Monday, November 28, 2011

REFLECTIONS/ THOUGHTS....


This week I have been thinking a lot more in depth about the materials I would like to use for this sculpture/structure as they are fundamentally going to define the space, so I feel it is important to make sure they work in relation to my overall concept. It is for this reason, I have started to edge away from using such an industrial material like metal, and have begun thinking of using more natural ones....
It is in this reflection, that I have also realised that a lot of the spaces I have been looking at in relation to their acoustic qualities are spaces that were bult as sacred monuments for housing the dead. The cambered cairns are indeed tombs and the Hamilton Mausoleum is also a burial chamber, so this really made me think about these structures in relation to their context and how they exist in the world. I find it extremely interesting that these spaces house some of the most reverberant and acoustic infrastructures of any of the buildings in the world, yet their purpose serves as a resting place. It almost feels as though the people that built these spaces believed that the dead could perhaps communicate beyond death and resonate back to the living world... 
I am very interested in this relation to the tombs, because originally, I had wanted to make this space like a womb, something that you entered as a reflective encounter and somewhere you could feel safe. Now I am beginning to think of how I could connected these two spaces, to construct a tomb/womb and create a limbo space in between, where one merges into the other, forming a darkness between life and death. In this darkness, the human voice would be projected, like a sound appearing from both ends, like a conversation between the living and the dead. It was when thinking about this connection between life and death that I suddenly began to envision a mass structure made of soil, of the earth itself. After all, soil is a burial material, it is something that we can clearly associate to the cycle of life; it is where humans decompose and become part of the land. I really like this link between humanity and space and I think soil is a perfect material to illustrate such a intimate relationship between our bodies and the land that we live in, realting back to my theme of 'human resonance'. 
I think that the structure I want to create for the degree show will have a closer ressemblance to the cairns than I had initially imagined. I want to build a space that links closely to the process of the journey I have undertaken to create the final piece. It has also been in my reflections of the physical structure that I have started to think of how the sound will penetrate it. By using a reflective surface that the sound can bounce off on the internal wall of the structure will allow the sound to travel and create some sort of reverberation. It is through the integration of both space and sound, that makes me think I need to look at working and experimenting with several materials to make the final piece. I would like the exterior of the structure to have a very natural and organic presence, with a sense of wisdom and direct relation to the land. For the inside I would like to create a defined body, a space that feels solid and timeless, where only your presence is what exists inside of it. I have started to envision my final piece as a massive mound of earth and plants, and on the inside a chamber of concerete or cement that will form a hard and strong structure for the person to enter and resonate within. This will allow me to create a structure that reflects two different surfaces, one that looks completely ephemeral and one that looks eternal. 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Sculptures...




These are some shavings that I found from some wooden boxes I was making today. The forms reminded me of the womb-like /shell space I want to make for my structure...It definitely has made me consider using wood as it is a material that I could work with. It would allow me to be a lot more physically engaged with the process of making the piece, and one that has a much more natural presence. Then I could line the interior with an acoustic sheet or something that is going to allow the sound to bounce off it with more vibration...It has started to get me really excited of all the possibilities for this project! 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hamilton Mausoleum..


Yesterday at the group crit I was told of a very interesting site called the Hamilton Mausoleum. It is located in Lanarkshire, Scotland and houses the longest reverberation of any building in the world, with sound echoing for 15 seconds inside the chamber. This is the sort of space that I would like construct and enable the sound to expand and ripple into the atmosphere...I would be very interested in visiting the Hamilton Mausoleum  and doing some recordings inside the space to see how the voice can physically travel. It would also be a great space to measure the sonic infrastructure as a way for me to get a better understanding of how to construct resonant spaces...
I also discovered whilst researching the site, that Arika, the founders of Kill Your Timid Notion, organised a tour visiting resonant spaces around Scotland back in 2006. It seems that I have taken a circlular journey, and discovered another connection between my practice and the people that first inspired me to look at sound as a medium...The tour looks amazing, I wish I had known about it then....They visited Orkney as one of their sites, and the project looked at manifesting sound within natural environments...Very inspiring!


Human Resonance Survey


As part of my research for this project, I have decided to make a little survey questioning our human relationship to space...I feel that I am always thinking of my presence within my surroundings, but do other people reflect on their presence and relationship to space? I am looking forward to reading on how people relate to space and how they perceive their own personal resonance...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Degree Show Ideas....




These are just some quick, initial ideas of what I would like my degree show to look like...A large structure in an empty space, completely taking over the presence of the room and resonating as a solitary object. I really like the aesthetics of the corrugated iron and think it will lend well to the acoustics of the space and the resonance inside the chamber when the sound is being projected into it. I really want the structure to intrigue the public as they enter it, and to make them think of their own presence and resonance within the space...

SOUND REFELCTION



When a longitudinal sound wave strikes a flat surface, sound is reflected in a coherent manner provided that the dimension of the reflective surface is large compared to the wavelength of the sound. Note that audible sound has a very wide frequency range (from about 20 about 1700 Hz), and thus a very wide range of wavelengths (from 20mm to 17m). As a result, the overall nature of the reflection varies according to the texture and structure of the surface. For example, porous materials will absorb some energy, and rough materials (where rough is relative to the wavelength) tend to reflect in many directions- to scatter energy, rather than to reflect it coherently. This leads into the field of architectural acoustics, because the nature of these reflections is critical to the auditory feel of a space. 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Resonating Chamber....


"Usando el espacio metaforico y literal junto a la voz humana para representar nuestra existencia, un dialogo entre la resonancia humana y el espacio..."
~
"Using metaphorical and literal space next to the human voice to represent our existence, a dialogue between human resonance and space..."

Sketches...



Richard Serra


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Architecture, Space and the construction of Subjectivity...

 "THE SHARED ORIGINS OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND OUR INNER-MOST CONCEPTIONS OF THE 'SELF'..."



Walking Reflections...

Spatial experience in relation to human presence...

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Orkney Recordings...

 

This is a collection of song that I recorded in Orkney....

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

PROJECT PROPOSAL:

I want to create a completely immersive experience, in which the public are invited to enter a large physical structure that takes form as a chamber. This chamber will represent the internal space of the human body and will reflect on how humanity expresses itself and resonates within the spaces that we inhabit. For this piece I want to focus on the more internal projections and use the space to show our more invisible and unseen qualities.
The project will take form as a sound installation using both sculptural and performative elements. As part of this project I will create both the physical structure of the chamber as well as performing within it. In this piece I plan to project myself within the physical structure of the chamber, using the human voice as a vessel and creating an ephemeral dialogue where we both vibrate off one another. The chamber will act as its own external body, and I within it will act as an internal one inside it.
It is within this exchange that I will invite the audience to enter and to experience their own presence within the space. The installation looks at our origins as human beings, it is a piece that explores our existence within spaces and creates a darkened realm which we must enter, like a womb.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Resonating Chambers....



I have realised, that in many ways, after my research trip up to Orkney, the direction of this project has changed, and it now seems to be taking form as a spacial installation in which we witness human resonance and interaction within space. I am interested in creating a physical structure to project myself into, and in doing so to investigate how humans resonante within the spaces we inhabit and how humanity leaves an eternal trail of their existence behind to tell a story. I like the idea of the voice being like a metaphor in this piece, and a way of forming an open dialogue with space, in which we can both exchange our projections of one another, the invisible and the visible, and transform each another through our collective presence.
I think the best way to create this space is to build a resonating chamber where I can experiment within. In the resonating chamber I would like to do an ephemeral performance in which I use the human voice to project the internal human being, and for my soul to vibrate off the space and into the atmosphere, like an open projection, one which we can recognize as a human call,  as if humanity were calling to Earth itself, to bring a connection between two bodies that live in one space.