Hydrophone.

I gave up trying to make one and bought a great little hydrophone last week made by Jez Riley French.
Sounded fine in the bath and sink, but she got a river in various states of roughness yesterday in the River Wey. Very nice results. Here are a few seconds to the side of a small weir.
New Hydrophone Test Audio by Russell Callow

Hydrophone.

Farnham

Had a lovely day today in Farnham, one of my Pilgrims' Way locations. the first indications after listening to the recordings on the train back to London was that its going to centre around the River Wey. This was a dominant sound during the day, provided that is if one could ignore the constant din from the busy A31. A classic example of Schafer's Flat Lines.
I took a load of photos too for referencing the Sonic Megalith.

Presentation

I'm working my way through Powerpoint. If one keeps away from the rather cheesy templates, it can be quite clean and slick. I'm actually rather enjoying it.

Containment Project 2

This site-specific exhibition I curated this week, Containment has now ended. I have not spoken with today's artists, but the preceding artists all spoke very positively of the experience.
I shall be documenting the week in due course.

Place

Another beauty to augment my library arrived in the post today.

Two-Lane Blacktop

Of course, it's about as English as Coca Cola, but as a representation of minimal dialogue, landscape and sonic overload this is one super film. Masculine posturing is where America and Albion separate.
Close your eyes, and think of England.

Luc Ferrari

I was reminded by a friend on Friday to re-visit Luc Ferrari's work.
I have to admit I have not listened to his work for ages and was pleasantly reminded.
Ferrari includes less subjectivity than I might, and although dated to our 21st century ears, his use of electronics is sparing and considered.
An area to pursue further.

Topophonophelia

John Drever coined this phrase, extrapolated from Yi-Fu Tuan's concept Topophelia.
For Tuan, topoplelia is the emotionally positive feelings people have to a given place. Positive feelings such as pride, fondness for a place and its subjective history. Ownership of a place, health, family and personal involvement in the place. (Tuan, Topophelia, 1974).
Drever takes this notion and concentrates it upon the sonic. The positive and subjective principles remain, but we focus on the relationship to the sounds.

Max Neuhaus

Max Neuhaus stated this in his essay Notes on Place and Moment. "In these works I am not trying to build a sound image for its listeners to hear; I am building a sound to bring this imaginary place or moment of mine alive'.
This encapsulates my intentions most accurately.

Spectral Space and Tonal Pitch Space

“Exploring the Boundaries of Spectral Space and Tonal Pitch Space” Peiman Khosrav.
pdf document with good info.

Sound In Space 2. Thanks to Aki.

Categories of space.

SPACE AMBIOPHONY. Sound from all or any directions. Not precise sound sources. Works better with lower frequencies.
SPACE SOURCE. Sound from a specific point/location. Works better with higher frequencies.
SPACE GEOMETRY. The creation of a sonic shape in space.
SPACE ILLUSION. The illusion of a sound appearing to be from another place. Eg, metallic/dull, near/far, large hall/small room. Processed sound.
ARCHETYPAL ASSOCIATIVE IMAGES. Sounds meeting our expectations. EG, The sea will always be outside.

Sound In Space. Thanks to Aki.

Sound design practices to remember when editing.

CROSSFADE. Move sound from one place to another.
UNMASKING. One sound is revealed by bringing down the volume of all the other sounds.
ACCENTUATION. The opposite of above; bringing up the volume of an individual sound.
GLITTERING. Increasing the volume of granular sounds. the spacial equivalent of tremolo.
PENDULUM. Draws a line between two points.
OSCILLATION. An accelerated variant of Pendulum.
WAVE. Like successive Unmasking/Accentuation, but rather than one point rather a continuous wave of increased and decreased sound.
RUPTURE. Establish a space, then dramatically alter it with a new sound rupturing from within.
(DIS)APPEARANCE. Sudden surprise from the rapid addition or subtraction of sound.
EXPLOSION. The fast passage from a narrow space to a wider one.
ACCUMULATION. Sound/s emerging and forming a new sonic place.
INVASION. A rapid, violent sonic trajectory towards the listener/s.

Paul Nash 2

Having made some more studies of Nash and his work, it is his attitude towards landscape representation that resonates most strongly with me.
Thanks to looking at and reading about his work a lot over the break, I will be out later this week recording and listening particularly for surreal, incongruous or curious sounds that I can use in the final piece.
I have also taken note of Nash's use of abstraction which, like surrealism, he employs in a subtle, slightly muted way. Again, another quality that I will use sonically.