My attempt to share my notes on two papers that turned into my new concept 😛
“What is noise? An inquiry into it’s formal properties” by Saeed Hydaralli and “Considering sound: reflecting on the language, meaning and entailments of noise.” by Khadijah White
Moving on from Murray Shaeffer’s affinity of [pure] soundscapes and [natural] sounds, contemporary noise theory recognises the subjectivity of noise. For example, the sound of a club space is perceived as pleasurable for those within it, and an annoyance for those outside. Noise is power for those who claim it. There is a need for some to reclaim their noise, to make noise, as in to demand their territory with sound. Sometimes silence and quietness is not peace but the sound of oppression.
I wrote a poem a few years ago.
Lost trapped, the boxen glow,
Boxed weepings, thin outlines:
people wisping, and for show.
Remove this to love nest,
Your fellow species walking about.
Shout!
Walking around London I can hear the silence of our species. The sounds of traffic and machinery is the loudest while humans tend to block their aural sensory awareness with headphones and noise cancellation. The decision to remove one’s sensory awareness in public space is a sign of our times. The snake of technological development eats itself. This digital space we enter with our listening devices is out of time and place. It’s a personalised space, more desirable as the physical reality around us becomes louder and alienating. Alienation cycles: if I sit in a cafe without my phone, I almost feel anti-social. To be looking up, looking around, becomes intrusive. Alienation feeds itself.
Last night I met a man called Gideon. He was praying out loud on the street, by telegraph hill. He was singing about God and we talked for a while. For me these connections are uplifting. Public space is where we encounter difference and where humans have always build collective movement. I beg to claim that the digital space is not enough.
“Noise… is a sound that reorients our attention away from that with which we are or wish to be engaged… Noise is always reflexively determined.” (Saeed Hydaralli) Who decides what is noise? What power structures are evident in policies around noise and sound making?
[My ideas around silence are not isolated to sound. There exists a silence in presence and connection. Whether it is noise or something else that brings us together, let’s experiment! Sound studies can look beyond sound as the only medium for change. ]
Perhaps with sound making we can break through the social alienation in public space. I have an idea!
{{{{{{{{Outdoor instruments.}}}}}}}}
Building public installations with acoustic instruments. Reusing old instruments and crafting new ones from waste materials. Not tied only to Western scales. Simple tones to heal the soundscape. Or noise to awaken attention and bring people together. Sounds to inspire listening. Some can be interactive, some will interact with the elements like wind and rain. A project, a community. Can these be made without electronics? Windchimes. A kalimba tied to a streetlamp. A guitar deconstructed and tied to a bench. A bike bell piano, all tied to a pole. A tibetan bowl, swaying from a tree. A set of glasses that fill in the rain. The instruments can encourage interaction with eachother and the environment.
Attatched can be a sign: “Hello there! Play a song for your neighbours.” “If you would like to send a recording or have a conversation, get in touch via email __@mail.com” Something like this. Imagine a compostion made from recordings of the public. Or a tiny book with reactions and thoughts about the project. Perhaps a map to explore the different instruments.
I am excited about the beginning of this very simple concept. It meets at an intersection of issues I am trying to understand and feel passionate about. It can return our attention to the environment around us. It recognises the issues in material sourcing for sound electronics, re-using as a sustainable pracitce and the simplicity of acoustic instruments for sound making. It can act as a noise maker, breaking through the “silence” of public space and encouraging interaction and expression. Perhaps it is an inversion of “spatialisation” ideology. Instead of composing an interior world for the listener to sit within, the object brings attention to it’s exterior. Listeners will come from all walks of life. Rather than being perched up in our sound labs in LCC, listening to high-concept sound art while poorer communites in Elephant and Castle are trying to survive day by day, can we try to interact more and return artistic artefact to a wider community? How can I understand my position as an artist who wants to reach out to pluralistic cultures outside of my own experience? Should I be able to reconstruct public space to fit my own vision of the futre?
Aesthetically it can be cute, simple, accessible. Perhaps people will come and destroy them. That will be another sound making event!
To research: outdoor instruments, public instruments, deconstructing instruments, windchime design, eco-sonic-media, listening in public space