ARRHYTHMIA
Final Degree Show Project
Arrhythmia is an attempt to create a sort of musical memory of the sounds I recorded from a building site next to my studio.The aim of this project was to capture the some of the sounds I heard while studying in Brighton University. I focused on the building site across the road as it had become a constant source of disturbance and interruptions during seminars and discussions.
This didn't really bother me but it did become and “element” within the studio. Sometimes it would break someone's concentration during a discussion, totally throwing them off point. Other times it could provide a brief moment of levity during a heated conversation, the noise providing enough time for the participants to take a breath, to re evaluate each others opinion.
Tarek Atoui for his project "The Reverse Collection" spent three weeks making daily recordings at the Tate using improvised instruments. At the end of this, these recordings were layered on top of each other creating a musical memory of sounds. I wanted to attempt something similar but using improvised effects and tools that I had created to manipulate the sound coming from the building site.
In the section below I have included the original recordings of the building site. Recording's were taken using an iPhone and voice recording app.
PROCESSING
Manipulating the Sounds
Before manipulation of the sound could begin I had to set myself some ground rules to avoid creating a meandering soundscape with no meaning. The first rule, which I did break, was to stick to the original recording. That meant no reversing, cutting or splicing of the clip. I wanted to keep some of the original feel of the recording by not destroying it's structure entirely. Due to a technical issue I did have to duplicate the recording from day two to try to match the length of the others, apart from that the structures are kept intact.
Another guideline I set myself was that all of the effect tools I used had to be totally customised and built by myself. I didn't want any pre sets or pre built effects. The process of playing with and building effects to manipulate and transform the audio was integral to this project. By mapping the effects I had built inside Ableton to a midi controller, I could then play with them as if they were instruments.
In the section below you will find the processed manipulated audio tracks.
LAYERING
After creating the individual tracks using various custom plugins in Ableton I now started layering the tracks on top of each other. I wanted to create one piece that encapsulated the sounds and turmoil from studying next to a loud building site, using the sounds as a toolbox for me to plunder.
After discussion and playing with the location of the piece I decided that it would be best suited to be as close to the building site as possible. Ideally up against the window so the listener can see the site from where the noise came. I wanted to remove any distractions that may take away from the sound, because of this I mounted the media player on the wall rather than on the shelf. This served two purposes, the original goal of the shelf was kept as a destination, a place for people to rest their elbows. Attaching the player to the wall also kept it out of view while it was being listened to, putting all attention on the sound and the building site.
BUILDING THE SPACE
Curating the Room
I wanted to avoid placing sets of headphones on plinths as I had done this before and it added a sculptural feel to the work. The media player and headphones placed on top of a clean white plinth was too visual and elegant, this form drew too much attention to the aesthetic look of the objects.
The work really needed to be as close to the building site as possible. For this to work a wall and shelf unit was required to house the media player and headphones and to also “clean up” that side of the room. I now wanted nothing to distract the listener from looking out of the window and over the building site. Pre build there were long, ugly, paint chipped radiators precisely where the listener would be standing. For some reason an entire length of windows had been painted, badly, in white paint which was also flaking and chipping off. Apart from looking incredibly ugly, the painted windows blocked out a massive amount of light from the studio and also obscured some of the view of the building site. By scraping off the paint from the windows I enabled more light to come into the room, highlighting the visual pieces that were a part of the show as well as fully exposing the building site to viewers.
