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Archive for March, 2009

Sound Construction

Monday, March 16th, 2009

I more or less finished my degree last year. All the major work is done. I had my grad show. I suppose I can go out there and be an an “artist” now.

However, technically I’m still two electives short of a BFA. I’ve decided to spread those two subjects out over the remainder of this year, in part to allow enough time to concentrate on work, and also to keep my toe in the water at COFA. I’ll still have borrowing privelges with the 4×5″ view camera (with which I produced my most recent work), even if I’m given the lowest possible priority.

For this semester I have enrolled in ‘Sound Construction 2‘, which is taught by Simon Hunt (possibly best-known for his work as Pauline Pantsdown in the mid 90’s). Since my teens I’d wanted to formally study sound and music, and in that sense it’s surprising that it’s taken me this long to do so. This particular class is part of the Master of Digital Media postgraduate degree, and is geared toward people with some experience in sound design.

The assessment is centred around a single free-form personal project, which suits me perfectly. My intention is to produce several ambient, musical works based on field recordings made at the industrial sites featured in my photographic work. To give an idea, some of my inspiration and references are: the music concrete work of Matthew Herbert (whose stunning Opera House performance I saw last month – the new album’s pretty great, too), the ambience of Stars of the Lid, and the tech/glitch aesthetic of Pan Sonic. I’ll post a more fleshed-out run down of my plans around the time my formal ‘proposal’ is due  in a week or so. More than anything I’m looking forward to working with recorded – as opposed to synthesized – sound, for the first time in a while.