Ann Hamilton...

This week I have been looking at American artist Ann Hamilton. Last week's visiting artists Mel Shearsmith suggested her to me, so I decided to look into her work. Hamilton's art consists of multimedia installations , using the mediums of textile, performance and sculpture. All her pieces involve audience participation, asking the public to respond and interact with the virtual space of her work. All of Hamilton's installations take place within large- scale liminal environments and she plays with out visual and sensory emotions, using colour, sound and light to sculpt and manipulate the way we experience these spaces. hamilton creates immersive experiences that respond both to the architectural presence and social history of the site. I like Hamilton's work because it presents a mixture of different mediums that together create sensory worlds. 

I especially like the way Hamilton uses her materials to create immersive spaces; she does this very playfully and pays great detail to to how all the different elements come together to form one piece. By sculpting space, she creates art that we can physically interact with and add history to with our own presence. She creates a virtual space, between worlds, her own world... 

Structure Shapes...

At the beginning of the week, I started to look a the different possible shapes for my final structure. Through this process I have been speaking to different tutors and technicians and have had mixed opinions regarding which one will be most resonant. All the shapes take inspiration from conical and spherical structures, like bells and trumpets. This weekend I plan to make mini clay models in order to see how the shapes form as 3 dimensional objects...I hope that this will lead to a final decision so that I can begin working with my architect to design the final piece.

SOUND THOUGHT

This weekend I went to Sound Thought, which is a festival held at the Arches in Glasgow. The festival revolves around sound and this year looked at its relation to sculture. I thought this would be an interesting event to attend and to begin thinking in relation to my own work. Some aspect of the festival were very interesting, especially the installation works, where you got taken on a journey through sound...

Cardboard Structure/ Clay model...

For the past few weeks I have been working on constructing a maquette out of cardboard to get a better understanding of the structure I will make for degree show. I have based the shape of the structure from my previous design, but now it will be suspended from the ceiling. The structure is about 2 metres high and 1 metre wide, so not as big as the one I will make for degree show, but still gives a sense of dimension and how the structure will look. Because I used cardboard the structure is made up of different panel, but for the final one I want to make it conical and rounded. I have really enjoyed making the maquette, it has proven to be challenging but now I have a clearer idea of how the final piece will look and I am excited to realise it. I also had a go at making a structure model out of clay....

                                           

   NOW TO MAKE THE REAL THING!!!

Spiral Sound Coil...

Looking through the book Site of Sound # 2, I stumbled across a project called 'Spiral Sound Coil', which very much resembles my own project idea....It was rather surreal to find a structure that so closely  resembled the sort of suspended sonic sculpture I have been thinking of, although it does not have exactly the same principles. The piece was a commission done by artist Aura Satz and explores the theme of 'site' and conceptual space. It was exhibited at the Jerwood Gallery in London in 2010. It has been very interesting to see how another artist has approached the theme of site and come up with a very similar shape, however a rather different approach. Satz's structure looks at experiencing site with the aid of technology, a decision that I very clearly decided to go against, and therefore gives an experience wehre the soundscape is already predetermined. What I am trying to do within my own project is to create a much more internal dialogue between our body and environment and for the sculpture to give the space for the public to experience their own resonance, which is a very different response to site as as the fundamental principle of my piece is for the audience to listen to themselves within the space. My structure will be more natural and on a larger scale, and will probably resemble a bell shape more than a cone. Her website states:

"Continuing her work as  artist in residence  at  the Ear Institute in London, Aura will  develop  a  new  intimate,  immersive  sound  sculpture  that  will  create  a  physical  and  psychoacoustic  sonic  experience whereby  visitors  will  be  encouraged to place their head inside the sculpture itself. Like a giant hearing trumpet or an automaton ear, the horn appears to tune into the vast library of past sounds that is the air. The multi-channel soundtrack outputs in a spiral sequence, thus echoing the rotating technology of wax cylinder sound recordings. Similarly, the narrative voice over explores the idea of memory being like a wax cylinder, a ‘mystic writing-pad’ of sorts, a blank slate onto which memories leave their trace and personal history is recorded."

SPIRAL SOUND COIL

YOU ARE NOT ALONE...

This week I have been looking at the book 'You are not alone' which explores the sound works of last years Turner Prize winner, Susan Philipsz. The piece was a commission that invited Philipsz to create a   site specific work for the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford. As a sound artist, she engaged with the space using the medium of sound and in particular her voice, which is always present within her work. For the piece, Philipsz worked with the technology of radio transmission waves to activate pieces in different sites around the Observatory. As part of this project she also looked at the original function of the building and created a series of works that engaged with the philosophies behind the universe. The sound projected was ethereal and haunting, you could hear her voice, but not see her, so the presence of the physical body is lost and all you can witness is the echo of a passed moment. 

Philipsz was inspired by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who was the first person to discover long distance radio transmission, which literally allowed him to tune into the universe. Marconi suggested the once sounds are generated they never die, they continue to resonate through out the world. I find this concept very interesting, as it links back to my own journey looking at resonance and the invisible trails that human beings leave behind. Space itself can contain our voices and we echo through them eternally, as an energy that is lost in the invisible framework of the world. Philipsz uses the technology to record her voice and to broadcast it within the Observatory, linking her back to the site of the universe...

Suspended Singing Sculptures....

I have started to take a new direction for the final structure for my degree show. Since being told at the beginning of semester that my first proposal was too ambitious, I have now been working towards a new type of space, one that will give the same illusion and experience of immersion. The new structure will be suspended, and will become more sculptural than architectural. It will use less materials and will be made on a smaller scale. I have been in discussion with many tutors and technicians about this new concept and it seems evident that this is the best way for me to go and proceed. These are some sketches:

So this is my new direction for the project. Now I need to look to focus and look at different materials and decide how I want to construct it. The new shape is conical and takes inspiration from a bell, allowing the sound to travel within the space. Bells are also very musical as objects and I like the idea that this would encourage the audience to project into it. The piece will now take form as a suspended singing sculpture that will invite the audience to engage with it on a one to one basis, like entering the physical body of internal space....