Today in class in our final week for this unit we firstly discussed and debated last week’s reading task, I was especially interested in Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Quantum listening’ and how other members of the class responded to it. Myself I found the idea that listening or voluntary listening is required for culture, which is an interesting theory or thinking exercise as human communication is based on vocal output thus language develops and voluntary listening is required to interpret that information and return it. I don’t however think this to be true as someone with impaired or no hearing relies on visual or other sensory communication which is something I did not pick up on this at first and I am grateful for the in-class discussion as hearing other’s ideas opens new tangents of thinking. I think Oliveros should have stated the idea differently as this is basically saying deaf people have no culture or can’t have it which is opposite from the truth.

‘I’m for a sound art’

Next, we read out together in class a text by Claes Oldenburg which was an interesting activity for both listening and communication which I enjoyed because I was able to hear other classmates reading and how they felt about a particular response by how they read it. For this week task on choosing some of the responses from Oldenburg’s text I have chosen:

• “I am for the blinking arts, lighting up the night. I am for art falling, splashing, wiggling, jumping, going on and off.”  This one to me captures kinetic art practice and motion, which I resonate with, and I find that interpreting the ideas behind art easier if it has motion involved, maybe due to my own fascination with movement or I find things like that powerful as they are multisensory.

• “I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap & still comes out on top.”  This one for me speaks about how materials should not dictate the success or creativity of an artwork which interests me because I enjoy using low quality sounds or ‘crap’ in my practice.

Each response from Oldenburg’s text is interesting to me as it shows the diversity of artistic practices, which I think is how my understanding of sound art has developed throughout this unit as I have been exposed to so many ideas and influences which is where my relationship with it sits now. I want to develop and take in more each time I discover something new and explore different themes and ways to convey and express ideas and feelings.

Article by Yan Jun

This article caught me off guard as this idea of labelling art with sound as sound art had begun to develop in my mind as I find it to be a weird label. During this unit my mind has opened to complete artistic practice rather than just sound art which I suppose now I see as sort of label of semi-restricting properties as this article explains perfectly. I’ve been juggling with this in my assignment as I think my perception of sound art has shifted to art with sound and that labelling practices should not matter.

Improv Session:

A couple weeks ago me and Anna decided to set up a whole class studio session to socialise and share ideas between everyone in the class, unfortunately the attendance was low on the day that we had planned it but still went ahead with a few of us there.

I had also been reading at the time a book on Brian Eno and had been fascinated by this idea of becoming part of the process which I interpret as sort of creating the environment or climate that sound is to be made and then sort of letting it loose (an over thought jam session really). But I also think that the process of creating sounds is enjoyable itself and not focussing much on the final output. I had also watched a piece by Angus Carlyle at café Oto in which multiple microphones were set out and used to capture sounds of multiple objects.

Me and Anna gathered some instruments and laid out microphones in a circle pattern and a mixer at the 12 o’clock position with the idea being that after each little jam everyone rotated around sections, which meant everyone used a different instrument and got to compose (bring in and out different microphones) on the mixer. This resulted in a quiet lengthy compilation of harp, guitar, ukulele, microphone feedback, odd percussion and even a hurdy gurdy with all of us non-sensibly going at it on each section. Here is the result:

I really enjoyed this improv session as it was a great for each of me, Simon, Fran, Anna and Declan to share ideas and socialise, I look forward and hope to do more with all the group.

Assignment Progress:

The 500-word section of this assignment has been challenging as the question ‘what does sound art mean to you’ deserves more word count or I just find it difficult to shorten my answers. It has also been challenging to decide what exactly I would like to include and where I have been influenced, I have chosen my first quote from Cathy Lane’s ‘Sound Arts Now’ which is featured in the course literature and shows the idea of diversity in sound arts which is something I want to include into my text, I also might include something about how there seems to be a lot of restriction or labelling in art which is something I disagree with. For the section on practices or themes I’m keen to explore I think I want to write about my interest in being in the process as I really enjoyed the improvisation session.

Maryia Kamarova’s guest lecture unfortunately cut short due to a perfectly timed fire alarm was certainly an eye opener for me in terms of her artistic practice. Coming from a scenography background then moving towards incorporating sound as a medium within this practice, using the idea of repurposing electronic devices and common materials then crafting them into site specific installations and performances.

A Look into Scenography:

Maryia is part of Pyl Collective which extend and push the boundaries of scenography, they released their manifesto on scenography without borders in 2021 which luckily, I have managed to get my hands on an English translation. I had never heard of the term scenography before Maryia’s lecture thus it’s been intriguing to research into it, I specifically like the idea of scenographic thinking, analysing space and materials as a process to discover how to fit them together to bring across an idea (Bleeker, M. et al. 2019). I also am intrigued by the ability of scenography to bring out emotions along with cultural and political ideas using found materials, I’m interested in the process of selecting and designing new objects from old and re-using technology to create environments that achieve this (Von Rosen, 2021). Pyl’s scenography manifesto uses strong key words to section their main attributes, with my favourite being ‘sensitive scenography’ which entails exploration of technological organisms and focuses on non-human interactions between these (Liška, Jakub and Pyl 2021).

Looking into Maryia’s Practice:

The piece introduced to us within the guest lecture was 555 bugs which is a site-specific live performance of self-built electro-acoustic instruments that sonically interact with each other like observing small creatures carry out their lives. Maryia wanted to research into alternate sound sources and the ability to use these in a performance environment, these objects are created with simple electronic components and low-voltage circuitry (555 bugs, 2019). Her performance Hulko with artist Kunrad is absolutely stunning, and a wonderful way of using primitive objects like foraged stones and wood to create sound and bring about a natural and ecological sense, unfortunately the website ‘vimeo’ where most of maryia’s work is, requires me to submit an identification document to access anything so I haven’t had the chance to explore all of her work.

My Study:

Maryia’s lecture was inspiring for me as this kinetic/objects under motion practice is where I would like my creative practice to be as I enjoy the fascination and feeling of non-human autonomous sound producing objects. I decided with limited tools and materials to have a go at creating some sound objects.

I decided to sketch a few objects with the first being a contact box, with a playable spring attached. This ended up looking and sounding like:

Secondly I wanted to use actual electrical circuitry (although very basic) it had to have a moving element so it could produce sound by itself. This motor and guitar pickup ended up looking and sounding like:

And lastly I wanted to try and interact objects like in Maryia’s work ‘Spojené zvukem’ (2024). I decided to attach a stretched spring to a motor and use it to impact my contact box to create a semi-random noise:

Bibliography:

• 555 bugs (2019) Overtoon. Available at: https://www.overtoon.org/en/production/2020/555bugs-1/ (Accessed: December 4, 2025).
• Bleeker, M. et al. (2019) Thinking Through Theatre and Performance. Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 100–106. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=59iEDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA100&dq=what+is+scenography+journal+article&ots=LwCe2F9k6R&sig=2qzcBeGxFLp1po3HkXt4By-BjAs#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20scenography%20journal%20article&f=false (Accessed: December 4, 2025).
• Liška, Jakub and Pyl (2021) “Manifest: Scénografie bez hranic (Manisfesto to Scenography without Borders),” Manifest: Scénografie bez hranic (Manisfesto to Scenography without Borders). Available at: https://jasuteren.cz/media/pages/cedit/3083814219-1762959758/cedit7.pdf (Accessed: December 4, 2025).

• von Rosen, A. (2021) “Why Scenography and Art History?,” Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 90(2), pp. 65–71. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2021.1923566.

Week 9’s seminar Introduced multiple frameworks of listening, this included the difference between hearing and listening which to me is only separated by involuntary and voluntary exposure to sounds. Adding to this point, we discussed harmful and exploitative listening which should not be called ‘listening’ but ‘hearing’ as to me something that is harmful or exploitative is not usually voluntary for the identity its subjected to. To me an exploitative sound can be anything that is heard un-consensually like the bus outside my window that just relieved the pressure within its air brakes or sounds purposely designed to be heard unwillingly like long range acoustic devices. This brings me to our discussion of harmful listening or sounds that cause physical or psychological harm to living things. This can be sounds created to intentionally harm like interrogation techniques or unintentional biproducts like loud motorways that directly effect local residents or confuse or distract local wildlife. We also dove into soundscape composition and acoustic ecology especially focusing on Westerkamp and some of her works,  I enjoyed ‘Kits Beach Soundwalk’ as to me it explored the idea of the  acoustic ecological impact of suburban sounds on the natural environment, Declan from class stated that he thought filtering away the city sounds distracts and restricts the accessibility of the piece which I don’t think was Westerkamp’s intentions. I think Westerkamp intended to explore and show how many sounds and details are blurred or unheard by the city sounds and by filtering the distraction away, it achieves this.

The task this week was to locate or pick a field recorder from a website that displays the location of where that sound or soundscape was recorded.

I chose this field recording as it’s an area on the South Coast that I frequently visit and have many memories of. Recorded in stereo with a cardioid pair as stated by the uploader these recording details a rather vocal harmonious ensemble of local birdsong contradicted by the distant sound of gunfire from the near-by Lulworth Tank Ranges. It depicts an odd mix of human and non-human sounds, the gunfire so common its not hushing the birds which tells me it’s almost relentless. I can not imagine an idea of this environment as I have been there many times but from a listening perspective, I would imagine deep quiet countryside broken by a warzone from the gunfire. As I know where this is I know the impact and disturbance this has on the local area, the harmful and very exploitative gunfire ruins the peace and beauty of its location.

Finally, after reading this week’s literature ‘Quantum listening’ by Pauline Oliveros I discovered the idea that all culture and expanded ideas are developed through voluntary listening. Also discovering the idea of focal (detailed) listening and global (whole field) listening which brings me to the main idea of this text being quantum listening: the idea of listening to multiple environments at once, like how two quantumly entangled atoms allow each one to portray the others environment. This in listening allows perception and focus to be concentrated into different places without actively ignoring the other.