Sense of Space (with Jordan Jones): Pieces heard in seminar

In the briefing seminar with Debbie Ballin, we were introduced to some examples of sound art that fulfil in themselves the brief of our project. I will go through each of these in turn and explain what they were, my opinion and how this is an option for our project. 


Option 1: The Personal Documentary
"Meat Factory Ear Worms"
Richie Beirne
The Curious Ear: Meat Factory Ear Worms

This series of documentaries entitled "The Curious Ear" was produced by Ronan Kelly for an Irish national radio broadcaster. 
This episode "Meat Factory Ear Worms" is a personal account of Beirne's time working in a dead end job in the meat factories of Ireland. He tells how the songs stuck in his head would take him away from the monotony and horror of his surroundings, and he calls these "ear worms". 
The piece is narrated, so it is not just a soundscape. We are introduced to the sound of knives sharpening, and throughout, these 'meat factory' sounds are contrasted with Simon and Garfunkel songs etc. There is a careful mix of stereo atmospheric sounds of the meat factories, sound effects (such as the knives, cutting, and voices), narration and soundtrack. The theme of the piece is very much escapist, and we get a good sense of the space both outside his body (the factories) and inside his head (that place where we can see his thoughts of the past and the songs that take him away). 
I really liked this piece, and Jordan and I could do something very similar for our piece, perhaps going out to find a person with their own interesting story and interviewing them to get every detail of what we are going to record.


Option 2: A Visit to a Place
"Jarman's Garden"
Sherre DeLys
Jarman's Garden

This piece is a journey through a spectacular garden that filmmaker Derek Jarman made during the long illness that he experienced in the final years of his life. The piece is again a documentary, with the voice of Jarman's lover, Keith, taking the recordists through and around the site. 

There are segments of the piece: The beginning and end are almost music, the separate sounds of materials and ornaments and wildlife in the garden edited together and warped to make a beautiful sound. The middle is a very honest recording of the walk through the garden, where we can hear the voices of Keith and the recordists, as well as their footsteps and Keith's stories. At one point, we just sit and listen to the tide for a very long time, and with my eyes closed, I really felt like I was sitting on the beach outside the cottage with my eyes closed. 

"Jarman's Garden" is very much a moment of remembrance, and what I like most about the piece is the transition from a heavily controlled and edited piece to a straight recording of the visit, during which you can identify where all the sounds of the 'music' came from. I also like the way that DeLys also uses poetic quotes to illustrate the feeling of being in the garden. 

"BUSY old fool, unruly Sun, 
        Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?" - John Donne, The Sun Rising

I very much like the idea of creating a piece inspired by poetry.

Option 3: The Sound Recordist

"The Sound of Sport"
Peregrine Andrews
The Sound of Sport (article only)

This is a documentary narrated by and about the experiences of BBC sound engineer Dennis Baxter. He talks about his job recording sport sound as well as his past and his journey to his current position. 

The piece includes sound effects of balls, crowds etc, and his own narration, as well as soundtracks that seem nostalgic when he talks about his life in Georgia USA. It also includes archive sounds from programmes such as ESPN, which I find very interesting (for example from the first ever broadcast Olympic games, where only the commentators can be heard).
I think that using archive sound would be amazing; going through the history of a subject for example, but this could be costly and very difficult to get hold of. 


Option 4: The Intense Soundscape
"Beneath The Forest Floor"
Hildegard Westerkamp
Beneath The Forest Floor (article only)

This piece was recorded in the Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island; an ancient rainforest with some of the tallest and oldest trees in the world. 

Listening to the piece I found it extremely haunting, it was the feeling of a very detailed sense of where you are using microphones that pick up sounds that the human ear cannot. It was full of weird reverberations and bass sounds, ultrasonic sounds of bats and mice and insects and thick layers of atmosphere, leaves water etc. All of the low and high frequencies as well as those heard by humans have been carefully pieced together to create a sense of omniscience and more than anything, you feel as if you are there, very small and moving all the time (the effect here created by dynamics of sound). 
I thought that this piece was extremely chilling, and it would be wonderful if in any piece of work I could inspire that deep a feeling or effect on the listener.






Option 5: The Way It's Done
"Celestial Road"
Jacob Kirkegaard
Celestial Road (clip only)

Celestial Road is absolutely fascinating because the producer Kirkegaard developed radio transmitters to transform electromagnetic waves and electrostatic energy into sound. In "Celestial Road" he has recorded the sounds of solar winds and magnetic energy around the Northern Lights. 
During the session we listened to an interview with Kirkegaard before we heard the piece, and this helped us to understand the producer's aims. Throughout, we hear strange and unfamiliar sounds: buzzes, cracks and fizzles, beeps and haunting low frequency sonic drones. The sounds start thin and thicken, getting more and more dense, but as the producer says in his interview, there is no climax, the aim being to get the listener used to unfamiliar new sounds that have never before been captured (the same equipment is used by NASA). 
Personally this piece was my favourite, because it sounded surprisingly beautiful. Once I knew what the sounds were I really felt like I was surrounded by the greens and pinks of the Northern Lights. The process itself is absolutely fascinating and I really thought I was part of an unknown magical world; a place that was new and interesting and so peaceful. 
In terms of my project, this could be inspiration for a piece that charts a new world, devoid of any life and just the sound of the atmosphere to listen to. 


Option 6: Interviews and Archive
"Child of Ardoyne"
Alan Hall
Child of Ardoyne (article only)

This piece is a poignant recollection of the children that were killed during the wars in 1970s and 1980s Ireland. It is interviews and archive sound clips from the news and previous interviews, along with a rather moving reading of the names of the children killed, when and where they were from. It is read in such a way as war veterans are on remembrance day, and this is continued in the background of the other sounds. 

The piece is mainly voices, but you can always sense where these voices are placed in society; standing outside a school reminiscing, fighting with police officers, in a public high street, at home with a camera and an interviewer. In the midst of a battle. 

I mostly liked the stylistic way in which the names were read throughout the piece. It would be good to do something similar, that works for the project but also reminds you of something else, making a comparison. 

There were a few other pieces, but I didn't find anything that inspired me to create something similar. One was by wildlife recordist Chris Watson, but the sound of animals to me sounds generic and unoriginal. The other was another piece by Hildegard Westerkamp called "A Walk Through the City", and I found it very difficult to listen to, so found it equally as difficult to critically analyse and review. 

I will continue by researching more forms of sound art and then putting some direction into my research.