Post Aural Terrain Thoughts
I found the ‘Aural Terrains’ a difficult project to truly comprehend. Understanding sound proved to be more difficult than I originally imagined, as I never really thought of sound as something outside of traditional music. However over the four weeks I soon discovered that the world of sound is far more expansive than I originally expected.
I found the world of sound almost captivating on how it can be perceived in completely different ways, such as improvisation. I originally thought improvisation was simply building upon music while you were actively playing it. But after a while I soon discovered that improvisation is so much more, anything from timing to singing notes and bouncing noises off each other.
I have also become far more appreciative of noises that often go unheard from day to day life, and how even though we block them out on a day-to-day basis, some of these noises are completely beautiful and captivating. Editing these noises together to supplement each other proved to be an interesting exercise and really opened my mind up to the concept of sound at.
As for circuit bending I probably found that the most difficult from a technical aspect, soldering the components together was simply frustrating. However the palette discovered through experimentation using different materials in conjunction with the circuit bending was quite vast, it proved to be a great foundation for working on my final performance.
Whilst experimenting at home, I discovered that placing the microphone in my mouth could create more unique sounds. This resulted in a wide range of unique and often unheard noises. In conjunction with materials that I placed inside my mouth in conjunction with the microphone an interesting palette of sound art was created. One of these was via the use of Berocca tablets, which created an interesting fizzing noise, which was the basis for my final performance.
Although my performance didn’t proceed the way I had hoped, it did prove the point that audio performances can be technically challenging and that Risk management is extremely important. In future I will try be more thorough in my preparation of presentations to create a more diverse, well realized and fully functioning performance for the audience.
