Bogong AIR Festival 2011

Full PDF Including participating artists can be downloaded HERE courtesy of Westspace Gallery

Was quietly excited to see this in my inbox as an email from one of my rather distant/impressive/at-times-even-infuriating-yet-still-incredibly-likeable, lecturer who shall remain nameless.....

Was impressed by the eclectic nature of the artists involved, as participants originate from a number of different countries and with various years of experience. (In a nutshell - I like the fact that there are students I studied with amongst the established and more renown Sound Artists.) 

-Will try my best to make it to this one...

Inhabit International Arts Research and Cultural Exchange

2011 has started with exciting news - I am lucky enough to have been selected as a recipient of Punctum's Inhabit international residency to be completed at the 'abbaye de Noirlac', in the countryside of central France.

: An opportunity to work and create within the country at which the concept of the Acousmonium (as a sound system) and acousmatic spatialising, was born :

The work that will be undertaken at Noirlac will be heavily focussed on the acoustics of the present architecture as well as it's surroundings. I must say - the abbey itself looks sonically inspiring (yep I'm inspired to create sounds simply by looking at the buildings - I cannot wait to hear how the walls, arches and cavernous depths will affect the atmosphere)

These images are snapshots of those found at http://www.abbayedenoirlac.com

At this stage, I plan to use my time there to make recordings (surround, stereo, mono) of various sounds. These sounds may have a highly charged cultural relevance to the local communities, or they may be a further expression and discovered detail of the reality I explore there. There is much to write about and much to do - will flesh out the details at a later date.

I hope to make these sounds available to all via the Freesound Project. I also hope to include others in the work process through the feedback and suggestions that can be made on the website - we'll see how it goes!

Much thanks must go to Jacques Soddell for his encouragement in my recent development of these work methods. 

Much-to-do, Much-to-do

STUDENTSzine issue #1

The very first issue of STUDENTSzine was released on December 1st and can be downloaded from

Put together by Dublin based, fellow sound artist Richard Carr, this online zine aims to 'bridge the gap between student and professional' and I must say, it fills a much needed void re: opportunity and community for emerging artists worldwide across all artistic mediums.

I highly recommend watching this one unfold and am proud to be a part of it's debut.

Live Arts Incubator - Conclusive Performance

: Last two evenings of the Live Arts Incubator :

Saturday and Sunday night proved to be two unique experiences, both providing Jacques and myself with rewards stemming from the hours/days/weeks of work beforehand. Final performance consisted of four parts, each flowing seamlessly from one to the other so as not to break the listeners immersion into the sonic experience. Presented works included three solo and one collaborative piece. 

My own solo work was created purely from the surround and stereo recordings that I had gathered from the Sacred Heart Cathedral throughout the first week of the residency. These sounds included a 5 bell peal, creaking pews, footsteps/voices and movement through the space, turning of pages, the playing of the organ and of a wood-carved recorder and voices chanting in prayer. My sounds were considerably naturalistic with selected segments being presented as true to reality as possible.

In contrast, Jacques Soddell used highly manipulated and processed sounds - some were recognizable and some were not.  All were incredibly pleasing on the ear in their textures and frequencies.

 Final setup included 10 speakers on two levels.

1st level was 6 x 300watt in circular formation 4.5m radius.

2nd level was 4 x (TBC) in diamond configuration, 1.5m above Level #1

All speakers were calibrated by true film standard of Pink noise @ -20db = 83 db SPL (reading taken from center of circle diameter.)

It was extremely satisfying to explore the experience of height. I have had the chance to do this once before, during the event, "Akousmatikoi" but it was not quite so controlled and as flexible as this set-up. Through the use of Audiomulch + midi control + sound system I was able to spatialise and perform live with stereo, mono and surround audio samples. Sounds were able to be triggered when and where I desired with ease. Panning selected sounds from left to right and/or top to bottom was effortless and I am looking forward to further developing my patch and my midi control.

One of the unexpected rewards of the first evening was a followup discussion and constructive criticism of the works by Punctum's artistic director, Jude Anderson and fellow board member, Stephen Henderson. As a sound artist it can be difficult to entice others to tackle the language of the medium and the guidance and reflections of Jude and Stephen were an unexpected luxury within the whole Live Arts Incubator experience. The support that Jacques and myself received in the form of equipment, studio space and technical expertise was matched by an emotional element. This element assisted in our confidence throughout the work process, encouraging us along the way and resulting in the completion of a live performance we hope to continue on with post Seedpod.

The eye of the storm.............

: Day four, final week of Live Arts Incubator :

This week has been one of the most, 'Challenging' I've had for a while regarding computer related glitches and bumps.  (This would be why I am halfway through the conclusive week of my Bendigo residency and only just now entering my first post). I'll save you the kill-my-computer-don't-even-BOTHER-introducing-bootcamp-to-a-mac-yet-if-you-wish-to-use-it-for-sophisticated-audio-processing rant and just say that I suffered a couple of largish setbacks at the beginning of the week.

On the flip side to this experience - I can say that I now have successfully developed my new prototype for live performance and spatialisation. In the past I often used Logic pro teamed with midi controller, sampler and mixing desk. The new design replaces Logic with the astoundingly accommodating software 'Audiomulch' by fellow Australian Ross Bencina. The brilliance of this software (for myself working specifically with multi speaker spatialising) is it's routing capabilities. As a modular, patch-based software (think Max msp in lamens terms) the choices, possibilities and potentials are at the minimum - endless!

At this stage I am working on midi control of the basics

-Play

-Mute

-Gain

-Send

-Panning

-Matrix routing

-basically all the elements that are utilised when exercising the traditional methods of acousmatic performance.

In the future however - I plan to venture into realtime signal processing and effects - unfortunately I doubt I will have time to explore this before the live performance

Speaking of which ...

If you happen to be in Bendigo, Australia this weekend - head to the Old Fire Station for an evening of auditory dazzling.

SeedPod #6

Immersion Studio
by Jacques Soddell and Tessa Elieff
Sat Nov 13th and Sun Nov 14th
8pm Tix $10 @ door
The Old Fire Station/Engine Room, Bendigo

Sound does not know the rules that apply to us regarding walls, corners and closed doors. It travels through, beyond and around – being in numerous places at once yet existing as a single entity. It permeates our surroundings and impacts on our environment. Under the guise of being unseen it expands and contracts space, pulling and twisting the edges we construct around our perceived reality.

Tessa Elieff is currently completing her honours in Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sound) at RMIT. Her work centres on recordings of natural sonic phenomena. Spaces and places that create their own unique audible environment.

Jacques Soddell is a sound artist producing electroacoustic music, with an interest in deconstructing natural sounds (field recordings) to create new sounds and textures.

During their time in the Immersion Studio Tessa has collected surround and stereo recordings from Bendigo's Sacred Heart Cathedral and Jacques has delved further into methods of manipulation, destruction and cohesion regarding sound.  Their final presentation will showcase a work created from their skills combined - one that entwines both the untouched field recording and it's manipulated Other.  Listeners will experience a piece that aims to challenge our interpretation of reality, provoking us to question everyday perceptions we regard as being absolute.

The Electric (Quiet) Car

-was quite excited to hear about the rebirth of the electric car

better late than never...........

One of it's noticable feautures would be the fact that it is

S I L E N T.

Joy of joys we have finally found one solution to one primary culprit in the crime of sonic pollution.

Alas my enthusiasm was to be curbed - but not completely destroyed, at the release of articles such as this one.

It would seem that we have acclimatised to the constant humm of traffic to the point at which a drop in the volume of the sound, generates feelings of unease - even of possible threat to our safety.

While there is no doubt that the sound of a car's engine is an excellent indicator and sensory alarm for those with and without visual impairment I think it would be wise to acknowledge the fact that we now have the luxury of choice. Perhaps a reduction in level could be implemented - encouraging a movement against the belief that 'It must be louder to be heard'.

A golden opportunity to wean ourselves off the barrage of noise we have become deaf to and rediscover the experience of sound?

I hope so.............