From studio to site, and situation (sound art), by Wing

1. VASE7200 Extended Context/Extended Media Topic Presentation
FROM STUDIO TO SITE AND
SITUATION (SOUND ART)

2. Sound Art
Sound art is an artistic discipline in which sound is utilized as a medium. Like many genres of contemporary
art, sound art is interdisciplinary in nature, or takes on hybrid forms. Sound art can engage with subjects
such as acoustics, psychoacoustics, electronics, noise music, audio media, found or environmental sound,
explorations of the human body, sculpture, film or video and an ever-expanding set of subjects that are part
of the current discourse of contemporary art. (Kahn. 2001)

3. Sound Art in Studio
Example – I am sitting in a room (1969) by Alvin Lucier
Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into
the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded,
and this process is repeated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jU9mJbJsQ8
Many Artists believe that this is the first sound art.

4. Sound Art in Studio
Different room will obtain different condition. (for
example, the material of making wall, the no. of pillar) It
may affect the quality of resonance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSR2LSuzP_M

5. Site Specific Sound Art
Sound is a phenomenon that is inherently site-specific and which has a foundational
intercorrelation with space and architecture.
(Koutsomichalis 2009b, 99.7-19)
Artistic Practice and Technical Implication in Site specific sound art: (Koutsomichalis 2011)
Soundscape compositions
– immersive into environmental field
Sonic Geography
– several areas of different sonority in a given location
Sonorous architecture/sculptures
– tangible form of sonic geography (Sound architecture/sculptures)
Immersive performances
–On site improvisations
– focus pragmatic experience rather than conceptual framework
Generative compositions
– focus on pragmatic justification as the objective rather than procedural music

6. Site Specific Sound Art
Soundscape composition
SubAqua by Åsa Helena Stjerna at HafenCity, Hamburg, Germany 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAZKUYlgA0

7. Site Specific Sound Art
Sonic Geography
Site-specific Sound Installation by Justyna Kabala 2010 at Victoria Baths,
Manchester
http://vimeo.com/17345092

8. Site Specific Sound Art
Sonorous architectures/sculptures
(Sound Architecture/sculptures)
Zimoun in collabortation with Architect Hannes Zweifel 2011
(200 prepared dc-motors, 2000 cardboard elements 70x70cm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQZp4T_bl8

9. Site Specific Sound Art
Generative Composition.
The Radar by Ryoji Ikeda
Venue: Praia do Diabo, Brazil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU140hHeb4A

10. Situation Sound Art
The Social
Installation
Time
Space
Situation — a unique set of conditions produced in both space
and time and ranging across material, social, political, and
economic relations — has become a key concept in 21st
century art.

11. Site-Sound
Space:
Space plays a basic role for sound concepts and their
perception. (Georg Klein 2009)
Listener is always free to move while the sound is
playing.
Sound artists’ choice of the space are important. As they
concern:
- Architectional
- Visual conditions
- Social context

12. Sound Situation
Time:
Music – rhythm of sound in the duration
Sound – duration of time.
The listener is not guided through an art piece, but he is facing a sound status :
Sound Situation.
Thus, listener can move and should move in a sound installation, listening in
different distances to the sound objects or the sound environment. The listener
should discover different perspectives in listening as well as he has to discover
the space itself in several layers.
 Creating a situation of perception.

13. Situation Sound Art
Transition by Georg Klein
1. No sign at the sculpture, no explanation. Visitors had to discover all by themselves.
2. Visitors can change sound themselves. The composition is not absolute but relative.

14. Situation Sound Art
Oto-date (音立て) by Akio Suzuki 1996-
oto-date is inspired by the artist’s desire to find the echo points in
nature. It playfully invites people to become more aware of both
the aural and visual landscape, by stopping and listening carefully
at a given point on the map. Standing in these locations marked
with the characteristic oto-date circular ear symbol, gives people
the freedom to imagine their city in a new way.

15. Reference:
Claire Doherty, 2009. Situation (Documents of Contemporary Art), MIT Press, ISBN: 9-780-
2625-1305-0
Georg Klein, 2009. On Strategies of Sound Art in Public Space. In: Organised Sound 14/1,
Cambridge University Press.
Kahn, Douglas. 2001. Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge: MIT
Press, ISBN 0-262-61172-4
Koutsomichalis, M. 2009b. Blurring, MA Thesis, Department of Music, University of York,
York.
Koutsomichalis ,M. 2011. Site Specific Live Electronic Music: A Sound-Artist’s Perspective,
Music Research Centre, University of York Heslington, North Yorkshire