Reading Notes:
In traditional storytelling, the setting is usually a time and a place where the story happens. The setting provides the backdrop for what is about to transpire and also sets the mood.
For new-media stories, this could also mean thinking about the setting where your story will be viewed and experienced - Is it in a museum, only accessible by dialing a phone number, hidden on a street corner?
Sound art is a time-based medium that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1913 and 1930, futurist Luigi Russolo built 27 experimental instruments/noise machines that creates different types of sounds like machines of industrialization or sounds of warfare. The medium was also embraced by Dadaists and surrealists like Marcel Duchamp who composed a musical that featured three voices singing notes pulled from a hat. Duchamp's dear friend John Cage composed 4'33" in 1952. "Four minutes, thirty-three seconds" or just "four thirty-three" is a three-movement composition that portrays the ambient sounds listeners hear while it is performed, which is often construed as silence.
Around mid 20th century, artists were exploring sound art in combination with kinetic sculptures and electronic media. Artist and composer Bill Fontana became well known for using live and pre-recorded sounds to transform and explore architectural spaces.
"Sound is materially invisible but very visceral and emotive. It can define a space at the same time as it triggers a memory" - Susan Philipsz
The ever changing innovations in digital technology has radically changed the landscape of contemporary sound art. Artists are now able to control sounds with physical actions like jumping on a pressure pad or waving a body around in front of a kinect, they can generate compositions from visual cues like colors, shapes or images, or extend a composition to last a thousand years like Jem Finer’s Longplayer.
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller / The Carnie 2010 (the carnival) Link
Homage to new york / Jean Tinguely Link
4’33 / John Cage Link
Prepared piano / John Cage Link
Music for Airports / Brian Eno Link
Times New York / Max Neuhaus Link
Babel / Cildo Meireles Link