Week four consisted of an offsite visit to Jem Finer’s Longplayer exhibition at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London.

This exhibition is situated in a rather small unused lighthouse with large, stoned walls. Upon entering the large wooden ground floor door, you are instantly met with a hushed sound from above. After scaling the rather hobbled old lighthouse stairs you enter a mezzanine that opens to a large loft like room that is directly above the neighbouring attached warehouse.

This is where the physical and digital contents of Finer’s piece is situated as shown in the photo above. The sculpture consists of rounded platforms containing six shelf like layers holding a plethora of varying sizes of brass singing bowls, these signing bowls are static and not contributing sonically to this piece which is why there are many small speakers hanging directly from wooden joists above. The third floor is situated as a listening area where the light from the lighthouse would have been and is now hollowed out containing yet more speakers, this itself creates a different sonic environment with a slight metallic reverb.

The sound you hear is a computer-generated sequence of singing bowl compositions composed by Jem Finer that slowly evolve and subtract as you move through the building. It is generated using a program that plays six compositions simultaneously with the trick being that they are played out of time: just like having six vinyl turntables playing the same record but starting them each at different times (Steele 7). This is worked out in the computer program as such that the composition does not repeat itself for one-thousand years.

My thoughts:

Jem Finer’s Longplayer is an excellent interpretation of time and a sense of place; especially as it is not only available in person at many locations globally but also as it is livestreamed continuously, this makes it ultimately available for everyone to appreciate and connect with wherever they are. I was surprised about this as I expected it to be a physical, kinetic artwork at first but to me the thought that it exists within the cloud reinforces its sense of place as that it is not confined to some specific location meaning its idea can continue to exist wherever. The most unique factor I find about this piece is its millennium spanning duration especially as it started and witnessed 1999s move into the year 2000 and it won’t end until 2099. I interpret this length of time as putting a perspective of the true scale of time and how much can and will change during the length of the piece (Christenhusz 148). The fact that this idea of time is not confined to a visual context or a piece of art within a gallery creates much more excitement and evokes more thought especially as it won’t be seen in years to come as a historical piece but as one that is still ongoing and ever changing. This ties in with Steven Connors idea that static visual art can give off a ‘fatiguing and inhuman’ feeling whereas sound especially in this ever-changing example of Longplayer has the power to evoke more than just visual senses (Connor 48)

Bibliography:

Christenhusz, J. (2021) “Soundings of Ecological Time in Contemporary Music and Sound Art,” APRIA Journal, 3(2), p. 148. Available at: https://doi.org/10.37198/apria.03.02.a16.

Connor, S. (2003) Ears Have Walls. Available at: https://www.stevenconnor.com/earshavewalls/ (Accessed: October 26, 2025).

Steele, S. (2024) The music Of Deep Time, Research Gate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sean-Steele-4/publication/384110733_The_Music_of_Deep_Time/links/66eb144f97a75a4b4834dbc2/The-Music-of-Deep-Time.pdf (Accessed: October 26, 2025).

During Easter 1916, Marcel Duchamp presents the art world with a fascinatingly simple creation titled ‘With Hidden Noise (A Bruit Secret)’. This piece consists of a small brass flower press like structure with a ball of twine in between the two plates (Figure One).

The rather unique secret of this piece reveals itself when shaken, a hidden rattle, an unidentifiable object within placed there by his friend. The genius is that Duchamp never knew what was inside, only inviting something to be placed in there to create a hidden noise. I think down to historical context this piece is diversly minimal yet complexing as it gives off a mix between early modernity into futurism and playing with the idea of breaking from more classical artistic boundaries. The secret hidden noise is an idea that frustrates the viewer and the artist himself, it also brings imagination to the plate as it’s only possible to guess what the object inside is when shaking it. There is only one objectionable way to find out what is inside, but that destroys the piece; adding to this, one cannot possibly try to work out what the object is which I find leaves the viewer feeling incomplete in their observations of the piece which is a charming aspect in itself. The idea of incompleteness or my interpretation in this case is that in 1916 the majority of art observers were mainly financially fortunate, expecting to snoop there way through galleries and uncover all that is there but this piece is different as it hides and deceives, I find the feeling relatable to John cage’s 4’33.

For myself Duchamp’s piece interests me because of how simple and playful it is, I like that it so experimentally different using uncomplex ideas, which to me shows that the boundaries to art are limitless.  I also find it interesting that it is a physical experience for the viewer down to the fact that one must pick it up to experience it completely which ties in my enjoyment of kinetic tactile sound art.

Bibliography Of Consulted Material:

• Fijalkowski, K. (2020) “Secret Noise: Marcel Duchamp and the (Un)sound Object,” Journal of Sonic Studies [Preprint], (20). Available at: https://doi.org/10.22501/jss.978680.
• Lark Wool (2012) Marcel Duchamp – With Hidden Noise, youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-z5W3W6Lro (Accessed: October 16, 2025).

My first of three chosen keywords within sound arts is kinetic. To me this word conforms to my aspirations within the study as it insists working with physical objects under motion to create sound. It also interests me because kinetic sound arts are highly visual as you can see the sound at its source being created. I think kinetic works are a powerful way to express ideas as they require multiple human senses to obverse and understand making them complex as well as simple.

My second keyword is perception. I think to me this word means how the viewer themselves experience a piece of sound art and how feelings can differentiate completely between each person. Also, the idea of perception when creating art opens the ability to incorporate a multisensory experience for the viewer which ties into audio/visual aspects of kinetic sound arts.

My final chosen keyword relating to sound arts is undefined. To me this word is most powerful of all within sound arts as its strong but simple meaning details that there is no true definition of what sound art is or can be. This is heavily disputed but to me sound arts has no true definition other than that of using sound as a factor when conveying ideas. I also think sound arts should not be defined as doing so restricts and confines artists which stops them from being as creative as they want to be.

We conducted a class sound walk through the local area surrounding our campus, it was fascinating to see in perspective how little my brain picks up in day-to-day life compared with the task of simply walking in silence and only focusing on listening in detail. It surprised me how much noise was produced from every direction; it gave me a feeling of being within a polluted area full of unwanted harmful noise. This point was especially noticeable when we walked through some of the smaller estates in the area. They were surrounded by large tower blocks under construction with harsh power tool noise reflecting sound down onto the houses below almost as if on purpose.

I think this sound walk was a powerful listening exercise and has opened my mind in terms of the meaning of unwanted noise and to concentrate more on observing the environment I’m in by ear.

For me, the term sound art supports a broad and diverse range of sonic exploration, which of course uses sound as the median way of expressing ideas. To me sound arts includes such an endlessly wide field from visual arts and academical research, it can also be vastly experimental and emotional socially charged like Cathy Lanes ‘Am I Here?’. This piece is one of the first sound art performances that I had the chance to experience which included a wonderful spoken word experience backed with field recordings that played with the idea of conscious time and space, tying it with reality and memories. This for me encompasses the idea of sound arts and art with the use of audio to translate an emotional or engaging idea that’s relatable for the audience or observer. 

My initial interest into the sonic world started of course with a fascination for all kinds of music in general, especially extreme and complex electronic music. I think my first real introduction to the term Sound Arts was from my dad talking about an exhibition he attended at the Hayward Gallery which included works by Pan sonic, Brian Eno and other experimental musicians. Through photos of that event, I discovered my interest in physical, kinetic and mechanical ways of producing sound which I find extremely powerful due to their audio and visual multisensory effect. I also have a deep passion for birdsong, which for me stemmed from years of living in the countryside, I’ve always found birdsong to be fascinatingly complex and sonically interesting especially from a communication point of view. I think birdsong is an area that excites me to explore and research along with taking in as much knowledge as I’m able to and to explore a wide range of sound practices. I’m also interested in building an artistic way of thinking and seeing things so for me it is not just about having the opportunity to create but also to learn how to critique, share ideas and learn from others. Which for me is why I chose to study on this course.