Attempt at describing my compositional practice, #2
My compositional practice can be described as a consolidation of free association and a slow motion stream-form composition. I primarily memorise shapes, colours and textures that I perceive in other music, then use those as a means for choosing sound sources in my own work. The sounds can be vastly different from the materials I am referencing, as my perception of shapes etc. follows little logic, beyond rough pitch areas generating certain colours, and timbres generating textures and shapes. Thus, when composing, an extra step to the process outlined by Martinez is present, in that I am rarely free-associating with a bank of samples, chords or musical notes, but rather my perceptions of them.
I employ a stream-form method of composition both before and during this free association. I collect field recordings of sounds I happen upon in my day to day life that interest me. I then choose subsequent sounds based on what I feel could interact or layer with the original sound in an interesting way. I bring the recordings together in a DAW, and perform an ‘improvisation’ of sorts; layering, filtering and mixing the sounds. I remove any that I feel are unnecessary, then begin composing a piece. The accidental nature of capturing the sounds sparks a free association: I relate the field recordings I have made with synaesthetic reactions to other sounds and music, and edit the sounds in such a way as to approximate elements of these, much the same as how
“a language student reaches a point where they are able to create original phrases by free associating with the phrases they have internalised”
Martinez 2010 (Accessed 18th April 2014)
I create original pieces by associating with my perception of music and sounds that I have internalised. For example, in dánbeag #3, there is a high-pass filtered crackle or fizzing texture. I created the sound by loading a sample of pieces of card being dropped onto a desk into a granular synth patch (Max/MSP), recording the output of the patch, and applying a high-pass filter. This is a response to a texture in Francisco Lopez’s Untitled #218. It, similarly, is a crackling, fizzing texture, likely high-pass filtered, but I have referenced my synaesthetic perception of the sound (white hot/tinted yellow spots flickering on a grey background) when creating the texture in dánbeag #3, rather than the sound itself. I also do not know what Lopez used as source material in Untitled #218.
The stream-form method during the free association manifests itself in how I edit the sounds. I have no real plan when composing, but arrange and edit new layers of sound relative to others (usually an original field recording that serves as a background or canvas), similar to Pip Dickens’ method of painting,
…each layer of the painting process being balanced against earlier layers resulting in an overall finalised and finished visual mix.
My photographic practice, when composing these pieces, differs slightly. Similar to my gathering of sounds, I photograph objects and locations I happen upon that I consider to be interesting (the interest can lie in anything from a cracked brick to lighting, or general shapes and outlines of objects). I then attempt to create abstract images in-camera as much as possible; a ‘photographic improvisation’. I experiment with exposure times, shutter speeds, ISO settings, and crude tilt shifting (removing the lens and moving it around in front of the mirror, morphing the image). Often, I use images that are abstracted almost to the point of being unrecognisable. Here, there is a parallel with my perception of sounds; I find myself drawn to abstractions that feature colours, shapes or textures that are either similar to my synaesthesia, or free from any concrete representation (though this does not necessarily mean that I match images with my synaesthetic response to sound, as I will discuss in the commentary for 14AB2).
Free associations with other photographers also come into play. In dánbeag #3, the central image is a false multiple exposure of an industrial storage tank, referencing Idris Khan’s Every… Bernd and Hilla Becher Spherical Type Gasholders (2004). Likewise, the photographs in ( ) can be compared with Wolfgang Tillmans’ monochrome photographs, such as quiet mind and Time, Action and Fear (both 2005). These photographs are part of a larger series of monochrome works that intend to evoke a number of differing emotions in the viewer, and encourage closer, or perhaps, ‘reduced’ viewing of the images;
Tillmans’… near-monochrome, photographs (all 2005) can be seen to evoke mystery (‘quiet mind’)…a sense of place (‘Berlin Woods’)…to display all sorts of surface incident (the color-field atmospherics of ‘Time, Action and Fear’)…to create a feeling of dislocation that can be either foreboding (‘Zuversicht’)…or euphoric (‘they are this way’)…and to seemingly perform before us (the fluid dance of lines which animate ‘it’s only love give it away’)
(The intended effect of ( ) is all and none of these; the audience is encouraged only to undertake reduced listening and viewing of the piece’s components. In anecdotal feedback of a screening of the piece, audience members said that the images seemed monolithic, intimidating, and moving, even though they do not move.)
The images are then sorted, and organised into draft ‘sets’ that might be used in a draft of the piece. I also browse through my existing catalogue of photographs; occasionally including old photographs often taken with no specific purpose in mind (e.g., the images in 14AB2). Sound and image are brought together, continuing the stream-form method. I make revisions on either or both components if I feel they are necessary, produce a second draft, and continue the process until I am satisfied. Again this refers back to Dickens’ method of painting. The original images may not appear at all in the finished piece, as in ( ), but their influence is present in my subsequent compositional decisions.
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
2087
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
izzy806