Metals...

I have been looking at different materials recently and came across these textured metals that have all been corroded with water. The textures are wonderful, almost like soil or earth, there is a great depth and physicality about them. I would love to be able to use something like this in my final piece....The wonderful thing about metal is the textures, it has such a presence of history within itself, and I could work with it to age and roughen it and be able to give it its own history...

Meeting Mel Shearsmith....

As part of the New Artist's Programme, Mary Modeen has invited performance and video artist Mel Shearsmith to come and speak with us next week...Mel Shearsmith is an artist that looks at movement in relation to our environment and how we respond and move in space. She has also made installation works, involving public participation that has allowed her to create more interactive and intimate experiences. As an arist, Shearsmith mainly works with the themes of the human body, site and langauge, which are all key themes wihin my project too. As part of her visit she has given students the opportunity to meet with her and have a 1-1 tutorial, which I think would be great as it would be a new perspective out with the small circle of art school. I have been in discussion with Mel this week and am really looking forward to meeting her and talking more in depth about the performative and live aspects of my project, especially in relation to looking at how to engage the audience and make them become part of the work. I hope that through meeting another artist who works within the medium of live art, I will be able to have a clearer idea of how I can bring my own experiences into a presented space tfor degree show...

Reflections~The end of a journey...

I have now come to the end of my journey on investigating spaces with resonance. Through this I have travelled across Scotland, in all different directions and I feel very accomplished and happy with the final outcome of this process. It has taught me a lot in the way of revealing our relationship, or perhaps my own to the spaces that we as humans inhabit. Through out this journey I have also got to visit many places I wanted to go to in the past but never had the time to, so in a way this project has also shown me how important it is to visit spaces and be in their presence.
Now, that I have done all my recording, it is time to begin thinking of how I am going to translate these experiences into a final piece for degree show. One thing that I have decided for the degree show is to make a book archiving this journey. All the photographs, artefacts, memories/thoughts and recordings will be put into a book so the process is never lost and always connects back to the final piece of work. As an artist, I feel it is important to create a situation where the public can experience their own resonance, for this has been without a doubt the most influential and powerful element of this journey. The truth is that a recording is never going to really give the feeling or capture the moment that you have within a space, it is only really an imitation, an echo of the real voice... So I think that in order to recreate this experience I have to do it live, and with real human presence, which has been the true focus and drive to my work.
Listening to your own resonance is a way to become more in touch with yourself and the world around you, it is extremely therapeutic, transforming and gives you a sense of self-awareness that is stronger than looking into a mirror. Because sound is so ephemeral and physical, I find that we don't listen with our ears at all, but with our bodies, and with our intuition, especially in spaces that we do not know. I want to create a space where I can invite the public to discover their own presence and resonance, and for them to interact with it in a very internal and personal way. One of the things I have been thinking of and would like to do is a workshop that invites an external group of participants to explore their resonance as a way for me to see how other people interact with space. Personally I use my voice as a way to measure my presence in space, but other people will have different ways of interacting and creating dialogues with space.
What I also really need to do is to get into the wood workshop and start experimenting with materials and making smaller mock spaces, to get a feel of ow different shapes and sizes can affect the experience inside them...I am also really looking forward to the Richard Layzell workshop and the night of Performance with D-AiR. I am hoping/proposing to do a performance that will involve durational singing, and I've been thinking of finding a big sheet of metal or a material that reverberates sound that will create a resonant wall and sing onto it. Then I will ask people to join me to create a collective resonance. Hopefully this will help me begin to think of how I am going to transform a completely internal experience into a external one, and one which the public themselves can experience their own resonance.

Wanderings at Roslyn Glen...

 "You inhabit it for a moment, but it inhabits you forever."

Over the weekend I visited Roslyn Glen as my final site to record in. This was very interesting, as I have previously been to the woods many times in my childhood, so it has been the first space I have gone to where I already have past memories and connections with. All the other sites I visited have been unknown, and therefore my dialogue with the spaces themselves have been completely influenced by this first meeting.In this case it was a very interesting to re-visit and to include my passed in this journey of resonance. In saying that, I have never actually entered the Chapel before, so the performance inside that was still engaging with it for the first time. I think there is a big difference between engaging with a space that you are familiar to and one which you are not, it is much easier to be aware of yourself in a space that is unknown because you are not used to existing in it. As well as projecting into the Chapel I also did a series of experiments in the woods to capture the outside space and the feel of nature. This was interesting as I realised that I feel my projections are very different when projecting outside to inside and in particular to being in an enclosed or open space. In an enclosed space I am much more directing my energy and channelling myself into its wall. In an open space the energy floats into different directions and is never contained or reflected back to me. 

The following day I returned to Roslyn to record inside the Chapel. I managed to gain access to the lower level of the Chapel which had a much more internal feel and a greater reverberation. Coming out of the spacel I wrote a small entry of how I felt after my performance....

I feel disorientated, like an inner energy has overcome me and I am radiating inside it. The silence is overwhelming and the sounds that come out of me are like natural notes. Vibrations all over my body, you take the space with you once you leave it, you inhabit it for a moment, but it inhabits you forever. We are the spaces that we live in, our internal dialogues echo through out the the walls and sometimes we can hear ourselves, our presence existence and soul. Space reveals us, it embodies and frees us, or inhabits and traps us. We move around constantly emitting energy into the earth and as an artist I believe we should encourage and to reveal that human presence as itself an art form. ~I feel overwhelmed with my experiences of space and what they have given me, which is a profound sense of self, of my internal space, of the invisible aspects of humanity, that we cannot see, but which we can feel through sound...Space reflects us like a mirror, yet it shows us our invisible image, it reflects our personal frequencies, our tones and echoes, our resonance....

It is very personal, like singing to your most deepest and unconscious self...

Listen with your whole body, not with your ears. 

My Trip to Hamilton Mausoleum...

"My Body is a Temple..."

Last week I went to visit the Hamilton Mausoleum which was a truly amazing experience. The structure itself looked very surreal in its surroundings; it stands as a temple amongst shopping centres and resonates from a completely different time. The Mausoleum reminded me of some of the buildings I visited last year whilst travelling Italy. It felt a bit like I was re-visiting spaces I had already entered, but yet in a completely different context...there was a familiarity about the structure that I already connected to. The Mausoleum itself is an amazing structure, for one no one can tell when the the building was finally completed and as you explore the site, you find visual metaphors everywhere that link back to the cycles of life. One of my favourite parts of the monument is situated at the rear of the Mausoleum, which leads to the crypt in the vaulted basement. Placed infront of the vaults are 3 gates that give way to different entrances, one for the dead, one for the living and one for the imortal. Above these gaits, 3 statue heads were placed to represent the stages of life: Life, Death and Immortality. What is wonderful and rather intriguing is that the statue that represents life is the one that has the most damage with the features of the face all eroded and weathered, then following lies death, which is slightly less touched and lastly immortality which stands almost perfect, the face is clear. The language of the building invites so many mysteries and has an aura of complete magic. I felt completely drawn to the building, and this was even before I had entered it...

                                                 

When I went inside the main chamber I was immediately overwhelmed by the shear size of the space. As you entered it you were immediately aware of your presence and resonance. The building is made of stone and when inside you saw many ritualistic and religious symbols like the all seeing eye placed in the ceiling, the steps to heaven hidden within the floor, and the corners of the chamber, each represented the different circles of life...The Hamilton Mausoleum is listed as the building with the longest echo in the world, with the sound reverberating for 18 seconds and continuously spiralling into the atmosphere... When projecting into it I felt my body completely disappear, and for a moment I was just my voice and the energy projecting from inside me. It is in that moment of projecting that you disappear, you become just a sound and an invisible body living through the space itself. It is the purest form of existing, just listening to ones own resonance...It really is like experiencing some sort of ritualistic awakening, in that moment you truly share yourself with the space and within it you find your own voice...

This was a wonderful experience, I have to say that I have never felt so affected by a space in such a strong way, when I left I felt very light, like all my air had been taken away and my sense of physicality had completely gone. Through out this process I have started to notice that a lot of the sites I have been visiting have links back to Italy. The Italian Chapel, the Mausoleum itself which looks just like the Pantheon in Rome. So in many ways the buildings that I am resonating into all, already resonate experiences from my past, like reincarnated memories.... 

MY RECORDING....

SOIL/ Foot prints...

At the moment there is work being done to the campus and lots of diggers and builders are scattered all over the place. In some ways it has become a bit like living on a building site, there is earth everywhere and fences all around the college. Walking passed it one morning though, I realised that the soil left foot prints in it, leaving traces and imprints of the people who had walked through it... It made me think of my project and how I would also like to use this element within the piece, so the soil would not only link us back to the earth but would aslo archive all the people who entered and interacted with the space, as another form of human resonance....

List of possibilities for Degree Show Piece:

-The structure is made out of natural materials that give the space true resonance and echo. This means that the internal chamber is lined with a hard reflective surface that allows sound to bounce off the walls and spiral up, projectinginto the space. The public can enter it and experience their own resonance within the space.

-The structure is made to look like a chamber, but in fact inside is a virtual landscape and experience. The internal chamber of the structure is lined with sound insulation foam, to make it a dead sound space. Inside it I will install both small speakers and microphones that will be connected to a programme virtually projecting the resonance within the chamber.

-The chamber is a wide spherical space in which the public can enter and experience their own resonance and spatial relationship to the structure.

-The space is womb/ tomb where only one member of the public is allowed to enter at a time.  It is a very internal and private experience. Where the human voice is singing to them alone.

-The space has subtle hints of my voice to encourage the public to resonant themselves within the space.

-There is soil on the floor, allowing the public to see the invisible trails of all the people who have entered before them.

Echo Chambers.....

Next week, I will be finally visiting the Hamilton Mausoelum after going through a long process of communication with the managers on the site. This will mark the end to my investigations on spaces with resonance as I now focius on creating ym own space. I will also be visiting the Roslyn Chapel and Wallace's cave in Edinburgh...This will be my last chance to record my own invesyigations and will give birth to my own creation, where I recreate my journeys and present them to the public to experience for themselsves.....

  

ECHO CHAMBER 

STRUCTURES....

These are a selection of structures that I have been looking at in relation to the possible form for my final piece. At the moment, I am thinking of creating a cone shaped bell, that will be supended from the cieling, with sound projected from inside it. The structures will then be surrounded with soil.

SOUND INSTALLATIONS.....

I thought it would be good to begin looking at ways in which sound has been installed into spaces in the past. Whilst researching, I found some very interesting ways of changing the experience through how you install, position and present it.

 http://www.body-pixel.com/2009/03/03/interview-with-satoshi-morita-on-sound-experiences-through-the-body%E2%80%A6/#more-1962

BLURB...............

Everyone keeps on asking me what the 'MAIN' point to this piece is, and I have to say I am lost, because I am not sure..It is a complex micture of things that I am trying to mesh them all together to create one big project. The piece is fundamnetally a sonic experience, using the human voice to create a dialogue with space. This is done as an installation piece where space and sound come together to create an immersive experience. Within the space, the human voice comes out of nowhere and creates a dailogue with the person standing inside it. It is meant to feel as though you are entering the human body, or an 'internal space'....
This is one side of the piece, the other has to do with the resonance of space and in specific to hsitoric sites. I have been collecting recordings from all over Soctland and in particular looking at spaces that reververate, I have been looking at spiritual and sacred places, tombs and churches. Spaces that hold a lot of resonance within them and already hold a great sense of presence and
With these recordings I hope to create a soundscape to project into the space for the final installtion. This will allow my voice to project the spaces back into the dgeree show, carrying the same presence, echo and resonance.
The final part of the piece is the strcuture I want to project into. For me it is extremely important that there is physical presence of soemthing material, and something that defines an internal experience. I also really want to use soil, this is a very organic material and relates to the cycle of life and death, being a material that symbolizes fertility and growth as well as burial matter. Soil is what I see relates back to the tombs, but also this internal dialogue with the earth, with space and nature.
During this process I have also been thinking of immaterial architecture and how we can create spaces through different mediums, like sense and touch, and sound. But I really do want to create something physical, like a chamber, a structure that the public can enter. This means that within the space, the person inside it can truly be immersed by the experience....
And finally I also love the idea of the peice being 1-1, so the artist is singing to the public directly, as if singing to them, but in a different land. So these, are all my MAIN points, and perhaps what I have to begin doing is focusing on one rather than all of them, although i have connected them so well in my head that now I find it hard to differentiate which one is which, they have all become part of each other.
The main thing for me is that I really want the public to participate in the experience of the peice, I want them to be able to become a part of it...

IMMATERIAL ARCHITECTURE....

Immaterial/Material

Tangible Architecture

Experiencing invisible space

Ephemeral Experience

External/Internal

Internal-Self Architecture 

Listening with/ through the body...Portraying the invisible aspects of space. 

"The richness of the user's experience of any building depends on awareness of all the senses, but immaterial architecture may trigger a sense more often associated with the immaterial such a smell, a touch, or a sound."

After reading the book Immaterial Architecture, I am now really liking the idea of focusing on the space as a invisible form. Not the structure itself but the other side, the invisible side, what we cannot see...I am really beginning to like this idea of 'immaterial architecture'....Before I was really anxious to involve the physical presence of the cairns in my degree show, as a way of bringing the sites back with me. Now I am beginning to realise that the sound themselves can bring the sites back and I can create more ephemeral experiences, more magical ones, where the space itself is sculpted by the sound, and appears invisible...Now with this in my mind, I want to begin exploring how I can create a show based on my experiences and how I can introduce sound to the space, how can I sculpt the experience with no physical structure, just the human voice? Entering and existing the space through my voice...What sort of dialogues do I need to have with the space in order to capture the essence of being within them?....

Richard Long....

3 Minute Wonder: Richard Long, Dartmoor from Nico Wasserman on Vimeo.

Artist Richard Long uses the landscape around him as his studio and sculpts into it, forming natural and environmental art works. He uses the medium of walking and connecting with the land as his artistic process. He connects his relationship to the environment and creates a dialogue with it that becomes the forefront to his work. He describes his practice by saying "it is art that can be made in solitude." This very much relates to the sense of work I want to make, work made in an internal and private space that can then be shared and projected into a more external one...
My art is about the landscape, but mostly what it focuses on is the relationship we have with space and the human imprint we leave behind on the spaces we exist in....I really want to investigate our relationship to space and the invisible ties we have with it. How can we exist through one another? The space through us, and us through the space?....
Long explains that he makes the work for the land and that the essence of social or human presence is not importnat to him. This very much made me realise that in my case, the human presence is the most important aspect to this piece, how we as humans sculpt space and use it to aid our lives. Even thinking about small things, like for example the places I want to visit in the world all hold traces of human  presence. They hold monuments of human activity and show how other cultures have lived through out civilisation. Coming to think about it, I am actually quite scared by the presence of bare landscape, it is very over powering and strong. Yet I love the way we try to sculpt it, and make it into our home, into dwellings we can exist in. This is a very primitive process, we have been doing it since the beginnings of human existence. The places we live symbolise with our lives, and our death. The world is not just a place we live in, it is also our resting place, where our physical bodies lie. Our connection with the earth is vital to the way we live and is extremely personal, each person has their own home, their own external and internal landscapes.

Angkor, Cambodia and Petra Tombs, Jordan. 

We create temples and monuments, create sacred spaces, we cultivate space and the landscape. Human presence can also be invisible, bringing ourselves, back into ourselves. In my own way I want to create the essence of a temple, a space to inhabit, a space to absorb human presence and to regenerate my public, to give them a space to experience their own resonance, and to sculpt the land as a way to heal our selves, to bring is more connected to the spaces we exist in, I want to bring the landscape back to humanity.