Sound Canvas bedroom installation
A hollow box covered in canvas with a good quality speaker inside.
Thinking about Clodagh Emoe's work and writings, I had already thought about deep listening practices in unimportant spaces like my bedroom (at first I referred to it as an unimportant space because the idea of listening was the most important thing to me, not the space, but that changed throughout this project so far). For this particular piece, it was important for me to present this (at least as a try out) in my room, because of this idea of creating a space where ideas can be felt (Clodagh Emoe), also linking to referential listening - I thought that as some of the sounds are recognisable, it might work quite well to have visual stimuli in the space where the sound is presented so objects can be identified as the source of the sounds in the piece.
I made the sound piece focussing on sounds within my bedroom using contact mics to unearth hidden sounds such as a lamp bulb, electric plugs, radiator hums and creaks etc etc. At first, after the last tutorial I was thinking about separating the different kinds of sounds; those that were made by me, the unintentional sounds, resonant sounds, short, sharp sounds etc. basically finding groupings that would tie in certain sounds together,
But recently when I was making sound recordings, I noticed the similarity between the cranking in my radiator and the hammering of whatever work the builders were doing outside my house. I just thought this quite a funny similarity to focus on and make a sound piece about. But I still wanted to use sounds from within my room because I got some really interesting recordings...
Critical Reflection:
I think that so far, this idea works, and it's that start of something... I know it can be better.
I was thinking whilst sitting in the space how the use of surround sound would be effective, so smaller sound canvases perhaps filling other spaces in the room (not too many though). Also, I purposefully chose this design for function as well as its conceptual properties, in the context of a bedroom, it does look a tad out of place, not totally, but slightly, I feel like if there were a few others scattered about, they might add to the sound perception and the aesthetic value. Also creating an inherent link between the object, aesthetic, concept and functionality.
I didn't feel that this was ready enough to actually present in my room, becasue I decided to switch to sound soo late in the term, I haven't really developed this particular idea from its starting point that much yet.
I tested it out on a few friends (non-art students) and some of them actually mentioned about the visual prompts in my room which was something I intended. I think this is something good that has come out of the piece.