An Off The Cuff Ramble on Sound (#002)

Is it not amazing how little people think about sound? As a race we deploy sound at a prolific rate, but has the density of human made sound drowned out any messages that may have been intended?

What got me thinking about this was a blog entry by Harun Morrison about a sound effect used in Hollywood films as an in-joke amongst sound designers (link to Harun's blog). In a nut shell, a scream sound called "The Wilhelm" was found to have been used repeatedly in different productions during the 50's and subsequently a fraternity of sound people decided to insert The Wilhelm into films they worked on. Its quite a delightful story, but in order for this practice of Wilhelm'ing to have been possible without detection (and surely it must have gone undetected from directors) there must have been an artistic culture where the audience was considered dumb, and that sonic gestures need not be well articulated. I suspect that culture still exists. While I celebrate the disguise of a sound to give it a new meaning, I also bemoan the meaninglessness of it all. Not the Wilhelmers, they are but an undeserving point of focus for undue blame, but all sound merchants peddling crap should face consequences for their lack of respect for the audience. 

Film sound designers painting a picture they hope you wont take much notice of, painful sirens bouncing through concrete canyons, machinery rattling away relieving workers of their long terms hearing prospects - does no one give a shit about what they hear? One of the most infuriating "innovations" is voice overs on public transport. Constantly we are bombarded by messages informing us that products can be purchased and to advise us on how not to look like a terrorist. This experience of constant noise makes my journey very unpleasant and I am jealous of halcyon images of the past in which a journey on the train is actually serene provided you've already paid for a ticket. Now the journey is anything but serene, the voice overs last longer and longer and are getting louder and louder (not to mention the demands more intrusive). Anyone in doubt of what I'm writing about should go on a Ryan Air flight and listen to the happy hardcore mix of The Birdy Song with voice over reminding the customers that there is a bar service on the plane.

And now comes the crux of my rant: all this inconsiderate sonic flatus has desensitised our minds and brought forth a culture of deafness. Think I'm wrong? What do you do if you hear a burglar alarm go off? Most the time people don't react, and one of the reasons why is because burglar alarms are heard all the time and mean nothing - its a false alarm, no one is in distress, its a waste of time. "Wolf" has been cried so many times that we will not take notice and not react. I've seen people on transport services ignore messages like "this service has been cancelled, all passengers must get off the train". There is too much noise in our society, and we will not realise it on a collective scale until a generation ends up deaf. But its not just loud sound, its meaningless sound too which deafens our brain which is in many ways a worse fate. And I haven't even mention muzak...

Keep your ears open and strive to keep your brain alert - wankers will pour foul advertising and propaganda into your senses, so make sure you filter out the crap but don't switch off!

An Off The Cuff Ramble on Sound (#001)

Sound marvelous sound, where did it come from? The answer you see lies in the fabric of material existence: sound is the movement of molecule back and forth at a specific loudness and pitch that humans can hear. If a movement of molecules was outside of our range of hearing then it is still the same occurrence in principal, just that our perception is different. The same movements and patterns occur through out the material existence so if you were to change the range of parameters, similar things happen just on a different scale. If you zoom in and the focus is no longer on molecules but particles of molecule, then the movements and vibrations become smaller sized too meaning a higher pitch (frequency). Names for these 'sounds' are x-rays and gamma rays, which are given the distinction of being part of the electromagnetic spectrum (simply meaning that the medium is sub atomic particles that do no operate on the same plane as the molecular spectrum that we are used to). Further still, the particles are made from smaller pigments which are at the cusp of current scientific knowledge. These building blocks are thought to be responsible for the fundamental behavior of matter and energy, which at this plane of existence are often considered to be interchangeable. Even though this plane of existence seems very theoretical the rules and laws that govern it are almost no different to music, obeying resonances and harmonies that dictate the fate of interaction between these building blocks that will in turn govern atomic configuration and rotation, which in turn causes chemical reaction such as photosynthesis and breathing. Zoom out and the circadian rhythms of life, orbiting planets and swirling galaxies exist on a massive scale but with comparable orbits to the moon, the birds and the electrons. I think many people are tuned into this universal order, but some fail to recognise its omnipotence. Celebrate it, in whatever form you can, and realise that music can be perceived in every facet of our existence.

Apologies for any scientific simplifications, oversights or romanticisms. Please help to inform me rather than keeping your wisdom to yourself!

The Media Modulators are coming!

What the hell am I on about? What happen when you fuse music performance, interactive design, and enough audio visual geekery to make Pink Floyd plop themselves?

I've no idea, but we'll find out soon.

London International Festival of Theatre

I'm facilitating the creation of a public archive of this great event, London International Festival of Theatre. The aim of the festival is to celebrate and bring together different cultures, and share good times (and food). The archive (called Millipede) is about the public creating a record of the festival in any format they wish: photos, video, sound, text, pictures, a dance, anything!

Links are:

http://www.liftfest.org.uk

http://www.liftfest.org.uk/stratford-events_1296.aspx

http://www.liftfest.org.uk/southbank-centre_1336.aspx

NESTA Innovate08

Today I went to conference hosted by the National Endowment for Science Technology and The Arts. Speaking at this event was Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown and a host of creative/political cronies.

It was a good event on the whole: some good speakers, others not so good. Gordon Brown was surprisingly uplifting and dynamic considering the bas press he gets (he obviously doesn't have a special relationship with Murdoch unlike PM Blair did). For those that didnt know, Geldof has genuine gravitas and charisma which is backed up by thorough thought - he was not over the top, and made some really good responses to questions he was posed. I particularly liked the bit about education in this country, and the importance of allowing creativity within our populace at all levels, including school - there was a hint of blame towards current 'box ticking' pedagogy pushed by the government, and I think 99% of those active within education would agree with what Bob and the others said.

The organisation NESTA funds research and business start-ups into innovative applications of technology, and there was plenty on show today. I saw revolutionary real-time wifi video broadcast, bursaries for budding science film makers, and many other cutting edge products developed with the guidance and gold of the organisation.

The one thing that was appallingly un-innovative was the production of the event, which had hammy vision mixing and the most terribly cliched motivational music. It was a good job the food was good otherwise I may have screamed when "We Are The Champions" came on for the fourth time.

Keep an eye on NESTA if you are developing science/technology/art!!

Laurie Anderson - Homeland

I went to see Laurie Anderson last friday, it was incredible (I would have wrote before, but I had a busy weekend archiving a historical performance lecture about Sylvia Townsend Warner at St Annes College Oxford). 

Enough about my own endeavors, on to the magnificent Anderson: The performance was fantastic. It mixed compelling music with sharp humour, and made subtle use of equally sharp and compelling sonic technology. Anderson nourished my ears, brain and conscience with a skill and passion that I personally have never experienced before in such abundance. It features songs and sounds about the current state of world power, how the strategies of world power impact upon society, and how utter ridiculous it is to believe anything 100% (at least that was my interpretation, Laurie Anderson may well be appalled by my views).

With the regard to the sound, I am pleased to say there was interesting stuff going on! First and foremost there was the excellent musicianship of Anderson her crew of three (Eyvind Kang, Peter Scherer and Skuli Sverrisson). The music was a mixture of meandering structures and actual songs, ranging from anthemic sing alongs to ambient textures. In terms of technology I heard vocoding and harmonisers, percussion that fused africanesque rhythms with technoesque sounds, and some clever subtle use of triggered gates and effects. It was so well placed that I likely could not identify much of what was happening, but to be sure that there was enough going on from a listening perspective. Kudos must go out to Charlie Cambell and Jody Elff who are cited as being sonic architects for this show.

Brilliantly, for the encore after an enormous ovation,  Anderson came back on stage to treat us to a solo violin performance that was backed by an affected version of what she played (delayed and pitch shifted alternately higher and lower, but always sounding beautiful). I can conclusively claim this to be a great show to see - Laurie Anderson is a true star.

Meet the Neuroscientists

Today I met with an esteemed neuroscientist. It wore me out, so I'll update this blog as things take shape...

John Moran...and his neighbor, Saori

Yesterday I went to see a music/theatre performance called "John Moran... and his neighbor, Saori" performed by the duo of that name at Soho Theatre in London, and it blew me away!  How to describe it? Well, there was sound, music, movement, drama and comedy. One thing is for sure: if you like sound, you'll benefit from hearing John Moran! 

What I heard was lots of 'found sounds' used to make rather sophisticated music, musical structures that ran in and out of each other, and narrative that was making a social commentary behind a fog of complete DaDa. Your experience may vary! If I let my visual senses back in to the picture I can tell you that the piece was also made of beautifully intricate choreography from both performers, with stunningly evocative movement and expression from Soari. I really don't know how much of the show was improvised because they played with the choreography and things seeming random when in fact harmonious repetition indicated you should not trust your initial assumptions. The narrative seems disconnected, but the experience felt like it was a journey (destination Newfound Sound via 'throat singing and falsetto in the same sentence').

On to the sound! The experience was really very ear opening. Sound was used as music, but to a much greater depth than I've heard before: it wasn't just a case of sampling or setting music to 'found sound', there seemed to be a much greater democracy between the notions of sound and music. For example, there were compositions that had traditional instrumentation with human-noise based instruments woven in with consummate musical gesture (just to qualify my phrase 'human-noise', I mean machines, voices etc). This made a soundscape that had pleasant harmonic foundation which would musically sooth, but then you found yourself listening to the sound of the city as much as any traditional instruments. The connection between life, sound and music was highlighted for me.

Not only was sound used as music, but music was used as sound - other pieces emphasised traditional musical values less than the one I described above. If I think back to my untrustworthy memory of others moments in the show, I remember play back of the human voice (seemingly found voice rather than created especially) used as the 'lead instrument' with accompanying live voices... or though my perception of the live voices is questionable because of what happens earlier - you'll just have to see it to know what I'm on about. So much of the work presents a sound scape of sounds you might hear in everyday life, and traditional musical elements fuse into a single sound within that context (or at least they did for me). The spoken words too often fuse into a single sound, and the specific meaning of the language just becomes a mood or a counterpoint. The composer plays with our perceptions, and elements you initially latch onto become part of the environment, and sound from environment become the music you latch onto.

The use of repetition is astonishing. I cant really get my head round it but lines of music/sound/voice would begin and seem to loop, go in and out of phase. Lines that were separated were brought together to make conversations, some of the conversations were out of context but went together, some sounded like they should have been together from the beggining. This concept of bring untoward sounds together in harmony is extended into the musical realm with two well known tracks from different eras overlayed to make a beautiful duet. Some lines of music/sound/voice seemed to have varying start and end points - a fusion of granulation within the musical macro structure of life. I'm starting to make less sense now, I think the piece affected me quite badly.

Casting my mind back there are moments of humor, poignancy, social comment, and myriad meanings. My jabberings will not do it justice, so I urge you too see it if you can or do the next best thing and listen to some recordings.

Ta Ta for now,

Joe

http://www.myspace.com/johnmoranandsaori

Who Is Joe Bell?

Hello anyone who ends up reading this, I'm Joe Bell, someone who tends to be obsessed by sound. Many people tell me I've got a way with words and that I should start blogging, and today I'm at home poorly so what better thing to do than start a blog. To be honest just as many people tell me what I say is utter bollocks, but to preserve my inflated sense of self worth I'll ignore them for now and get blogging!

Sound is something that seems quite mystical to me, mystical in the way that physics and astronomy are. Religion and science sometimes seem to be against each other, but actually a lot of the time religion preempts science and shows that our instinct generally points us in the right direction. For example, Buddhism tell us that 'the world is sound' which although might seem very philosophical and scientifically wooly on one hand, on the other hand currently the majority of theoretical physicists are telling us that matter can be explained by 'string theory' which has definite parallels to sound.

So I find sound mystical. I also find it uplifting depending on the sound. I don't think anyone could disagree that music has the potential to stir emotion. Have you ever wondered why that is? Music is fairly quantifiable and certainly repeatable, so imagine the possibility that emotion can be triggered by a rational set of scientific theories based on waveform interaction! Exciting, huh? Of course, emotion is more complicated than a chart of numbers, but I still find it amazing how the sound of music can cause such fast emotional responses. Mood might effect our perception of music, but by the same token perceiving music can affect mood too. The Hindu notion of Om is a good historical example of sound being recognised as important to health and spirituality. I think its important to accept sound as something that is very important to our being, and not to take it for granted (or put a premium on it!).

Finally I find sound fascinating. I'm very interested in how to make and break sounds, and how our perceptions are related to the physical world. I suppose my work is about trying to understand the world I inhabit. I want to understand and manipulate perception. I believe that by altering and exploring perception people can understand themselves a bit better, and also empathise with other peoples thoughts and states of mind better, which is a good thing. Induvindualism is good, but if our impact on this planet is to be improved then we need to get to grips with the fact that we are in it together. Ghandi said "we must become the change we want to see" and a great friend of mine said "dont shit in the bath". Take from that what you will and discard the chaff.