Calls

In preparing for the p5 sound project Cy and I  thought about a couple sounds pieces that we had each seen that were inspiring to us. 

Last week I went to the renovated Moma and saw the piece Handles by Haegue Yang. Handles is a large scale site specific installation and performance commissioned for the reopening of the Moma. When I first saw the work the objects (sculptures made of metal and floor/wall decals made of iridescent sheets) I felt like I was seeing beings from another planet, I couldn’t relate them to anything I had seen before. Once I started walking around the space, however, I began to notice directed speakers which were playing rainforest sounds — humid, dripping and bird calls. Additionally, after looking closer at the metallic sculpture I noticed that they were completely covered in small brass bells. The sounds from the speaker and the implied sounds from the bells changed everything about the piece. All of the sudden the sculptures were mobile creatures — perhaps birds ready to take off into a damp forest with many other creatures. With the addition of sound the environment came into sharp relief. At certain times throughout the day performers spin and move the sculptures (which are all on casters) and then you can hear the bells jingling. 

The other inspiring/moving and totally confounding piece I saw was called Dream House which is a sound and light installation in Tribeca made in 1993 by visual artist Marian Zazeela and sound artist La Monte Young. This piece is in a residential building on the 3rd floor. It is installed directly inside of the livingroom of an apartment. The room is filled with colored light and there are pillows on the ground, besides that there was nothing in the room except for a couple people laying or sitting. When I walked into the room I could hear a drone that changes pitch as I walked. When I sat down I heard only one drone pitch continuously, but if I tilted or turn my head, just a couple inches I would hear a completely different drone pitch. The movement I needed to make in order to hear a completely new drone pitches was so slight that it is really surprising. I know this piece was made with directed speakers and pure sine waves but I am still trying to work out how they sound could be unique in different places?

When we were talking about our project Cy made a really interesting comment that when people talk about their vision of the future people don’t talk about animals. I was completely shocked, Cy was right — I hadn’t heard any mention of animals in the future. Do they meet a terrible end? Do humans drive them to extinction? If so, what are the consequences of this? If not, how do animals change in the future? 

We made a project using sound files of bird calls from the North East United States. We wanted to make a layered sound experience that would have a visceral feeling of place.

https://editor.p5js.org/etc319/full/iQ1DdwTRi