Subaquatic Sounds
This Notebook follows my journey in creating the project Subaquatic Sounds.
Week 1
At the start of our project we were given a broad remit. I knew that broad was great to start with however I was going to have to narrow down. I was motivated to start looking at artist working to promote environmental stability, climate change, climate loss.
First port of call was my own head. In my first year at university my project ‘Saltburg’ really caught my creative eye and promoted significant amounts of experimentation. The work was based around quantities, looking at sea ice loss per year and comparing this with the sustainable amount lost each year, these were then represented by mounds of Salt. The figures were stark. The piece worked well due to the comparison nature of it and making it relatable to the masses. I wonder whether this comparative nature will work with my future project also. Although I’m not sure if this is really the direction I want to go.
I also turned to books I could find in the library in particular ‘Land and Environment Art’ by Jeffrey Kastner and Brian Wallis. The works in this book are so varied but focus on climate change. I think what struck me most was that the pioneering artists in these books were starting to look at our environment in a different way shaping and challenging the publics opinion of how we as humans interact with nature and the environment. Artworks found in the book were varied and would include taking the environment into the gallery but could also use the landscape as a gallery. Some works represent the artist, some represent man made changes in the environment with natural materials others using man made changes with man made objects. Some would place the artist or humans inside nature. Overall an incredibly useful book to me.
Week 2
Session 01 – 05/10/20
First session, strange. A group of people 2m apart dotted around the room in masks. Collectively though we were together, responding, to art.
I tried responding in different ways, sometimes a drawing would emerge, sometimes a set of words, often journeys, stories, repetitive words. Anything that stimulated me from each artists presentation.
I was aghast at Ludwig Berger’s work with sound. Two artworks were shown to us. One titled ‘Melting Landscapes’ which was an audio recording based upon what I presume glaciers. The recordings surprised me, not what I was expecting at all. Almost like a car crash or a lorry rumbling by. It’s interesting I associated ice with man made cars…
Another of Berger’s works was also shown. A barn and a beehive proportionally represented in scale. Microphones recorded the sound of the beehive to then replicate it on the inside of the barn in real time. Stunning. All of a sudden we can understand the insides of something humans just don’t think about.
I have struggled to interact with live performances but Lucy Cash and Simone Kenyon “How The Earth Must See Itself” was thoroughly thought provoking and challenging. It made me think of community, how the mountain is a collection of thousands of creatures, grasslands, rocks, people. All a big community, a metaphor for the world.
‘Self Portrait: Big Cypress, Everglades’ by Simon Faithful is another work that I really enjoyed. Displayed at the end of the session it almost felt like a reflection. Humans in the landscape, it reminds me of Ana Mendieta’s works, placing herself in nature wrapping herself like a cocoon.
Artist Profile : EDITH MEUSNIER
I always struggle to get started without artist inspiration so my first port of call has been to scour the internet and other resources to find appropriate motivation and inspiration. Her works revolve around outdoor sculptures, commonly around lakes, trees and green spaces. Most commonly Meusnier creates her sculptures using ribbons; laced and intertwined around a metal wire or plastic tubular frame.
Meusnier’s brings out ideas of;
Symbiosis with nature (both human and nature, object and environment)
Cocoon (safety in nature)
Brightness, light and colour
Man in the Environment
I think that I am particularly drawn to Meusnier’s work due to her use of bright vivid colour but also the way that she creates these objects in a form of symbiosis. Often I think we as humans take nature for granted and here is an artist, delicately enhancing the environment, improving but not destroying. Meusnier describes her work as ephemeral, her work is transitionary, only briefly displayed. Her works to me suggest safety within our natural environment, almost like a cocoon, a wrapping warmth around nature. A hint that we always go back, nature keeps us safe, it nurtures us…
ARTIST PROFILE : LUDWIG BERGER
Ludwig Berger – Melting Landscapes (Field recordings, 2016-2018)
Melting Landscapes is a series of 12 audio recordings taken between 2016-2018 and was created with the assistance of 41 students and 4 teaching staff. Melting Landscapes was later produced into a physical format as a vinyl record and a black and white photographic book. The work can now be found and freely streamed on Berger’s website. http://www.ludwigberger.com/index.php/01/melting-landscapes/
My work is heavily inspired by Berger’s, I enjoyed his mix of science and art. The ability to use scientific audio equipment to create art and then present them in a way for many people to enjoy is incredibly inspiring.
I also really enjoyed the fact that he created a journey with his audio recordings from the freezing of the ice – to the ending at the sand. Berger however ends the record with a track titled ‘Ablation’ a hark back to the human destruction of the landscape.
Berger focuses on environment under threat and brings it to the limelight, with my work I too wanted to replicate this and so I’m thinking of looking into researching local waterways.
‘The Institute of Landscape Architecture is here to remind us of this potential catastrophe, inviting us to appreciate the value of ecological balance, and to fight for its preservation.’ (Richard Allen, A Closer Listen)
Tutorial 1
Week 2
Group 2
Friday October 9th
Isaac
Reflection on the lecture – really enjoyed it, got a lot out of it, variety of work, styles and techniques, audio..interesting to see the reactions out of the work, drawing and writing – 1 page for every presentations, a lot of writing, some drawing, nothing you want to continue with..maybe a bunch of phrases that went together, one single word, one word. one word. As it descends into chaos.
Online studio – a week to understand how to post on it, so spend time on it now rather than later
So brake the barrier this weekend – without pressure
Project idea – just play with it for now..science and art – geographical students, talk to them about collaboration, visual manifestation,
Ludwig Berger – a Journey, connected to the science, 12 recordings..development
Natural land masses, waterfalls and how the river flows down towards the sea
Impermanent, ephemeral
Water – as it makes its way down from the mountain and ending in the sea
Copper mines – north of Mach – interested in capturing the story of a river
The pressed record – an object, a physical embodiment of the audio journey
Journey, water, audio recorder, light long exposure photographs, creating trails
Intertwine the painting and this project, so your headspace is not separated
Nicki Lindt – forest recordings
Duncan Speakman
David Merleau – Forest Talk Radio Walk.Listen.Create – https://walklistencreate.org/
Hydrophone, binaural recorder, Marantz..go out with some tools and props and play and see what happens..let things evolve out of accident
Tim Knowles Night Walk
Simon Whitehead – also did a shoes torch walk
Week 3
Sound and a Hydrophone
So intrigued by Berger’s work and the idea of recording sounds underwater I was able to borrow a hydrophone and a Marantz recorder. First I spent a significant amount of time simply trying to figure out how to work such a device and after a few YouTube videos I was able to get some decent recordings.
My first experimentation I used a pint glass sink and a tap. I recorded close to 20 different recordings. I spent time moving the microphone around in different places. Inside the glass outside the glass each provided different sounds. My favourite is a series of three that I created using a tap at different levels of open say small, medium and large. The Hydrophone was submerged in the glass and then water was poured over the hydrophone.
For me these test were a success, they enabled me in a controlled environment to portray unusual sounds that many people don’t usually hear. I am excited for further testing !
Session 02 – 12/10/20 THE FORAGER AND FARMER
Stage 1 The Forager
Stage 2 The Tester
Stage 3 The Provider
Stage 4 The Nurturer
A session based upon the land and the Oak.
I really enjoyed the format of the session being that we spent a significant amount of time looking at research. The history of trees, types, where they are found and why they’re significant to us. I was intrigued by the idea of an ‘Urban Jungle’, more trees are actually found in cities, an area where perhaps you may think are unlikely for trees to flourish.
I feel also now responsible, having breathed life into a potential tree I now have to nurture it to health.
Further Hydrophone Testing
I placed the hydrophone under the sea to listen to waves. I only buried it perhaps only 10-15cms under the ground.
I found it challenging to get the right depth of hole because quite simply the sea would roll over the hydrophone and dig it up from the sand. In fact the recordings that I got generally revolved around the sand hitting the hydrophone.
In the end I was most happy with a long recording that I tried to do which is 8 mins in length. The tied was coming in so I left the hydrophone about 5 meters from where the sea was crashing. You can hear me talking to a stranger at the start as I try to explain that yes I “am listening to the sea”. The sea slowly comes in getting louder and louder. Towards the end when the sea gets much closer the sound is unbearable and sharp. This is due to my poor recording as at the start I had to turn up the levels to get sound but then I forgot to turn it back down again.
I’m taking this as another test run. I’m keen to record more sounds particularly under a bog and also positioning of streams or following water down to it’s final resting place in the sea.
Currently, although I like the potential for this process, going, exploring finding sounds I ultimately am unsure of the real reasoning. Why am I focussing on this ? It needs to be environmental for me but currently I feel like the work is missing substance or a clear message.
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet
Short reflections on my notebook I realise that this documentary is not pointed out or noted. It was something that I watched twice throughout October and was I think very pivotal in pushing me in the environmental direction that I continued to travel.
I was particularly impressed with how information was presented in particular the ticking time. The way quantities are represented to help people visualize the amount of loss. Each section of the documentary is broken up in sections and start comparing:
Date : (starting in 1937, ending 2020)
World Population : –
Carbon in Atmosphere : –
Remaining Wilderness : –
I remember how clever it was to represent Attenborough’s life in comparison to climate change. Everyone can relate to their life, they know how time works. Statistics are relatable because they are controlled against time, someone’s life.
Week 4
Session 03 – 19/10/20 Workshop 2: DEVELOPING IDEAS
Tasked with creating an idea for us to push forward and share with the rest of the group.
Based from last weeks session, I was thinking about an urban jungle the idea that we find nature in town, cities and urban areas. I was thinking about how humans potentially miss nature, that we don’t pay attention to it.
I like adventure, discovering and exploring. At this stage I think my idea is going to be a workshop based task, potentially with maps for people to go and find locations. Due to my current interest in sound, participants, using smartphones, can record sounds at their different locations on their maps. Hopefully then you will get a picture of what nature in Aberystwyth sounds like.
The session was based with large sheets of paper and felt very collaborative. I found more inspiration talking to other people about their ideas than actually creating my own ideas.
Tim Knowles
I decided to look into the artist Tim Knowles. Two pieces of works “Nightwalks” and “Waterwalks” were most inspiring. To me in particular the most interesting and informative part of the work is how it was documented. “Nightwalk” is created using bright powerful torches to illuminate the path recorded on a long exposure photograph. “Waterwalks” is created from GPS files and then turned into line drawings. It’s really helpful to see how artist record their adventures. I know that to record my work in the future I must think about a broad range of mediums to use and allow myself to be creative.
Week 5
Session 04 – 26/10/20 Workshop 3: PRESENTING IDEAS
Unfortunately unable to attend in person due to illness I attended via teams. I was able to note down my opinions of other people’s ideas some I have noted that I found interesting or sparked additional thoughts and interest.
Nature’s Dance Floor:
- large paper on floor
- dipping feat in paint
- dance in response to music
- make patterns of our responses
- sounds are made from nature
- repeatable
I love the idea of how we are directly responding to nature. In some ways this is a humans direct response to natures stimulus. Would require people to actively participate which would be difficult with a crowded room. Covid 19 issues with sanitization etc. Requires sounds to be recorded before the session
Static Motion :
- Trees – Static
- Us – Motion
- collaborators submit two videos one from a static perspective and another from a moving perspective
- Final Work a collaborative film
This to me seems really simple. To me an ingenious way to present nature. It’s always there, static but and we are roaming past it. I think there are more connotations for this. There was also the idea of sound linked with these outcomes. It was debated what kind.
Painting From Nature (chosen idea):
- 4 different paintings
- collect sticks and leaves from selected different trees
- create pigments from the material
- make paintings from the pigments
Directly taking from nature I think this relates back to our first workshop well when we went out to discover and explore nature coming back with acorns to plant. However this is the step further. No longer are we just creating from the land this time we are using it and creating something else. This was the idea that was chosen in the end and I am looking forward to the workshops in the future where we explore this idea further.
Painted Foods :
- Creating Fruits out of Marzipan
- Painting Fruits
- Placing Fruits in environment
- Standing Fruits next to real fruits
- Time lapse of Fruits decaying vs Marzipan
I loved this idea and I was constantly thinking about Sam Taylor Johnson ‘s artwork titled Still Life. An image of fruit decaying over time and also a love piece to Dutch ontbijtjes or ‘breakfast’ still life paintings. To me this idea can display ‘Time’ really well. It displays the finite way of things. I think this potential workshop, by showing two comparative fruits suggest that we can artificial replicate some things but it isn’t the real thing !
Sound Exploration (my idea) :
- Explore with a time limit
- Use compass on phone to navigate
- Instructions given at start on card
- Stop at location
- Record sound
- Repeat
- Reconnect for discussion at the end
My idea was too complicated to get across during the session and my simple trial of the session wasn’t enough for me to even fully form my idea. It is a big project and I need to be more specific about what I want to achieve.
Vague Request – Vague Response Specific Request – Specific Response
To improve I should have come up with a better set of instructions and actually practiced it thoroughly before the session. It was clear that the best ideas were the ones to simply get across and this is important when planning for a group session and particularly one where participants may not know each other. My idea was simply too complex.
I.P.1, 3, 5 Tutorial 2, week 5
Isaac
What are your reflections on the workshop this week?
We didn’t discuss
What have you been exploring and experimenting with so far?
Hydrophone audio recordings both at home with a tap and glass jar and on the beach above and under the sand – all very strong and interesting recordings.
What seems to be emerging as the strongest aspect of all of your experimentation?
The audio recordings are strong, the idea of recording water, river flowing from source at the top of a mountain to the sea, recording the volume of water as it moves down the mountain.
I suggested keeping the project simple – so that he could develop it between migranes, so more accessible research. It was the combination of the simplicity fo the salt and the statistics that worked so well in the project last year, so we discussed bring a strong element of statistics to this project, we discussed the possibility of the recordings being partly fictional, so faux scientific, so it’s about imagination..believability..
We discussed using the 3 hour online exhibition as a platform – and how he could use the structure of the 3 hours to relate to the mountain to sea distance..i.e starting off the 3 hours with audio clips made form small volume and density of water to ending the hours with audio clips made from a large volume and density of water..
What research have you done so far?
Artists suggested by Rob and I in the Climate Changed meeting and others listed to follow up, a continued interest in Berger – Edward Burtynsky in particular
Look up Michael Pinsky
A local artist Brian Swadling
Tim Knowles – river tributaries
Layla Curtis My audio walk lecture on Duncan Speakman – https://soundcloud.com/miranda-whall/an-audio-walk-lecture-on-the-work-of-duncan-speakman-and-circumstance
Nicki Lindt
How are you using the Online notebook? Is it working for you?
He has reorganised it, filled in the gaps and it looks great now, he had a good first 3 weeks but since has been suffering again with migranes so the notebook isn’t up to date.
Have you any idea yet what you will write your review on?
He is interested in writing about Ludwig Berger’s Melting Landscapes digital album or the Marbled Vinyl LP + Photo Book?
Week 6
Notes from Art and Science Competition
Charity based on Art and Science – focusing on education particularly sea level rise, species extinction, sight specific work
Material and Physical – humans do not grasp things until they are made real…. mystical
Key Success:
- visualising something that is incomprehensible
- try to not be dictatorial
- Represent factors/facts in a accessible way
- Work should make sense almost by just looking at it
- Focus on the Ideal!
- You don’t need to win over people who already agree with you ! Focus on people who don’t agree with climate change or understand it etc.
Limitation :
- 1m x 1m x 1m
- 150 words
- 15th January Submission to Miranda Whall
Mentioned Artists/Further Research
Nikki Lindt – Soundscapes Beneath the Forest Floor 2019
Nikki Lindt is an artist who focuses on underground recordings. Lindt describes her process and her research in a video titled ‘Capturing the sounds of the soil with artist Nikki Lindt’. This video helped me develop my practice, thinking about how to physically go about recording sounds.
When I began recording underground or underwater sounds, using a hydrophone, it became apparent that sound resonates and travels to great depths. A small footstep or the movement of a rock can be heard meters away in an underground recording. Lindt is playful with her practice, spending significant amounts of time experimenting with different objects. She is not static with her practice, even if the hydrophone is stationary Lindt often plays with the nature from above, creating a symphony of sounds from Beneath the Forest Floor.
I will try and emulate Nikki Lindt’s playful nature with sound.
https://www.nlindt.com/soundscapes-beneath-the-forest
Ephemeral
There are many forms of ephemeral art, from sculpture to performance, but the term is usually used to describe a work of art that only occurs once, like a happening, and cannot be embodied in any lasting object to be shown in a museum or gallery.
Tate Modern
Week 7
Session 05 – 09/11/20 Workshop 4 Group Research Project
To further develop our group idea ‘Painting from Nature’ we focused on a word that was appropriate to the theme. Trying to gain a deeper understanding of why and what we were doing.
Below are my notes on people’s presentations to the group, I missed Tim’s as I was late to class.
Keyword : Time (my focus)
The first artist that I was thinking about when Time was mentioned was Sam Taylor-Johnson and her work ‘Still Life’ (https://samtaylorjohnson.com/). The artwork is a short time lapse video. Starting with a bowl of fruit that slowly rots away over time. Composition of the artwork can be related back to 17th Century Dutch Still life paintings or breakfast paintings. I also showed a short video of her other works, ‘A Little Death’, similarly focusing on the time of rotting and decay. This time Taylor-Johnson uses a hare and peach for the composition. The hare decaying significantly quicker than the peach. I also came across Taylor-Johnsons film ‘Killing Time’ which specifically focused on a humans reaction to opera. There are 4 films of either a young man or woman listening to Elektra, a Greek tragedy charged with a deep emotional intensity. Taylor-Johnson’s subjects are not engaged, separated from the world. “Killing Time sets up a similar disjunction between the banality of the everyday and the searing passion of music. The juxtaposition of visual and aural elements suggests that the music is a kind of soundtrack of the unconscious; that beneath the calm, ordinary surface, primal desires are raging.” Tate Modern
It became apparent to me that perhaps I had not really stuck to the brief in a helpful way to the group. Instead I had lost myself on a word and an artist who focussed on time. It didn’t help the group as much as it could have. I didn’t focus on how it could relate best to our group project, which was based around trees and creating pigments from raw resources. I maybe could have concentrated on how to best present our work or think about how others could view or engage with our project.
It is a good lesson though and it shows how important it is to do specific helpful research which really benefits your project.
Pigments (Sally)
- Collection of iron oxides
- Chromer Sessions
- John Sabraw-Collecting raw pigments and filtering
- Grounding the Artwork in Aberystwyth
- Multiple colours can be made from iron oxides
Sally focused on practical aspects of our work which was trying to help us move forward with practically creating pigments. She also mentioned about trying to ground the work in Aberystwyth, perhaps collecting the pigments from local sources such as the local abandoned mines.
(missing keyowrd, I think Print ?) (Weronika)
- Brian Nash-Gill
- Woodblock Prints
- Cuts trees in half- Creates prints from the rings
Incredibly aesthetic work. I felt like Weronika displayed the potential for our final ideas, being able to use natural materials to create prints and images. I’m reminded that trees are individual and have their own marks.
(missing keyowrd, I think Print ?)(Matthew)
- Shakespeare
- Obaron-Midsummer Nights Dream
- A Knights Tale
- Focus on set design
Matthew showed us various stage performances by various productions of Shakespeare’s midsummer night dream. Set design was important having different heights around the set to create depth to the scene. It was discussed if we could perhaps have a more theatrical presentation of our work.
Culture/Biodiversity (Nidhi)
- Mural Artworks
- Reynaldo Hernandez
Nidhi shared videos and interviews of Reynaldo Hernandez’s work. They are large scale Murals, bright powerful and colourful. His works represent the culture that he is from but also the collective culture of his area, community.
(unsure of Keyword) (Miranda)
- Further reading – Margaret Atwood
- Katie Patterson -Young Scottish artist http://katiepaterson.org/
- Art + Science
- Showed us work based around every piece of wood in the world
I found it interesting to think about how our work could be presented, not only for our group projects but also our final exhibition show. Katie Patterson spent a significant amount of time developing her website to engage and educate her audience. She strongly focused on art and science. I really like this work.
Additional Discussion
There was also additional discussion about our final show. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the exhibition will be online, so we are now focussing on trying to make it as good as possible. It is hoped that there will be a mixture of live and pre recorded material which are to be shown. I think this is super important to not make the exhibition seam stale. My concerns for the exhibition currently are that it will be incredibly long due to the amount of material on show. currently it is being suggested that it may be 3 hours long or even multiples of 3 hours. I think that it will be important for my work to be shorter rather than longer as to maintain engagement with an audience likely saturated by significant amounts to take in.
Week 8
Session 06 – 16/11/20 Workshop 5 Realisation of the Group Project
Unfortunately I was not able to attend the session we had been working collectively towards for weeks which was a real shame.
Each member of the group was tasked with finding a particular leaf from a tree. Mine was willow. Paint was created using various pigments, some created from leaves from the found tree, they were then printed onto large pieces of paper. You can see the video of the group creating the artwork on our workshops page : https://creativeartsaberystwyth.university/home/workshops/
As I was unable to partake I can only look with outward eyes. Looking in on what was produced I noted down what I noticed the most:
- Diversity of leaves
- Diversity of style of prints
- No same shade of green for each leaf
- Beauty in making
- Process was enjoyable to watch- Very happy with the time-lapse video
To improve our project…
All photos are courtesy of Sally Maclachlan and Mollie Brooks
Key Points from Workshop Sessions building up to Workshop 5
- Development of idea is most significant
- Second opinion’s really solidified my work
- Discussion more beneficial than practice, for me, sometimes
- Review often
- Collaboration is key – play to each others strengths
- Simplicity in idea is easier to present, explain and grasp
- Focus on theme at hand
- Always relate back to your project
- Be Playful
As a quick summary of the group project, I felt like I particularly benefited from going through my proposal project with others. I struggled to get it off the ground however and I think I overcomplicated it. Simplicity is key for a short project that has to be presented. Also I felt like I never got fully behind it. I think this showed when presenting my proposal to the group. Passion for a project can spark others. The final group project benefited greatly from the spark the Weronika bought and the excitement to create and play with pigments created from natural resources.
Week 9
Session 07 – 23/11/20 Proposal Presentations
Exciting session ! We finally get to here a detailed overview of each group members projects and how it was supposed to look during the final show. Unfortunately again I was not able to present my work as it was not finished but I gave a brief overview of what I was currently working on. Below are my thoughts notes on other class proposals.
Tim – The Flaura and Fauna of Perception
- Static-Dynamic
- Video’s of moving objects in a static location
- Videos of moving around a static object
- Additional sounds provided by various other recordings
Overall I think it is clear that Tim has a very strong project. It’s a simple idea and executed well. He seems to be unsure of how to present his final work. It is clear that it is in video form but whether it is multiple video’s run one after each other or simultaneously he was unsure. There was some thought after his presentation as to which would be best. Hopefully next week we will see the development.
Sally – Presented multiple ideas she wanted to display in the show, including (I think) :
- Multiple videos
- Stop motion video or sea-front demonstration of pepples moving along the seafront
- audio sounds of the sea taken over multiple days
- shared extracts from her sea diary
- deep interconnection between nature, words and her own interactions with nature
It seems to me that Sally has so many ideas. I think at this stage there was perhaps too much going on to narrow down on here most powerful and impactful ideas. I am excited that she will hopefully be able to show areas of Aberystwyth or be live in the final presentation. It seems to me that Sally’s strongest part of her project is her connectedness with nature that she has developed. It comes across well in her sea diary. She is living her project. Living my project is something that I struggle with and I tend to dip in and dip out. It’s interesting to notice the difference of work styles.
Nidhi- Two potential workshops
- Print Workshops
- Chatroom Show
Nidhi’s project based around Prints and the strongest work that she showed us was her work influenced by printmakers. Although work her prints was shown as a group we discussed how to get the most out of her work. Hopefully there will be a workshop based around printmaking, it will be good as a change from videos.
Matthew – Live session or pre-recorded video
- Theatrical presentation
- Bathing in river
- Interview
- Developed own character
Matthew was working on a theatrical presentation. The script and story was not quite finished however he had worked on the characters and had created his own costume for his character. He had created videos of the different stages of his characters development throughout the play. I like the idea of placing someone in nature and their responses in a heightened theatrical spectacle. I am super excited about this project and I hope it will be a breath of fresh air in the show as I doubt there will be many creating a play.
Weronika- Burnt Photos
- Burning photo of nature
This is so simple I have managed to sum the project in one bullet point. I really like it. Nature is burning up in front of us why can’t we see it ? Weronika took various photos of nature from around Aberystwyth and then burnt the photos. They are in direct response to recent bushfires in Australia. The idea is to have them displayed as digital stills. Honestly this was a shame and many of us felt like for the idea to come across better in the online Zoom format she might want to rethink. As a group we suggested perhaps creating videos of the burning of the photos or perhaps even a live show. I really hope something works out because the simplicity of the idea is really special and can be grasped by soo many.
Anna – Animations
- Short Gifs or animations
- Weeds grow and then die
Anna takes real life images or short videos in urban environments and creates moving animations of weeds from cracks and spaces. In some of the animations the weeds are destroyed, sometimes by moving cars. The animations are of very high quality, they are impressive accompanied by beautiful sounds. There is perhaps some difficulty in length of the videos and how they will fit in with the scope of the show. I could see them being repeated… otherwise I think it will feel like they have started before they have even begun.
Isaac- Audio Recordings
I had unformed ideas, and have put back my proposal by a week to enable myself to produce a quality, well formed idea. I told the group I was unsure about the direction that I wanted to head in. Currently there are two strands of thought.
I really enjoyed my project last year where I looked at quantities and scale. I thought I could push through with a similar outlook. Perhaps audio recordings of volumes of water…. sustainable amounts vs unsustainable. How much fresh water is there vs non fresh water ….? I thought about using household items to create visual representations.
The other is perhaps the most formed and is already well started looking at following a river from the source to the sea. Each recording could be taken at different significant sections of a rivers life. This project was difficult though in my mind as I was struggling to get through what I wanted to achieve at the start of the project which was an environmental based artwork with a message about climate change.
I knew that the project would be a pre-recorded video so I relayed this to the group.
Overall Thoughts
I am excited about the show. There is some excellent work being produced. I actually think that the works proposed today link together quite nicely. I was worried that there could be some form of disfunction between each persons projects but they all relate back to nature. It is a rich theme throughout everyone’s project.
Developing River Recordings Idea
Working on my idea for river recordings I started researching various rivers around Aberystwyth, I wanted it to be something that I could fesibly complete but also there was something nice about creating piece of artwork based and developed in the same place. There are two main rivers in Aberystwyth the River/Afon Ystwyth (blue string) and River/Afon Rheidol.
The River Rheidol travels from Plynlimon and travels down through the man-made dams at Nany-y-Moch before traveling south until it hits Devils Bridge, when it turns west towards the coast and ends up in Aberystwyth. It’s length is 19.5 miles.
The River Ystwyth also has it’s main source as the Plynlimon but also gathers water from various other sources in the Cambrian Mountains. Again it travels South until it hits Cwymstwyth and then generally follows a westerly or north westerly route to Aberystwyth.
I also found a story about the legends of Ystwyth which I think are beautiful and tie in nicely with my project. I really liked cementing Aberystwyth, I also felt like the intended audience at the show would appreciate it as most would have a connection with Aberystwyth.
“Ystwyth, was the smallest and was always in a hurry and made decisions and accomplished tasks in great haste. As might be expected she quickly made up her mind that she would join the sea by the quickest and shortest route. Stepping forward she told her father, “I long to see the sea, to smell the salt air and see the sun rise and set over its wide waters. I would go west by the shortest and the quickest route I can find to the sea to fulfill my destiny.”
“Then goodbye and go and fulfill your destiny and know that we shall meet again!” her father said, kissing and her embracing her. Saying her goodbyes to her sisters she skipped and danced down the mountainside, drawing strength and speed from the small brooks and streams from her father’s side and flowed westerly, sparkling and shimmering through the land of Wales reaching the sea much faster than her two sisters ever would. The people who lived in the lands she flowed through called her the River Ystwyth and she arrived at the sea fulfilling her destiny at a place now called Aberystwyth that was named after her. “ zteve t evans 2018
I decided that the best route to follow would be the river Ystwyth. Significant parts run alongside a cycle route which I could follow stopping off when I felt like it to gather recordings and sounds. The start of the river would perhaps be difficult but I could still get to the bottom and hike up.
Recording and Documenting the Trip
I want this trip to feel like an adventure as if discovering following the river all the way. This trip would display how I see the Ystwyth from it’s source all the way to the sea.
The media is a film. I decided that I want to try and get a film and photograph of each location that I recorded sounds. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to display just audio, photos or video on the final piece of work I tried to keep all of my options open.
All images, photos, videos, audio recordings, are all test pieces which will hopefully add up to my final video presentation. It should also be noted that the previous week had resulted in heavy rain and so many areas had plenty of water.
Location 1
Finding the source of the river Ystwyth was difficult but it does mostly follow the cycle path and I was able to find a tributary off the side perhaps not quite the absolute source but then you can argue that there are various sources of the river. This one was perhaps not the highest and was not at the absolute top of Plynlimon, but still I felt like it was a source of the river.
Video Options
Option one for video presentation. doesn’t really speak as a ‘source’ image. I would have perhaps been better finding another ‘source’. Busy image. Not sure what it is really representing.
In my opinion a better video. It’s closer, showing the trickle of the river – the start. I like the sound without the underwater hydrophone recordings.
Photo/Drawing Options
Photo option. Perhaps this image could be displayed. Maybe with text instead of the videos ?
The Hydrophone is located in the bog you can just make it out, the red wire shows where the hydrophone is placed. I found that I got really interesting audio recordings with the hydrophone pointed in the bog section near the flowing water. The hydrophone was sensitive to pick up the water falling and trickling into the pool on the right. I was also able to pick up footsteps.
I decided it was important to get very brief sketches of each location which could be used in the video too. This was done so that I could appreciate and reflect on each space taken. Rather than chasing and finding various locations. I wanted to focus on each space and take it in.
Audio Options
Disclaimer- these audio files are not normalized so you may need to turn your volume up !
Source Recording 1 : Placed near a rock but not fully submerged. Distorted not representative of a source river.
Source Recording 2 : I think simply this was the only and best recording of the session. It was difficult to get the recordings at the right levels. Monotonous sound… nothing actually moves it is a very similar sound.
Source Recording 3 : Audio from inside the bog. Simply too quiet to be usable, but I actually prefer some of the sounds in this recording.
Location 2
The next recording was taken downstream.
Video Options
Simple video of the 2nd location. Suggestion of faster flowing water but still a stream. This has not formulated into a river just yet !
I wanted to show how the recording was created so by dangling the hydrophone in the stream I would be able to convey that message without using words.
Similar video but a different option. My hands are more visible in this option. Also I wanted the audio recordings to align so that may test which idea will work best.
Photo/Drawing Option
Stream. I really like this image with the tumbling water.
An example of me recording with hydrophone. Still image. I like the image as it conveys the fast flowing motion of the water.
Drawing of the second locations. Apparent to me was the tree. I struggled with the stream part… but these were all completed under 5mins. They helped me re-centre after cycling for a while and finding each location.
Audio Options
Location 3
Video Options
Full video of myself recording with the hydrophone. The idea was to ultimately create a time-lapse video of myself.
Time lapse option. I feel like this has gone successfully and is perhaps one of the simplest and best videos of the session.
Simple option of a 1 minute clip of the passing river. Although a nice video nothing really that engaging. Time lapse is much better.
Photo/Drawing Option
I actually did not take any photos as I must have got lost in the process but here is a video still of the location.
Drawing from location. I remember the vast amounts of trees to the left of the river.
Audio Options
These were perhaps the strongest set of recordings that I took today and include many of my favourites. So much so that I named them all. I did have to up the volume in post so they are not completely unedited but it really brings out some of the detail. I particularly like ‘Beautiful Droplets’ , ‘Water Splatter’ and ‘Bubbles’. I love them all and the hydrophone shows it’s strength in picking up underwater detail. For my to convey the story of a river I think ‘Flowing Stream’ is the best recording. I think it conveys a settled nature of the river before it gathers momentum and more volume… Location 4.
Location 4
Video Options
Option 1 displays the additional strength and volume of the river. However it views the river as moving away from us. All other videos move towards us.
Conveys the message of a larger volume of water. Faster flowing.
Photo/Drawing Options
Again I forgot to take photos. Photo from video still.
Drawing looking down stream. The location was just off the cycle track. The intense movement of water was apparent following the other locations that I had visited.
Audio Options
I was pleased with the ability of these recordings to convey mass and volume of the water. I was impressed how you can tell the water is moving much faster just from the audio.
Location 5
Video Options
Sea video was taken towards the end of the day with dwindling light. Not a very strong image… Doesn’t actually show the mouth of the river.
Showing more of how the sound was recorded. I got my feat wet…. Not a particularly strong video.
Photo/Drawing Options
Photo displaying how the sounds recorded are underneath the sand.
Mouth at Cardigan Bay. Again light is fading… Generally a bad image. Downside of completing these recordings in a day.
Drawing undertaken.
Audio Options
In general poor recordings however they are serviceable. This was the downside of completing all of the recordings in a day.
Developing Subaquatic Sounds – Making a Video
Title – I first needed a title for the project. I felt like perhaps the key asset of this project was that the sounds were recorded underwater. However using the word underwater, I felt, didn’t really work well in a title. Using a thesaurus I came across :
adjective: subaquatic
- underwater.”a narrow sub-aquatic microclimate”
Perfect for what I wanted to convey. By combining Subaquatic with Sounds I was able to create a catchy and alliterated title which immediately enables anyone reading to understand two of the key elements of the project.
Choosing Slides
I decided that I should divide the video into sections. An introduction, 5 of the recorded locations and a small ending of some kind. Each section of the video would have its own individual recording. It was vital to me that each of the recordings were to be distinct so that it would show the progression of the river. However not too jarring as to unsettle the video.
I used windows video editing software. Although it did not give myself heaps of control it was very simple to mash a video together.
The first section was completed with some rain recordings which I was also luckily able to gage when it started raining on my travels. A happy coincidence ! I thought although recorded at a different location it seemed so poetic to start the recording with rain. Total time was 1min for this introduction section.
Assignment 1 : Proposal Form
I was also working on my proposal form at the same time. It was important for me to get the video completed and developed to show to my classmates. At the same time I worked on my proposal form. The proposal form helped me focus on my project and really start thinking about how the audience was going to respond to my project.
The Project – Concept – 100 words was particularly challenging for me. I wrote it in the third person. Referring to myself as the artist rather than me, I etc. To me this felt more formal, I’ve gone past the stage of experimentation… now I am developing the project into it’s own piece of work to stand on it’s own two legs designed for people to interact in. My 100 word concept is below as well as photos from my document.
“Subaquatic Sounds, focuses on recording normally impossible sounds for the human ear to capture. Using scientific equipment, such as a hydrophone, the artist intends for the public to engage with scientific process and bring underwater sounds to the limelight. The recordings are intended to be engaging, unusual and unexpected. Subaquatic Sounds aims to promote the importance of the water cycle currently under threat from the current climate crisis as well as taking the audience on the artists journey of discovery along the River Ystwyth.”
I felt like I may have missed the mark on the project summary as on reflection it simply refers back to the video I created rather than looking at summarising the actual project as a whole. For the digital and hand drawn sections I played around a little with the format taking screenshots from software I was using as well as creating a table of the sounds that I had used with with short titles for each track. As well as a selection of the drawings that I created at each location. I felt like this blend was most appropriate for my project which focused on sound.
Week 10
Session 08 – 30/11/20 Development of Projects
The start of the session was reflection on the project as a whole. How well had we done. Had we stuck to the brief. Had we wondered. What we could, should have done differently. This was all signified by our acorn in it’s pot. Mine had gone up like a rocket. However in the middle it stopped and struggled. Now I’ve re-potted the oak hopefully it will regrow. I started off looking after my plant well… then things got mess busy and difficult. I struggled to look after the oak in the middle. I’m hopeful however, with the new grounding and seeding my plant can grow it can rejuvenate. But as of this moment she is in a sad state.
We spent the remainder of the session focussing and developing each others projects. Each person had something to show. Projects are starting to come together. As I was unable to present my project last week this was my chance to show my project and it’s brief.
Isaac – Subaquatic Sounds
I showed my 6min 30 sec video that I had been working on. It felt like still a work in progress but it was such a large leap having been at the concept stage of my project for a long period of time.
This session massively helped me develop my project and I gained incredibly valuable feedback. It became aware to me that my main fault during all of my planning and development of the project was the audience had been forgotten. I realised that I had not sat down with a friend or family before showing this video to the group. This was the projects first outing.
I took notes during the presentation which were just simply obvious watching the film.
- Time of 1 min seems too long – I’m actually bored
- 4th recording is too loud
- 5th recording does not align properly
- I’m not intellectually challenged here
- What I am showing isn’t actually super obvious -it isn’t visual
This was followed by an incredibly informative feedback from the group, I was really appreciative of all of the feedback. They included suggestions to some of my problems
- Videos are simply far too long – try 30 sec
- Bring in statistics to engage the audience
- Distance – show how you travelled
- Perhaps explain how these recordings were made
- The recordings completed over one day is not important
- Perhaps have a GPS file of the travel
- Maybe add more sounds
- 1st video takes away from the sound being underwater
- sea recording is very week in comparison to the other recordings
- Sea video needs improving
Tim – The Flaura and Fauna of Perception
Tim presented two videos. I have to admit very professionally presented. The sounds were engaging gripping and really added to the surreal nature of the videos that he was showing. I liked the fact that the sounds conveyed a constant throughout the video. Some of the images were not as strong as others and it was discussed in class which were favourites and which were not however it became apparent that there were no complete duds there was stuff to like in each image for at least someone in the group. Catering for all. For me this video was really helpful as it showed me the errors in my creation. There was ‘slickness’ in the timing of Tim’s work, when I lost my engagement it would move on. This is what I need to try and create. Also the idea of a constant is important. Something familiar to the audience.
Sally – Multiple ideas
Presented more ideas and wanted to discuss linking her videos together. She showed us her videos of sea sounds and recordings which beautifully symbolise the sound of the sea over time. She also showed us her images developing underwater. Sally clearly showed us examples with depth and richness. But as a group we discussed how to best present the ideas and how they would best come across. I really like how Sally’s work grabs from a large sphere of creative practices. Something that I now need to do with my project. Linking it to Art + Science
Nidhi- Printing Workshop
Nidhi moved on from her two workshops to running one session on printmaking with nature and creating pigments from natural sources.
Weronika- Burnt Photos
Weronika’s development takes her now looking at a simple burning images with nature sounds, which I believe are from the, Australian forest ? This is a fantastic result and simply watching the video is powerful and simple. I wonder whether the video may need context to gather a richer meaning and depth for the Zoom show. Weronika also played the video in reverse. Simple, but I like the imagery of can we go back, what can we do ?
Anna – Animations
Anna had worked on her animations making them stronger. The most important thing is how to get the most of Anna’s videos. We are still unsure as to how best to use them.
Overview
This for me was a really important session, I was able to finally show my project and I received some fantastic feedback. I’m thinking that the main thing is to make it feel slicker. Perhaps I need to try out some new software. Da Vinci Resolve has been mentioned to me, but it may be a little much for me to get my head around. It’s clear the videos need to be shorter and some to be replaced too. Sally was also nominated as our group co-ordinator for the show.
Developing Subaquatic Sounds
So there was still lots of work to do below are the listed notes from the previous session in the week. I felt like I was able to address all of the issues represented in the notes.
- Time of 1 min seems too long – I’m actually bored
- 4th recording is too loud
- 5th recording does not align properly
- I’m not intellectually challenged here
- What I am showing isn’t actually super obvious -it isn’t visual
- Videos are simply far too long – try 30 sec
- Bring in statistics to engage the audience
- Distance – show how you travelled
- Perhaps explain how these recordings were made
- The recordings completed over one day is not important
- Perhaps have a GPS file of the travel
- Maybe add more sounds
- 1st video takes away from the sound being underwater
- sea recording is very week in comparison to the other recordings
- Sea video needs improving
The most important thing to get right was not make the video boring this would be a complete fail. I needed to make the video snappy and maintain engagement. Quotes, statistics and maps were my solutions to these problems as well as cutting back time significantly. I tried with making the recordings 30sec however this was still too short. After experimentation I found that 20sec worked best for me.
I broke each section down into 7 blocks
- Introduction – 34sec
- The Source 20sec
- The Evolution 20sec
- The Meander 38sec
- The Tributary 20sec
- The Mouth 20sec
- Ending 30sec
Total 3min 2sec
I wanted to work on creating a map which would give a rough idea of where each recording was taken. I didn’t feel like it needed to be specific -but a visual representation of roughly where each recording was taken. I traced a google maps image of the river creating a simple line. I decided that the image worked best on a black background and it tied in with background colour of the remaining slides. I chose a blue line to represent the river.
To represent each location I erased the other areas of the line. Each appropriate line was then played at the start of each section of the video.
I decided that I wanted to make a bigger deal out of the subheadings to help the video keeping moving and flowing. I changed the title of the second location to ‘The Evolution’ as it felt more progressive rather than ‘The Development’ that didn’t really work.
I was unhappy with the videos for both the Source and Mouth recordings. I tried using stills photographs and drawings but it just didn’t feel right. In the end I was really happy with my choice. I replaced it with extracts from the story Zteve T Evans created about the Ystwyth. It seems simple now that I think about it, but it took some time to figure out what I was going to put near the start and end of the video. Each quote combines with each other to tell the story of how Aberystwyth is named after the river Ystwyth. I felt like this would be something really nice to add to my project as it is so rooted in Aberystwyth. Also considering the audience will likely be local to Aberystwyth or have some connection with the place it will hopefully be relatable or a small new piece of information.
For the middle section of the video ‘The Meander’ I wanted to include much of the time-lapse footage and also bring in some quotes and statistics. Bring some meat onto my project as well as conveying the message of my work and why I was drawn to show the importance of rivers in the first place. Each quote relates to one another and are interspliced with my time lapse video. I like these quotes but on reflection I would have preferred a visual representation too. I mean what is 0.0001% ? I really liked how these broke up the video though and it comes at the right part of the video.
In the final section I add a rather troubling and powerful quote by the most recent report by The Environment Agency. It’s followed by an image of myself completing audio recordings by the beach. And then it finally ends on what I think is a hopeful quote by David Attenborough. I didn’t want the presentation to end on a completely negative note so I felt that this was the appropriate ending.
Changing Audio
I decided that I should change audio for Section 1 from
to
This gave the video a more calming tone it wasn’t harsh. I got feedback from my group about which file was best and it was unanimously the calmer raindrops. They are right and the video flows much better with it like this.
The sea recordings were all poor and I decided to record some new ones which provided some more usable results. All the final audio recordings that I created that are in the video are in the SoundCloud file below.
Overall I am now much happier with my project. It runs smoother and is slicker. In truth though I feel like it does end a little bit too soon. I think what I have realised while creating this film is that it is very important to keep the audience engaged otherwise you lose your impact and message. Below is the Current Final Video.
Week 11
Session 09 -7/12/20 Minor Tweaks over Zoom
I simply missed this session due to Covid-19 it was the only day I could return home. A development of my project was supposed to be shown but it didn’t get uploaded properly. I was filled in that the group had discussed each persons project, working on the tweaks and finer details of each persons project. Also a draft of the show was created with time slots for each project. I decided to select one time slot for my short video.
Week 12
Session 10 -14/12/20 Rehearsal
Short rehearsal session to run through how the show was going to work. I nominated myself to co-host the show for section 2. This simply involved moving people into the live feed so they could talk and chat about their project. Everyone’s projects are looking good. I’m a excited for tomorrow.
WINTER SHOW – 15/12/20
Overall I felt like the winter show turned out very well and we all pulled together to give a mammoth 7hr 40min show displaying some of the most diverse work at the school of art. There was a wide variety of work on display however it was commented that it still held together well under the banner of nature.
I’ve picked out some of the work that I found particularly, they are from sections that I was able to watch which was predominately in section 2.
The start of the show was a small chatroom with many of the artist visible. I think this works in our favour as it enables viewers to understand the large and collaborative nature of this project. The ‘preamble’ from Miranda helped set the stage and I felt gave the show a richer meaning.
Weronika’s burning photograph, again I have said that I am a fan of the simplicity of this work. I was pleased that it cam across well on zoom.
My work. I felt like it was a nice short piece and slotted in well between the works that were surrounding it. Unfortunately as I thought the video did not play well through zoom. This was a common problem with some of the pre-recorded videos which juddered. I became aware that perhaps the artworks that come across best on zoom were live acted or voice over. I directed people over to my website to watch the video in better quality.
I really enjoyed many of Richard’s various performances of Lucinda. It was inspiring to see zoom really used as a tool for theatrics. Zoom was really used as a stage and it felt like one. I particularly enjoyed Joe’s monologue about popularity, envy, jealousy, privilege and photographs. Stunning.
Anna’s work based around closeups was also fascinating. Again the engagement was really welcome with the audience. I particularly enjoyed, as my role as co-host, submitting the Facebook comments which were numerous. Being able to discuss your work was really valuable. Miranda asking questions abled us to best understand Anna’s work.
Mayu’s diary particularly caught my attention, I missed that it had audio (which we fixed in the end) because I really enjoyed the way that the work was presented, black and white visuals with projections. I thought that it was a really fascinating and clever way to present her work.
I only managed to catch the end on Farrah’s work. I thought that it was such a clever and creative way to present her work. Again the strength really came from her live voice over which seems to come across best in a zoom call.
Final ‘epilogue’ session. Honestly a very heart-warming part of the show. Although we had feedback sessions throughout the project it was often between ourselves. It was lovely to hear feedback from a wider audience. Overwhelmingly it was positive and I can safely say it was a success.
For me personally I enjoyed doing some of the background things and helping run things in the background. I wish that I had felt well enough to put myself forward to help curate the exhibition as I am sure that I would have learnt a lot from that experience. I think that to best use the zoom platform better not using a pre-recorded video would have been beneficial. However for this project which was so focused on sound I knew that it would have been difficult to do any voice overs and I feel like I chose the best medium to display my project.
To End
Much of this notebook it has to be said was created after most of the work was completed. As such it has perhaps more been used as a tool of reflection. Documenting what I did but perhaps at a distance without the immediate responses. It is very interesting reading my Tutorial notes where I was being pulled in different directions. It shows how I struggled to decide what to do with all my audio recordings and how I was going to display my project to an audience.
Overall if there is anything to take away from this project it is the excitement of a new medium – hydrophonic sounds. It has to be said I barely scratched the surface of what was achievable with this medium and with more time and motivation I could have been able to achieve better recordings. However in the short space of time, with the disruption of my health and the current world I am very happy with what I was able to achieve of the past semester. Most importantly I am very proud to have been able to represent my fellow classmates in an online exhibition which, I feel was an overwhelming success.
I will leave this notebook with perhaps my favourite recording that never made it to the video.
Goodbye for Now
Isaac