Soundbites & Textures: Walk With Me…
Since working with a variety of materials, including the concrete and raw wool, I have been really keen to explore other senses and how these not only relate to my current art practice, but could perhaps better articulate the sense of community I am attempting to articulate within my work. Using audio is something I feel strongly about, and through experience of accompanying my artwork with audio previously, I feel it enhances the work - if done correctly.
What I mean by that is, strong lyrical music can have an adverse effect, it can take the audience to an unintentional place and detract from the impact we hope to make, as an artist; a changemaker, so to speak. Similarly, instrumental music can equally create the wrong impression, depending on the genre for example.
What I hoped to do here, was record raw sounds within my home city of Lancaster and later record how this made me feel. Below you will find the recording of my journey through Lancaster - I am going to refrain from describing my journey through words, and allow you, the listener, to visualise this journey. So, please, feel free to walk with me on this journey…
My setup included an old Olympus DM5 that I used many years ago to record lectures as an undergrad. It surprisingly worked well once I’d charged it up (after having to order an archaic cable from Amazon). I then coupled it with a Rode Audiomicro, originally putting the deadcat on, but after comparing the sound quality outside, I decided to remove the deadcat. This also meant I could hide the mic beneath the recorder, without drawing attention to the fact I was recording in public, allowing me to capture very raw, albeit fleeting conversations.
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and was pleasantly surprised at how much I became focussed on the sounds around me - much more than I usually would. I regularly find myself fascinated by conversations I hear in public spaces, dialects, accents, moods and words used. This was an exciting opportunity to capture that, without identifying anyone being recorded.
When I arrived home, I was so excited to plug in my headphones and listen back, I didn’t notice my ice cold hands from holding the recorder and mic for so long!
Shortly afterwards, I uploaded the audio to Adobe Audition and knitted it together to create one track. Other than this, no other editing was done at this stage, so the recording above is completely raw - which I love!
Later in the afternoon, I swapped tools and took out my Canon GX7 Mark iii to capture textures throughout the same route.
I’m not sure what my intentions are with the textures I have at this stage, but again, I found myself looking at objects and materials in ways I hadn’t done previously. My senses were certainly heightened today!
Here are some examples of the textures I captured on Pt. 2 of my journey.
