beginning of the research, soon I’ll have opportunities to get more specific, however, from my point of view sound is quite specific in itself, not being that easily understood in comparison with visual art like painting or photography. As we see in the Guest Lectures, the majority of sound artists explore different activities and genres; making sonic compositions, but also developing and collaborating with sound design, sculpture, visuals, media or activism projects at the same time, making it a bit difficult to find sound artists whose practice doesn’t get flexible at some points, stretching and discovering new areas where they think they can get creative.

I have navigated the library search trying to find related books and I have taken these two to start getting some knowledge on the field.