Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T05:28:12.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Mediating Space, Sound and Experience: Interviews with situated sound art practitioners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2022

Nicole Robson ,
Nick Bryan-Kinns  and
Andrew McPherson
Nicole Robson*
Affiliation:
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Nick Bryan-Kinns*
Affiliation:
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Andrew McPherson*
Affiliation:
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK
*
Emails: n.s.robson@qmul.ac.uk; n.bryan-kinns@qmul.ac.uk; a.mcpherson@qmul.ac.uk
Emails: n.s.robson@qmul.ac.uk; n.bryan-kinns@qmul.ac.uk; a.mcpherson@qmul.ac.uk
Emails: n.s.robson@qmul.ac.uk; n.bryan-kinns@qmul.ac.uk; a.mcpherson@qmul.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports on an interview-based study with ten sound artists and composers, all engaged in situated sonic practices. We propose that these artists engage the ear and shape possible interactions with the artwork by altering the relationship between sound, the space in which it is heard and the people who hear it. Our interviews probe the creative process and explore how a sound artist’s methods and tools might influence the reception of their work. A thematic analysis of interview transcriptions leads us to characterise artist processes as mediatory, in the sense that they act in between site and audience experience and are guided by the non-human agencies of settings and material things. We propose that artists transfer their own situated and embodied listening to that of the audience and develop sonic and staging devices to direct perceptual activity and listening attention. Our findings also highlight a number of engagement challenges, in particular the difficulty artists face in understanding their audience’s experience and the specificity of an artwork’s effect not just to its location but also to the disposition, abilities and prior experiences of listeners.

Type
Article
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 28 , Issue 1: Socially Engaged Sound Practices, Part 2 , April 2023 , pp. 25 - 34
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, N. and Sevaldson, B. 2014. Sound and Architectural Immersive Spatial Installations Barely: Part-1 and Part-2. In LaBelle, B. and Martinho, C. (eds.) Site of Sound #2: Of Architecture and the Ear. Berlin: Errant Bodies, 225–44.Google Scholar
Batchelor, P. 2019. Grasping the Intimate Immensity: Acousmatic Compositional Techniques in Sound Art as ‘Something to Hold on to’. Organised Sound 24(3): 207–318.10.1017/S1355771819000372CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilda, Z., Costello, B. and Amitani, S. 2006. Collaborative Analysis Framework for Evaluating Interactive Art Experience. CoDesign 2(4): 225–38.10.1080/15710880601008026CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Born, G. 2005. On Musical Mediation: Ontology, Technology and Creativity. Twentieth-Century Music: 2(1): 7–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. 2006. Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2): 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewster, M. 1999. Where, There or Here? In LaBelle, B. and Roden, S. (eds.) Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear. Los Angeles: Errant Bodies, 101–4.Google Scholar
Drever, J. 2019. ‘Primacy of the Ear’ – But Whose Ear? The Case for Auraldiversity in Sonic Arts Practice and Discourse. Organised Sound 24(1): 85–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flø, A. B. 2018. Materiality in Sound Art. Organised Sound 23(3): 225–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franinovic, K. and Visell, Y. 2007. New Musical Interfaces in Context: Sonic Interaction Design in the Urban Setting. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. New York: ACM, 191–6.Google Scholar
Fritsch, J., Breinbjerg, M. and Jensen, T. 2014. Designing Interactive Listening Situations. Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: The Future of Design. New York: ACM, 31–40.Google Scholar
Garrelfs, I. 2015. From Inputs to Outputs: An Investigation of Process in Sound Art Practice Doctoral dissertation, University of the Arts, London.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. 1966. The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Boston, MA: Houghton.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. 1979. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston, MA: Houghton.Google Scholar
Glaveanu, V., Lubart, T., Bonnardel, N., Botella, M., De Biaisi, P. M., Desainte-Catherine, M., et al. 2013. Creativity as Action: Findings from Five Creative Domains. Frontiers in Psychology 4: 176.10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00176CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harries, G. 2013. ‘The Open Work’: Ecologies of Participation. Organised Sound 18(1): 3–13.10.1017/S1355771812000192CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, L. 2017. From Site-specific to Site-responsive: Sound Art Performances as Participatory Milieu. Organised Sound 22(1): 83–92.10.1017/S1355771816000364CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keylin, V. 2020. Crash, Boom, Bang: Affordances for Participation in Sound Art. SoundEffects – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Sound and Sound Experience 9(1): 98–115.10.7146/se.v9i1.118243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, G. 2009. Site-Sounds: On Strategies of Sound Art in Public Space. Organised Sound 14(1): 101–8.10.1017/S1355771809000132CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krogh, M. 2018. A Beat is a Hybrid: Mediation, ANT and Music as Material Practice. Contemporary Music Review 37(5–6): 529–53.10.1080/07494467.2018.1575125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubisch, C. 1999. Uber die Stille 1997 (installation). In LaBelle, B. and Roden, S. (eds.) Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear. Los Angeles: Errant Bodies, 30–5.Google Scholar
LaBelle, B. 2015. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaBelle, B. and Martinho, C. 2011. Site of Sound #2: Of Architecture and the Ear. Berlin: Errant Bodies.Google Scholar
LaBelle, B. and Roden, S. 1999. Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear. Los Angeles: Errant Bodies.Google Scholar
Lahlou, S. 2011. How Can We Capture the Subject’s Perspective? An Evidence-based Approach for the Social Scientist. Social Science Information 50(3–4): 607–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landy, L. 1994. The ‘Something to Hold on to Factor’ in Timbral Composition. Contemporary Music Review 10(2): 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latour, B. 1994. On Technical Mediation. Common Knowledge 3(2): 29–64.Google Scholar
Noë, A. 2002. Art as Enaction. Art and Cognition Conference. http://cognitionandculture.net/wp-content/uploads/archive_1.pdf (accessed 9 March 2020).Google Scholar
Nowell, L., Norris, J., White, D. and Moules, J. 2017. Thematic Analysis: Striving to Meet the Trustworthiness Criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 16: 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouzonian, G. 2006. Embodied Sound: Aural Architectures and the Body. Contemporary Music Review 25(1–2): 69–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheridan, J. G. and Bryan-Kinns, N. 2008. Designing for Performative Tangible Interaction. International Journal of Arts and Technology 1(3–4): 288–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinks, T. 2013. Thinking Aurally and Visually about Process. Reflections on Process 2: 13–21.Google Scholar
Tanaka, A. and Parkinson, A. 2018. The Problems with Participation. In Emmerson, S. (ed.) The Routledge Research Companion to Electronic Music: Reaching Out with Technology. Abingdon: Routledge, 172–93.Google Scholar
Voegelin, S. 2010. Listening to Noise and Silence. New York: Continuum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voegelin, S. 2019. The Political Possibility of Sound. New York: Bloomsbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar