Banging the (ear)Drum for Sound Art

Why sound? It's a question that keeps resurfacing as I continue to work within the realm of sound art. And it's a perfectly valid one as my past work has been centered in dark themes and charcoal drawing:


(Not the best picture, but...)
Kimberly Reid. Empiricism, (charcoal, graphite, conte, acrylic medium, mounted with an LED light),
20" x 30", 2010  

Details of Empiricism.

 The simple answer would be "because it's awesome". There is something whimsical and immediately interesting when you walk into a gallery that swells with sound, be it from an analog source or digital via speaker. It somehow feels out of place in the gallery setting, which is normally supposed to be a place of quiet reverence; yet its absurdity in the White Cube is what makes sound art unique, as it pulls at the curious nature of the audience. Furthermore, sound art is the only art form that places the aural sense over the visual and lends itself to an intense experience as the audience is obliged to actively (as opposed to automatically) listen.

Delving deeper, my move to sound art stems from my love for video art and animation. Both video art and animation typically use sound to root the visual in reality. As a result, the visual sense tends to overrun the aural sense -- sound becomes secondary to what is being watched. It wasn't until I watched Takeshi Murata's films at the Black Box Theatre in the Smithsonian that I understood the opposite can be achieved. The Black Box Theatre is an enclosed viewing space for video art that is pitch black except for the wall the video is being projected onto. This environment intensifies the viewing experience as you can only attend to the visual and sound without any distractions. When watching Monster Movie, the visuals were mesmerizing as Murata utilized "datamoshing" on old monster movie clips. I noticed however, about quarter-way through the film the sound had taken over as the primary sense; in other words, the audio seemed to dictate the visuals as opposed to the visuals dictating the audio. It may have been the Black Box experience or the films actual purpose, but I found myself hypnotized and unnerved by this switch in video art dynamic. This was the first step for me in understanding what sound art could be.

When watching this, try to be in a dark and quiet environment.

 Maybe you will get the same experience I did.

Takashi Murata. Monster Movie, 2005.

 

Soon after, I learnt about Don Ritter's video and installation work. His practice, Aesthetic Machinery uses sound to displace the audience and plays with human perception and reality. Of his work, my favourite is Intersection, a sound installation in a dark space using 4 sets of loudspeakers. The audio mimics 4 lanes of highway-speed traffic and as the audience walks through each "lane", the car is heard screeching to a halt and idling as if waiting for the pedestrian to move. This piece offers an intense experience heightened through the dark space, forcing the audience to used only their aural sense to interact with the piece. For the first time, I was able to really see how powerful sound art could be in controlling the audience and evoking an emotional response.

 

Click here to check out Ritter's official video documentation of Intersection.

Or click here to find out more about the installation.

 

So why choose sound art? Because it is a versatile and interesting medium. Because it pairs well with video and animation. Because I want to create an intense experience for the audience who experiences my work. Long story short, there are many reasons why I've chosen to work in the realm of sound art, that it is difficult for me to pinpoint why I'm so fascinated with it. Really, I think it boils down to the way I approach art in general: taking the common and deconstructing it into simple parts that each become unique and interesting. Just like video art and animation -- in this case, stop-motion, sound art is flexible in allowing the artist to take something as a whole, break it down into singular units and reconstruct it into something new that highlights the basis of the original product. On this note, I look forward to seeing you at our fourth year show, and leave you with the fantastic work of the analog sound sculptor, Zimoun to really highlight how versatile sound is within art:

 

 



--KJ Reid