I’ve been enamoured with the works of Ryoji Ikeda since I saw a series of his pieces at 180 studios. I could talk about all of them but the one that was the most breath taking was data-verse 1, the very grand screens displaying these images seemed to scratch an itch in my mind, the accompanying composition seemingly representing and emulating the data on screen, it reminded me of experiments of when i would import raw data into my DAW to hear how the algorithm would interpret it.
Another piece that took my interest was SONIC VISTA, a sound installation by O+A, Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger. The idea of taking normally un-heard/un-listened to sound and placing a fresh perspective on them has always been fascinating to me, to resonating the sounds of a city turns what is normally called ‘noise pollution’ in low drones. It feels like an extension of generative music but using sources that aren’t even traditionally considered instruments. There’s something about extending ones senses or changing the perspective of ones senses in an installation I find deeply fascinating.
There is also an installation by xxx in which visitors walk around and listen to various pre-recorded electromagnetic field recordings of various rooms, each made to play when the visitor goes near a certain point. These recordings are amazing and varied, having done some of my own experiments with an electro magnetic microphone I’ve been thinking a lot about way to incorporate it into my own practice and many of the ideas I’ve had for an installation have involved EM.
I’ve also been recently enamoured with feedback and more specifically the process of no input mixing. seeing Adam Basanta uses feedback to create a rather hypnotic and peaceful living composition with The sound of empty space where a mic rotates around 7 different speakers and tuning the feedback to create a slow “skeletal version of the main theme from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet”, taking what is usually an unwanted and unappreciated sound and turning it into something beautiful is strangely touching. I’m still on my quest to try and make my use of No-input mixing and feedback into something more versatile and taking it beyond noise music (something, though, I still deeply love)