Sound
art
Sound
art is a very intriguing contemporary art discipline that takes many
forms, both small and monumental. It deals with many subjects
including experimenting with the sound itself, but also with objects
and materials that can generate it or finding sound in places that
you wouldn't normally associate with it. I chose a few examples of
sound art projects which in my opinion are interesting. Of course I
encourage you to watch the videos.
Playa
Made
by Ruben Dhers, it's an installation made up from 14 acoustic guitars
and 31 dc motors that... play these guitars. You might think that
this can't sound good, but it's actually quite pleasant to listen.
See for yourself.
Video:
http://vimeo.com/50200793
The
Singing, Ringing Tree
A
sculpture designed by Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu which
can be found in Lancashire, England.
It is made of steel pipes that generate sound thanks to the wind
blowing through them. While eerie or even unpleasant at times, it's
definitely interesting.
Everything
Was Forever, Until It Was No More
By
Konrad Smoleński. An installation you might have seen as it was
available to view in Zachęta not long ago. It consists of two bronze
bells, loudspeakers and resonating objects. The main idea behind this
installation is to manipulate the bells' sound by slowing it down and
adding reverb which turns it into a tangible mass that shakes the
environment. I saw the installation itself, but unfortunately I
haven't seen any of the performances.
Mirrors
Created
by Tim Bruniges, an artist based in Sydney, it is an installation
composed of two large concrete slabs facing each other. Their
positioning and characteristic shape makes them „sound mirrors”,
hence the title of the project. The microphones hidden in the center
of each mirror pick up ambient sounds in the environment around, then
the sound is amplified and reflected between both mirrors creating
delayed acoustic patterns.
Video:
http://vimeo.com/91990175
SPINE
Spine
is a huge, fifty meter long installation created by Kollision from
Denmark. It's made of twenty glowing cubes hanging in an almost empty
hall combined with ambient music and sounds. What's important the
sounds and movements of the whole installation are generated in
real-time as a reaction to people who pass by.
Video:
http://vimeo.com/55596743
Every
Object Has a Spirit
Oliver
Jennings plays around with everyday objects while using contact
microphones to capture the resonances in them. This creates strange,
ambient-like patterns and soundscapes. He also uses a device that
measures the bio-activity of plants and, based on this, creates
MIDI-notes which can be then used to turn into music.
Video:
http://vimeo.com/67947409
Questions:
What's
your opinion about this art discipline?
What
do you think about the examples I've posted?
Have
you seen any installations that could fall into the category of sound
art?
Sources:
I love 'Everything was forever, until it was no more'. I saw the installation and performance in Zacheta, and it was amazing. Also how people react on it. They were laying with closed eyes and focusing on this vibration and sound. Personally I was very interested is it really similar to bomb attack.
ReplyDeleteI am professionally connected with music and all of such performances and ideas are very close to my heart. For me it is another component of contemporary music. I will compere those examples with other ideas for instance works of John Cage. He is very famous contemporary composer. He composed 4'33'', which may seems stupid or genius. For me it is genius, because during so many years in history of composition nobody came up with such idea and became fame and glorious.
The other compositions that are worth mension are works of Arnold Schonberg and his the most famous "Pierrot Lunaire" with technique of Sprechgesang - spoken singing.
Another very interesting technique is punctualism. Not only Webern and Boulez but also polish composers like well known Kazimierz Serocki are important. The polish representative is even more important because of so called 'Group 49' that was fighting against iron curtain and socialist realism in art.
I love to see more examples of this kind of art. It is so amazing to look at it and some of them are well made. I hope that we have more of this kind of instalations in Poland because it is rare to see something "new" in art in our country.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea with glowing cubes. When i was watching this one I wanted to find myslef in that place and i wanted to touch those cubes so bad.
The next one that I really like is the idea of singing tree and the magic moment is that wind can give you diffrent melody every day !
Similar instalation as the Mirrors can be found at Copernicus Science Centre.
There are many examples in the internet of such art. Last year I was doing presentation about Eric Siu which work I shared with link under my comment and here is a video before Christmas ;D
http://vimeo.com/51699736
I think it's one of the forms of art which makes much more impact when you see it for yourself, not only on a video.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I really like the concepts of these; especially The Singing, Ringing Tree, which reminds me of the similar effects caused by nature in caves. I like the idea of displaying it outside, not in a gallery - which brings it closer to nature and also - to people, who may not be eager to visit galleries of modern art.
I've seen similar sculpture here:
This giant, spiky stargate is really a huge musical instrument
@Karolina
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you saw it in action. :) Must have been fantastic. I regret that I haven't seen any of the performances, but I saw the installation at least and for me it was really appealing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it.
@Katarzyna
Yeah, I'd really love to see the Spine in person too. It must look really cool. I'm also curious to what extent it reacts to viewers.
If you'd like to see more, I recommend visiting the Everyday Listening blog (the link it's in the sources). It has a lot of examples of sound art with descriptions, photos and links to videos.
@Patrycja
I agree with you. A video can't show us the power of sound and doesn't allow us to see the size of an installation. You need to be there to experience it fully, but it's not always possible. :)
Thanks for the link. They're indeed similar!
Although Ihaven't seen any of these ( or similar ) installations on live but some of them are interesting.
ReplyDeleteI mean:
Playa
The result is a beautiful ambient music at wchich we can relax.
SPINE
Great effect of sound and light connection. Synchonization of the two elements is the key in that project.
Ultimately, "Every Object Has a Spirit" can be considered as a innovative solution. However many sound engineers collects ambient sounds for use in i.e music or games production.
The author wrote that the sound of Singing Ringing Tree is unpleasant to hear. I don't agree with that but of course it is a thing of our personal taste. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the film presenting this installation. As soon as I saw it, I immediately thought about the cover of Pink Floyd's album The Division Bell – similar mood. Katarzyna, I see you enjoyed it too :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Spine was really interesting – it looks so unnatural and fascinating I would definitely like to see it personally. All these positive impressions came to me as a surprise, because I had a skeptical attitude when I saw what the article says about.
I didn't know about "Sound art". I am happy to see that modern art is not only about drawing black rectangles on a piece of paper, which I find simply insulting to the real art.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@s9397
ReplyDeleteWhile I said it's sometimes unpleasant to listen, I didn't say that I don't like it. :) I think The Singing, Ringing Tree is fantastic actually - both as a sculpture and as a kind of an instrument. For me the sounds it makes are very interesting. What's more I love the fact they're generated not by a human, but the wind only and, as Patrycja mentioned, this reminds of the howling wind in caves. And I'm glad that sound art turned out to be more interesting for you than you thought.
From mentioned sound installation in article I only like PLAYA and SPINE others installations are rather weird for me, but those 2 are great. I have never seen any sound art installation in real life, but in my friend room in block I have heard incredible sounds when wind was blowing in winter. Probably it was not the intention of architect but thanks to L block shape and recess on the connection of two parts of the block, now my friend can enjoy at every winter with nice sounds of wind.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of art is something new for me. I've never seen such installations. For me the best of presented sound art projects is SPINE. Combination of light and sound is amazing. This is somewhat similar to Multimedia Fountain Park in Warsaw. There are also using sound and light to the show.
ReplyDeleteThe Singing Tree and Mirrors are a litlle bit strange for me. The Singing Tree emits scary sounds. Perhaps it would make more impression on me if I saw it in person.
Very interesting project is piano stairs. You can learn more about it here.
I think that almost every one of us had some kind of "sound art" in their garden like this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://uscountryproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/home-and-garden-cheap-wind-chimes-for-sale-astonishing-wind-chimes-sound-effect-wonderful-images-of-wind-chimes-decoration-inspirations-wind-chimes-uk-wind-chimes-houston-tx-wind-chimes.jpg
It makes quite nice and relaxing sounds.
The whole idea of creating music form random things is quite strange but also interesting. For some it is just noise but others can hear the melody in this chaos and that is the purpose.
I like all these examples. I think sound art is the most interesting branch of contemporary art. Nowadays, art objects became symbol of some ideas, they rather don't have aesthetic value. However, created sound can be nice and aesthetical.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, connection of sound and image gives amazing effect. Recently I saw great laser show called "Dark Side Of The Moon" displayed in planetarium of Copernicus Science Centre. It was mix of Pink Floyd music with videoclip and special effects. It was amazing!
This kind of art is to me unknown. I watched these videos, but I could not see anything in this intriguing. Perhaps I am a little sensitive, or backward, but it is not for me, nothing interesting. All examples are strange to me. However, it is quite original and probably is a group of people that likes this kind of art. Impressive is how to prepare, but the same effect is not impressed me.
ReplyDeleteI liked PLAYA, SPINE and 'Everything was forever, until was no more'. It's interesting form of art until it's not overemphesized like art just for art. I like to see (hear) some meaning in those kind of instalations.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I also like simple music instalations like dancing fountains to the music, you can see it in Washington or in Warsaw (although the one in Warsaw have not too good music).
@Marcin
ReplyDeleteLooks like you, like most people here, like Spine (I'm not really surprised). I saw a video with a Piano Stairs not long ago. I loved the initial reaction of people. I think it's cute that some of them took a break from their daily routine and stopped to play something. Great idea.
I really like this type of art.
ReplyDeleteThis type of art shows that a visit to the museum does not have to be boring. It can always happen something unusual. I always admire imagination of people who create this structures. This is really amazing.
In your presentation pleases me the most The Singing, Ringing Tree. This is a very interesting design. And you can always hear the unique sound.
I heard several times about this new music trend - Sound art. It is a pleasant music to listen to, but I still think that it is something superfluous because there are already so many various kinds of good music.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your opinion about this art discipline?
ReplyDeleteAs in like every art of sound? I'm sorry m8t but I have no idea what I am looking at here. Not my kind of thing to be honest.
What do you think about the examples I've posted?
No appealing at the slightest. It's like making sounds by randomizing a bunch of numbers.
Have you seen any installations that could fall into the category of sound art?
I have a speaker system in my room that is 7.3 (yes three) that I made from scratch. Does it count?
On the otehr hand, I am happy to see that "modern" art is not only about rectangles and lines on a piece of cloth, which is simply just stupid in my eyes.
I've never seen anything like this, or should I say heard. I like it a lot: "Everything was forever, until it was no more".
ReplyDelete