Sound as object

• Human sound – isolated from the body
• Speech
  • Function of Communication
  • Function of noise
  • Function of music
• Materiality of sound

In the initial thoughts on the continuation from Human < > Object of Project 1 to sound as object of Project 2, I was reminded of the exhibition ‘Reverberations’ at Röda Sten in Gothenburg I visited in July 2015. This exhibition used sound as its theme, ‘Reverberations explores how sound is employed in relation to form , shape and architecture, but also looks at and listens for ways in which sound embodies physical space and can be felt as a visceral experience.’ (Aukje Lepoutre Ravn, Curator, 2015). It posed the following questions that are interesting to consider in relation to sound being an object, existing as an object and perhaps with its own agency isolated from the human:

• ‘Is there such a thing as visual sound?’
• ‘How can something immaterial acquire a shape and occupy space?’
• ‘What remains after sound has faded away?’

• Jonas Gazell – Alternative Stable State [2013]

Gazell explores the interactions between the mechanical and organic in his sound-based sculptures and installations. ‘In the search for hidden qualities of the already well-known everyday objects, material and phenomena , Gazell identifies sounds and movements which we do not necessarily react directly to, but only register subconsciously.’ (Aukje Lepoutre Ravn, Curator, 2015). This notion of the hidden is particularly interesting in relation to the human voice as an elements that is in effect hidden, but that we respond to in different ways depending on how it is presented to us.

• Ursula Nistrup – Potential Unease [2014]

‘Nistrup is inspired by sound’s ability to be in constant flux – existing only in an ever-unfinished form. Within this conceptual realm Nistrup investigates the connections, frictions and collisions between sound’s relation to space, architecture, history and psychology.’ (Aukje Lepoutre Ravn, Curator, 2015). Sound being in flux and a constant state of change links back to my previous exploration of translation and a perpetual metamorphosis from one state to another. The notion of sound being unfinished again links back to an object having no defined start and end as the beginning of one and the end of another a wrapped up together, occurring simultaneously.

• Kirstine Roepstorff – The Money Maker [2014]

‘Roepstorff points to the invisibility of the human body as a reservoir of vibrations and as a producer of sound waves at the same time. Some of the mobiles feature figurative characteristics such as eyes, mouths and ears that suggest a symbolic and mythical iconography. Others consist of more abstract entities. Together they express the artist’s interest in intervening spaces that develop when a materialised exterior meets the internal realm of the body.’ (Aukje Lepoutre Ravn, Curator, 2015). The idea of interior and exterior further explores the hidden, the uncovering of which also uncovers a materiality that wasn’t evident at first. Roepstorff’s sculptures are fragile and have a resonance in the space without actually producing sound as we understand it.

• Vinyl, Terror & Horror – Tanz Mal Wieder [2015]

Vinyl, Terror & Horror consists of Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen, ‘their practice focuses on the relationship between objects and sound, and is presented in different situations such as installation, sculpture, composition work and live concerts.’ (Aukje Lepoutre Ravn, Curator, 2015). Sound here is built up into a performance, a crescendo of noise to create an alternate soundscape that works to bring objects to life. The objects in the space have an anthropomorphic quality and appear to both produce sound and react to it within the space.

Sound in the form of language and speech is also explored through Jenna Sutela’s work eVOCAL, this posited language as a virus that alters our material world. The work produced a set of 3D printed vocal chords and mouths derived from measurements taken over history, testing how body shapes language and language shapes the body. Sutela’s work draws upon The Electronic Revolution [1970] by William S. Burroughs, which posited that the development of the vocal tracts in protohumans occurred through the spread of a virus. This idea of language being a virus provides an interesting link to the current talk of vocal fry being an epidemic on women’s voices in particular. Sutela also explores the idea of language as word sounds and as such draw closer and closer to objects, this works to tune the human body and renders it more susceptible to the material vibrations inside and around it.

From a theoretical point of view Roland Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text discusses that the grain of the voice is a bodily phenomenon and not one of language and signification. That cinema captures the sound of speech close up and makes us here in their materiality, their sensuality, the breath, the gutturals, the mouth. This materiality thus has a single purpose which is bliss. Also Brandon LaBelle’s Lexicon of the Mouth will provide interesting ideas on the voice particularly focused on the mouth and that to think of the sound of the voice such as laughter, whispering, stuttering then we must think of the mouth.

Meeting with James Field and Clive McCarthy – 27/01/2016

• Sound as object
• Human sound – isolated from the body. The voice, speech, language.
• Phonopaper – iPhone app which produces a graphical representation of sound and also converts image to sound. You can record a voice or music and the app produces an image of that sound, which can in turn be re-translated back into sound again. However in this translation it weirds the original which is an interesting aspect to explore.
• Vocal Fry – epidemic on speech, akin to up-talk. Is this attributal to something? Is it possible to map the correlation of unheard patterns of speech? Are there historic examples of epidemics on speech?
• Sounds of magnetic fields – humans give off magnetic fields and each is different, is there a way of capturing this?
• Audio derived from different sources – what source?
• Explore sound as:
  • Ambience
  • Cacophony
  • Frequency
  • Harmony
  • Rhythm
  • Sampling
  • Timbre
  • Tone

Project 1 was always envisaged as one stepping-stone on a larger path to a final outcome. The practical work was undertaken as short, sharp and spontaneous experiments as a reaction to philosophical questions and I intend to use this methodology in Project 2. I do not intend to leave the project here; there is much more scope for further research, development and the uncovering of new unforeseen questions. The work completed here now forms the foundations for Project 2, where I wish to drill down to the route of the core complexities of Human and Object and uncover something unexpected. Here I have only explored the objectification of form, translating the appearance of the human to that of an object. Next I propose to explore the objectification of sound, the sonic is another intrinsic element to the human and also to objects. Speech as a function of communication, a function of noise, a function of music. Speech can be seen as an instrument in its own right. Equally both the human and object can make sounds via other means, guitar, piano, drum, synthesizer, plastic bottle, metal pipe, wine glass, can all produce sound when input in the correct way. Along these lines we can begin to see sound as object, the isolation of sounds from speech takes them out of their original context and opens up a new space for them to exist. Translation to an object through isolation. This can potentially highlight the materiality of sound, how sound can be a material and manipulated as such. Sound can be draped, weaved, ripped, folded, pressed, stretched, wrapped, billowed and creased. Isolated sound was a key element of Bill Viola’s work on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Viola played on a single isolated sound as part of the subject matter, magnified and enhanced this to fill the space. Sound here took on it’s own life as part of the work and focused you in on the action taking place within the image. The sound was as much an object in the space as anything you could physically see and touch, it became tactile in its isolation, had a spatial quality and an existence within the room. Sound through isolated speech, as an element of the human is something interesting to consider as a compliment to the appearance and experience of the human I have explored to date. When the human and the object are combined, something new is created in a 1+1=3 calculation. This third thing, the Tertium Quid, is the coming into being of something else through dynamic interactions where the agents themselves are not important, only the in-between is. This notion of the third thing and the coming together of two parts creating a new object relates back to my current thinking regarding the creation of objects. The human is combined with digital technology to create something new, a new object. Here the original human and the new object are unimportant, the in-between interactions where the connections occur, the translations happen and the changes materialise, hold everything meaningful.

Tertium Quid

ˌtəːʃɪəm ˈkwɪd,ˌtəːtɪəm/ 

noun

A third thing that is indefinite and undefined but is related to two definite or known things.

In order to undertake this next phase of my research and practice I will initially talk with the Extra Sonic Practices group at the University, the members of ESP explore sound in different ways related to their theoretical and artistic practices. A number of students and staff at the Academie Voor Pop Culture in The Netherlands that I have met through various iWeek activities, use sound as their primary practice. This spans music, performance, experimental sound and spoken poetry and will be a dynamic source of advice to develop a response to the objectification of sound. Finally utilising the knowledge and equipment as part of the Audio Production degree will provide me with the skills to successfully produce a response to my research.

29 January 2016 marked the end of Project 1, the culmination of which was gathered together in a research portfolio. This featured my journey so far through my project ‘Human < > Object’, bringing together my experiments and the theories that have underpinned them. I decided to print the cover image on two sheets of acetate, one holding ‘Human <‘ and the other ‘> Object’. A pale peach piece of coloured card was placed underneath them, this was used to play on the idea of skin colour to further bring in the element of the human.

View my research portfolio here http://bit.ly/1PpBSS7

Now on to Project 2.

Myself and Clive McCarthy visited Kevin Hallsworth, technician who runs the 3D printing software/equipment, on 2/12/15. This was a very useful meeting and we went through what was possible and how I would go about this. I can 3D print the 3D renders I have from 123D Catch and Photoscan as long as they are converted to a .stl file (a solid file) or I can use one of the 3D scanners that creates a real-time render (although this has issues with hair, so a hat may be required). We went through different materials/colours, in particular Kevin showed us examples that used a clear material where you could see the printing process underneath. This works well with my ideas around process, in particular highlighting the moment that one object becomes another or is translated in that of another. The human is translated into the digital and then into the object, equally the material is translated from its original state into that of the 3D object.

There were some obstacles highlighted, particularly that the 3D render mesh would need to be offset slightly and applied to the original in order to create the solid surface the 3D printer can see. This is especially necessary is the 3D render is open, i.e. that it is not a complete object.

The plan is to go back next week and start the process, along the lines of process and translation it would be interesting to print a model from each of the 3 processes I have used so far in my attempts to reducing a human to an object:

1. Render from 123D Catch
2. Render from Agisoft Photoscan
3. Render from 3D Scanner

Reflections on ‘Art in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environments and Epistemologies’ (2015) edited by Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin

‘The Existence of the World is Always Unexpected’ Jean-Luc Nancy in conversation with John Paul Ricco

This chapter centres around the anthropocentric view that is looking toward the end of humans as a form of species death, however this end has been redefined due to the shift in the technicity within humans combined with the eco-technical ecology the human exists in. This state brings about ‘the equivalency of ends’ (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 85), whereby ends are multiplying indefinitely and simultaneously proving to be substitutable for one another. The chapter continues this line of thought and goes on to refer to the ‘condition of an ever-renewed present’ (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 85), here the present is finite and in a permanent state of renewal as each new living moment is created. This process however exposes the incompleteness of the concept of the present, if the present is constantly renewing it can therefore never be equated to another moment or thing and in essence the present is never present as it is always tied up in its own end. ‘If one wants to speak of “end” it is necessary to say that the present has its end in itself, in both senses of goal and cessation. The finitude of each singularity is thus incommensurable to every other, and therein exists the equality of all singularities – their in-equivalence.’ (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 86).

Ends are further discussed in that originally natural constraints, ‘climate, soil conditions, the size of seas and rivers’ (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 88), have determined the modes of human existence and contributed/been the catalyst for the end. Now the end is predicated by the mastery by human technical activities, ‘steam, electricity, oil, the atom, semi conductors… nanotechnology and genetic modification (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 88), over both the human and the concept of ‘natural’. Therefore there is no idea of a unique object ‘the universe’, there are many ‘multiverses’ becoming together. These multiverses are entangled together where one or more conditions affect in various relations. This notion consequently means there can be no singular image of the ‘world’, relating here back to the ever-renewed present where the multiverses are always becoming and the concept of the present, of a moment where you can see the world as it is, is unachievable as its own end is always-already contained within.

The chapter also briefly touches on some phrases I found particularly interesting:

• The problematic of ends – the issue where any way in which to speak of the “end of the world” is always preoccupied with “ends”.
• Kingdom of ends – derived from Kant that is a state of existence where all must choose to act by laws that imply an absolute necessity and to use their fellow subjects as ends in themselves, rather than means to achieving their own end goal.
• Absence of ends – one of the principle ways in which humanity has confronted this is through art.

Ultimately, ‘The “ends” today are clearly endless.’ (Davis and Turpin, 2015, 90)

‘We’re Tigers’ Ho Tzu Nyen

‘Speech is a spell, and words, once ejected into the air, warp the weave of worlds.’ (Tzu Nyen, 2015, 191).

Otherness; otherness of nature, of animals, of speech, is the basis of this chapter. Tzu Nyen discusses these concepts in terms of tigers within the Malay world, how they are perceived and spoken about and the mythology that surrounds them. The tiger is referred to as:

• Mpu uton (grandfather of the forest)
• Mpu tempat (grandfather of the place)
• Datok (grandfather or ancestor)
• Gop (other person, someone) [perhaps this could be an interesting way to define the new objects I have been attempting as translated from the human?)

The last of these I find the most interesting, suggesting the tiger is ‘other’ as defined from the human. Othering something places it in a realm outside, it creates a separation between the two instances. In fact from previous knowledge of our ecology, from an ethical standpoint, all instances are becoming together and the world is an entangled mesh of the human and non-human evolving perpetually. We can however view this from the perspective as the tiger being ‘of the forest’ and of nature and therefore other to humans, but Tzu Nyen notes ‘never completely or radically so. For it is also kin, bound by blood to humans.’ (Tzu Nyen, 2015, 191). Here the chapter goes further to suggest we much think ‘with the tiger, where thought can be propelled into a realm anterior to the formation to the human mind’ (Tzu Nyen, 2015, 191). Or to put this differently, thought as coming before the formation of the human mind in a linear sense. Anterior here can also be seen as an othering, akin to exterior as the removal of thought from mind, thought is other to human and therefore we can think of the tiger by these redefined non-human perspectives. Taking away the human centrality to the perception of the tiger as a being existing with the forest, with nature, with humans.

The chapter then goes on to discuss notions of mythology, whereby in the Malay world ‘the tiger was believed to live in villages, where the houses have walls of human skin, and the roofs are thatched with human hair. And when crossing lakes and rivers, the tiger can dissolve into the shape of a man.’ (Tzu Nyen, 2015, 194). Tzu Nyen describes this concept as a “weretiger”, perhaps this can also be applied to my project work in the creation of a “wereobject”. The space where objects live in houses of human skin with  roofs of human hair and there is a point, or boundary, at which they cross over and dissolve into a human? ‘To embark upon the trail of the weretiger is to follow through with its line of perpetual metamorphosis and seek in the entanglements of this anthropomorphic but not anthropocentric line.’ (Tzu Nyen, 2015, 198). If we see the weretiger as the object, in order to find the object and trace its path we need to follow through with its perpetual metamorphosis/transformation/rebirth and look for the entanglements of this line, look for the in-between.

‘Ecosystems of Excess’ Pinar Yoldas

Here Yoldas discusses the plasticity of our evolved ecology, ‘Today the composition of the oceans is undergoing a dramatic change in which synthetic molecules are taking over… “the ocean has turning into a plastic soup.”‘ (Yoldas, 2015, 359). Our primordial oceans that have been the birth place of organic life, have now been transformed into a plastic soup where plastic waste is causing synthetic molecules to take over. The question becomes, if life emerged/evolved from our current plastic filled oceans, what would this be? My project is perhaps a reaction to this question in the form of a 3D printed plastic human, then adding the human back in to showcase this sense of the plasticity of evolution. Offering here plastic life without humankind.

The concept of the Plastisphere, defined by ecosystems that have evolved to live in human-made plastic environments, is interesting as an example of the entanglement between human and object where humans have created these plastic environments that (as previously discussed) are now the catalyst for the end. Similarly a Plastivore (or Plastivorous), meaning ‘plastic-eater’ as an animal who normally derives energy and nutrients from a diet consisting of food sources in the urban environment, shows this translation between human and object and the plasticity of evolution is performing this from the inside out. Plastivorous animals utilise these food sources to make it stronger or provide a more aesthetic appearance to blend into its urban environment. Here the chapter gives examples of biological systems that have evolved in this plastic ecology, existing in an in-between state between human and object:

• Stomaximus – Plastivore Digestive Organ – this organ is able to metabolise a variety of plastics.
• Chelonia Globus Aerostaticus – Plastic Balloon Turtle – this species of marine turtle feeds off of latex balloons causing the elastomer lining on top of its shell to have a pneumatic quality and allow it to float when it is exhausted.
• Pigmentation in the Plastisphere – From Factory to Feather – Plastisphere birds obtain their colours from either pigments in the plastivorous organisms they eat or from the plastics themselves. As a result of metabolising plastics that consist of colorants produced in the Pantone Universe, the feathers are defined by pantone colours.

These concepts are useful to relate to the materiality of my project, plastic here is a deliberate choice in the attempt to find the point at which the human translates into an object and closely resembles the processes of evolution that have become largely defined by human-made plastic.

ESP Research Seminar – 2/12/15

Extra Sonic Practices is an informal network of practitioners and researchers interested in sound and the seminar centred around each of them presenting their work and how sound is used within this. ESP is made up of Marie Thompson, Emily Wilczek, David McSherry, Dylan Roys, Annie Morrad and Stewart Collinson. Interesting concepts that came out of this included sound as object and the relationship between heard and felt.

Stewart Collinson discussed how he is interested in the in-between of image and sound, what is in-between the two is the most important aspect. When image and sound are combined, something new is created in a 1+1=3 calculation. This third thing, the tertium quid, is the coming into being of something else through dynamic interactions where the agents themselves are not important, only the in-between is. The ‘waves’ not the ‘particles’. This notion of the third thing and the coming together of two parts creating a new object relates back to my current thinking regarding the creation of objects. The human is combined with digital technology to create something new, a new object. Here the original human and the new object are unimportant, the in-between interactions where the connections occur, the translations happen and the changes materialise hold everything meaningful.

The concept of vocal fry was discussed by Marie Thompson, which are feminine/feminised noises defined as the low vibratory sound at the end of sentences in the form of a creak or a growl. This is particularly interesting as recently this has sparked debate on vocal fry being used to marginalise women and on the other hand, something that women need to get rid of in order to reclaim our strong voices. The fry register has an affectation that when used in an experimental context, such as experimental vocal music, can create a tapestry of sounds. An example of this that Marie showed was that of ‘Cathing Joan la Barbara’:

Along these lines we can begin to see vocal fry as object, the isolation of these sounds from speech takes them out of their original context and opens up a new space for them to exist. Translation to an object through isolation. This highlights the materiality of sound, how sound can be a material and manipulated as such. Sound can be draped, weaved, ripped, folded, pressed, stretched, wrapped, billowed and creased.

Sound through speech as an element of the human is something interesting to consider as a compliment to the image and experience of the human I have explored to date.

Reflections on ‘Magic Death’ Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality

‘When we exit from our ideological “world” with its familiar contours, we are still somewhere… These transitional spaces are not just a void… They both hold that the interstitial space between things is not a blank void. In fact, it’s charged with meaning, even with causality.’ (Morton, 2013, 197).

As the counter to my previous reading of ‘Magic Birth’ from Timothy Morton’s Realist Magic, ‘Magic Birth’ centres around the death of objects. Initially the chapter discusses the full life process:

• To be born – for a rift between essence (the mode of existence or the intrinsic elements that make a thing what it is as distinguished from others) and appearance (what seems to be, the perception of a thing in contrast to reality) opens up. To expand on this appearance and essence can be seen as appearance (phenomenon) and thing-in-itself (noumenon) as defined by Kant. Appearances are objects as we experience them with our spatial/temporal categories of understanding. Things-in-themselves are objects as they might be in themselves and known by pure intellect, beyond knowledge.
• To persist – for the rift to suspend itself
• To end – to coincide with one’s sensual appearance in a unification of the object with its concept. When objects die we perceive its withdrawness, we can no longer point to either the object or its death only the fragments left behind. In order to exist in the first place, Morton posits that objects must be fragile or incomplete.

Morton discusses the end further whereby the aesthetic of an object initiates a ‘subject-quake’ or a little death, these quakes cancel out the difference between a thing and its appearance and ultimately bring about the end of an object. In this process the end of an object brings about beauty. Beauty here is described, as derived from Kant, the experience of co-existing with an object. When an object ends it fuses with both the space inside and outside, it becomes its environment, it co-exists with another object.

The death of the object is further expanded through a process of transformation into another, the initial object is taken over and translated into that of another. The more complete the translation, the more complete the death. However, Morton counters that every translation is necessarily imperfect, an uncanny resemblance where the object is no longer the same but still resembles it in its appearance. The object both is and is not. Applied to my own project work; the translation of a human to that of a 3D render of itself can be seen as the death of the human object in the translation to the 3D object. The 3D render bears an uncanny resemblance to the human, but it is a virtual amalgamation of a mesh and a texture. It both is and is not the human. The 3D head can also be seen, by Morton’s follow up concept, as existing in a ghostly half-life. However, Morton states that objects are already ghosts of themselves, birth/persistence/death are all happening simultaneously. An object is at its end at its beginning, persistence is just the facade on top of this, ‘an object is just a “black hole” with a fading photograph of itself on its surface.’ (Morton, 2013, 196).

‘An object affects another object by translating it, as best it can, into its own terms… A perfect translation of one object by another would entail the destruction of that object.’ (Morton, 2013, 199).

Further along the lines of the incompleteness of objects, the 3D render is thus the reduction of the human to pure appearance where the inner fragility of the human (the basis that it can exist at all in Morton’s view) activates its own destruction. This destruction is through the 3D process interfering with the rift between essence and appearance that resulted in the human object being born in the first place, this is done by translating the human so radically into a 3D object of itself that the human collapses. By collapsing the human is allowing itself to aesthetically attune itself to its translator. Yet, as Morton continues, ‘there can be no perfect translation of an object, because the translator is also an (inconsistent) object… Thus there appear cinders, fragments, debris.’ (Morton, 2013, 200). This is evident in the incompleteness of the 3D render; the gaps in the mesh, the debris of extra triangles, the fragments of distorted features. Ultimately, ‘new objects are uncanny reminders of broken objects.’ (Morton, 2013, 200). Perhaps within my project I am not finding the point at which the human becomes an object, but rather the translation of the human into another. The inbetween of one object’s end and anther’s birth and at which point either is just persisting, suspended in the rift.

Morton ends the chapter by discussing this process in relation to time, there is no end of one object and then the beginning of another. The two modes of time intersect, an object’s destructive relating and the futural not-yet-ness of beginning. The two are occurring at the same time in different dimensions, in different modes of existence, outside of linear time in the ‘Moment‘. ‘The glass is forgotten – not by us, but by the shards’ (Morton, 2013, 218), or, the human is forgotten – not by us, but by the mesh.

On Wednesday 25 November I went on a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the Bill Viola exhibition in the Underground Gallery and Chapel. The works in display showcased some of his well known video/installation work and a new piece ‘The Trial’, All of these were set in pitch black rooms with the work as the overwhelming main focus of the space.

One of the biggest elements which hit me about the pieces was the use of sound, sound was used here to create a fully immersive experience. Viola played on an isolated sound which was part of the video/process, magnified and enhanced this to fill the space. Sound here took on it’s own life as part of the work and focused you in on the action taking place within the short video loop pieces.

One of my favourite pieces featured people walking backwards and forwards through a wall of water, as they moved through it they lost or regained their colour. This was such a simple effect, but within the stillness of the space had huge impact. The process gave the effect of an afterlife or grey void where all colour signifiers were removed, then when they came back through the water it was a process of transformation into a full colour HD image. Water again played a part in another piece of people suspended in water, suspended in space, a space they can exist in a new context of a frozen moment. These looped videos were placed all around the room and gave the effect of ‘Ophelia’ by Sir John Everett Millais, the people were forever frozen in this moment of underwater tranquility and existing in a space between life and death.

Another favourite installation features sheets of muslin suspended in the space and projected on from both front and back, the two videos interwove together and interacted with each other. You could then move around the space and see the videos from different perspectives, offering new experiences on the work. As part of this the videos featured people walking towards the camera, when transferred to the sheets of muslin this made them appear to be physically walking in the space.

Accompanying this in the very end room of the Underground Gallery was the library space, here there were books, quotes and documentary videos of Viola explaining the work. The quotes on the walls provided some great insights into Viola’s thinking:

• Landscape – projection of the inner space of the mind. Stillness of the outside of an apartment building isn’t still at all, by removing all cues you see from the outside that the inner voices become louder and clearer.
• Finitude is what being alive is all about.
• Art exists in the mind of the viewer who has seen it.