This week I began on phase One, further gathering components for the speaker system, watching Memoria, doing further reading into O'Doherty's book and more.
Accumulation:
I have now ordered the last of the components that I will need, they will come within a week. Some components such as the OpAmps arrived for a circuitboard and not for a breadboard, so these will be far too small and so I have ordered breadboard OpAmps as well. The power supply module and adaptor turned out to be too high voltage for my microcontroller so I will have to review the power issue, however I may be able to just run it via micro-usb and cut out the extra step of the power supply. (the ultrasonic speakers may still need the higher voltage of power so this is yet unclear.
Artistic Review: William Anastasi
As in Sheik's writing, there is a shift in container and content when the walls of the gallery space are seen as an aesthetic object.
In the Dwan Gallery in New York, Anastasi's work 'West wall' (1967) exhibits a photograph of the empty white cube cube, made slightly smaller and printed on a massive silkscreen canvas that fills the space the wall allows. The photograph shows the electrical outlets, the ventilation shafts and the ‘ocean of space in the middle’, which is itself not white but rich with texture and light shadow.
This work haunts the aesthetic of the white cube space in a process of duality, bringing attention to the ventilation shafts, outlets etc which stand out from the white walls through an uncanny experience of the double. This is is very different to a wholly white painting like a Rauschenberg.
O’Doherty writes that after that show ‘when the paintings came down, the wall became a kind of ready made mural which changed every show in that space thereafter. Creating a haunting image of the white wall and associating the gallery with its specific architecture. This is significant as the gallery aims to be a nonplace - this is why it removes windows, paints the walls a matte block colour and uses artificial lighting: the aim is to create a space of complete neutrality where you could be anywhere and nowhere at once. The white walls of this site however, become moralised by this artists work, the white walls are no longer the focus, but the wall is defined by the placement of its other features.
This process of muralisation reminded me of fresco painting, where an artwork is painted into a specific site. While site specific art is often documented (photographed/ videoed) and presented in a gallery space, these works are rarely 2 dimensional paintings etc. Therefore the act of fresco painting, into the wall of a building in the plaster of its foundation, could be seen as a deliberate act against the gallery space. This is a plot point in the recent film 'The French Dispatch' (2020), a fictional work in which the artist paints large frescos to the dismay of the funding art curator. However, in the film, they eventually cut out the entire wall and have it carried by plane to an art gallery, presenting the fortitude and insistence of art galleries in presenting art within their cubic walls.
Critical Review: Memoria
Here I will discuss, only, the elements of this film that I can draw on to inform my research practice.
This film follows Jessica as she experiences auditory illusions while visiting her sick relative. The film is about Humanity struggling to impose a narrative upon existence to make sense of the world. This narrative exerts itself in traditions and semiotic rules, a framework for interpreting, categorising and sharing life experience. - There is an association here therefore, to Foucault's The order of things.
The film is consistently flooded with ambient noise. It's continuous presence is not really distracting, but it adds a certain realism and familiarity that is not present with other films. It is common in other films to extract only the most important audio from a scene and present it with the background noise muffled, reduced and sometimes removed. In Memoria's subversion of that, the listening experience is haunted when watching other films, as you realise how much sound is taken away.
As Jessica uses a sound engineer to recreate the sound that woke her from her sleep, we the viewer are haunted by the suspense of its realisation. We can hear the process of a thud sound getting closer to the one we heard before, and the built suspense of the same sound being played again also haunts in a manner of uncanniness. The double here is explored sonically through repetition.
The movie explores the haunting nature of acousmatic sound illusions. A type of experience I hope to recreate with parametric speakers. Here are some of the ways the movie explores these sounds as haunting:
Sound Haunts when its cause is not seen. -Acousmatic Haunting
Perhaps because of our ocularcentric culture, when we hear something it is natural for us to turn our eyes towards where the sound came from. As if the sensual information received by our ears must be validated by our visions well.
When we are not given this validation, the sound haunts us: it inherits a dualism of 'I can hear it but I can't see it'. This is explored in the cinematography of the movie.
As Jessica walks into a room of live music, there is a long shot of the audience staring directly past the camera without revealing the band. In this way, there is narrative anticipation, but also a broken convention which discomforts the watcher.
Sound Haunts when its affect is unpredictable. -Incongruous Haunting
Similar to and explored in conjunction with the previous point, if something is heard and not seen there exists a certain type of haunting experience, however there is a different type of haunting experience gained if it is not clear how the sound will affect the listener. For example in the movie:
In a later shot where Jessica is driving towards a construction site. The ambient noise of the equipment gets louder and louder and it is clear she is looking at it, however the camera shot shows only her profile and not out the windscreen. In this way, the increasing volume of the site haunts the viewer as they can not force the road ahead or how its accelerated volume will affect Jessica.
This unknown element, paired with a cinematic expectation of showing the road ahead brings attention to the boundaries of the frame, and therefore also the boundaries of our own vision.
This quality of haunting does not have to be paired with the unseen. If an unfamiliar entity is seen making an unfamiliar noise, then the same quality of unpredictability will haunt the viewer/listener.
Sound Haunts when it is out of place. -Displaced Haunting
In one scene, Jessica is seen reliving a memory in her mind. Hearing the sounds of that experience all around her, in a very different context.
This is a type of uncanniness that extends from a simultaneous duality to a proximal duality. Where a sound/ soundscape is heard in a contrasting setting. The out-of-place nature will create an uncanniness that is in essence haunting. Think children's nursery rhyme in a horror film, or how suspenseful music would change the positioning of an audience to peaceful cctv footage.
This also does not have to be acousmatic, and herein illustrates the difference. In acousmatic haunting the source cannot be seen. However in displaced haunting the source could be seen but the sound would come from somewhere different, i.e. being on the phone whilst seeing the caller far away.
Sound Haunts when it is Reactionary. - Responsive Haunting
While all of the above qualities of haunting do not have to be present at once to provide a haunting experience, this element creates a different quality of haunting only once the context of a haunting experience has been established, but itself provides a unique experience within time.
The sound most haunting to Jessica throughout this film is the loud metallic thud, which she hears at various intervals in the film, almost as if they punctuate specific actions or experiences around her.
When a sound that is Displaced, Incongruous or acousmatic is in some way reactionary to the listener's actions or movements, then this will create a new dimension to the haunting experience. As it will not be clear if the effect is caused internally or externally by a watcher.
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