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 dominant 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 works 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 the use of audio to present an emotional idea. 

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 father 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 room filling 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 for me is an area that excites me to explore and research along with many other artistic sound ideas which for me is why I chose to study on this course.