Blurring the Boundaries and Graphic Notation

Blurring the Boundaries Response

I believe the reading is articulating how our interactions and understanding of sound is entirely dependant on momentary circumstances.  We experience a sound installation differently based on numerous factors such as location, environment, interactivity and others experiencing it as well.  We are unable to replicate the same experience twice as one cannot simply sit through a sound installation in its entirety.  Every time we leave and later revisit, the program would be different; and even if we were to return at the exact same moment in a pre-recorded program there would be other factors that would have changed.  As mentioned in the article, if a sound installation was in an outdoor setting there would be many uncontrollable factors such as birds chirping, airplanes flying overhead or people talking in the background.  Sound is ephemeral and can only really be experienced once.  In order to represent this visually, I chose an image of a bustling train station.  Having experienced locations like these many times, I have noticed that there are always the same repeating sounds.  Some of these being people talking, announcements of train arrivals, footsteps and the rolling of suitcases.  Despite that these sounds eventually all blend to form a soundscape that can be found at any busy train station, the individual parts as well as the order in which these sounds occur is completely organic.  No announcer’s voice will be the same, nor will any conversation you overhear in passing.     

 

 

 

Graphic Notation

The piece of which I chose was called Orient-Occident by Iannis Xenakis.  This industrial instrumental piece is 10 minutes and 58 seconds in length.  It features many grumbling and deep synthesized metallic sounds mixed with high pitch scratching, tapping and chimes.  I recognize sounds and tempos from Oriental percussion, however it is juxtaposed with very aggressive pounding and shearing sounds.  The piece has a very unsettling sound to it, almost acting as a score to a postmodern thriller.  As a response I chose to visually represent the intensity of some of the sounds and their frequency with colour using watercolour, India ink and charcoal.  The line work depicts how the individual sounds are layered over each other in continuance with some being more noticeable than others.  The piece does not flow in a sequential or predictable order as there are breaks of silence.  This is why I chose to let the ink and watercolour run in multiple directions showing how Orient-Occident is divided into segments and unpredictable.  http://ubu.com/sound/xenakis.html