Final Critical Study by Alan Connolly

Critical Study

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A. Connolly Spring, 2014

Alan Connolly BA (Hons) Graphic Art and Design 5 May 2014

I am a sound artist who focuses on the flexibility of abstract communication. I create experimental audible experiences that encourages listening as a way of learning. I explore biomimetics through contemporary installations and consider if acoustic engagement fills gaps within the realm of communication.

Contents

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Epigraph Project Matrix Briefs and Intentions Sixual Review Interview Critical Analysis Bibliography Illustrations Notes

A. Connolly Spring, 2014

Epigraph

“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.” [5] John Muir, an environmentalist and author, intended his writing to encourage the preservation of the wilderness. He focusses on the kinetic movement of nature and uses language that personifies the trees. He acknowledges sensory importance by creating a symphony of movement and noise in his poetic writing. The reader feels connected with the natural landscape, perceiving it as a living, breathing form to be appreciated and protected. I chose this epigraph because it’s message is the fulcrum for my work. My theory, that experimental audible experiences encourage listening as a way of learning, balances on Muir’s belief that the song of nature never ceases, and resonates within the fibres of my projects. I didn’t intentionally create each project to manifest under one theme but there has been a progressional evolution until I now consider myself a sound artist who explores biomimetics as a tool to re-educate and restore our respect for nature and enable us to appreciate our everyday world, making the ordinary extraordinary. I want the diversity of sounds found in nature to inspire us to create musical compositions of unconventional and experimental sounds so we begin to question how we define music. This epigraph is Muir’s way of creating a graphic score to notate the song of nature and I also intend to explore the variety of ways to document these symphonies. Our universe has composed one long song over the fourteen billion years of its existence but disregarding our audible environment is leading to the deterioration of our appreciation of this evolving song of life. My aim is to redress this balance.

Project Matrix

Project Matrtix

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 1. Audio Playground.

Briefs and Intentions

Audio Playground

Audio Playground (Fig 1) emerged throughout my pursuit of designing interactive instrumental biomimetic sculptures over the past year. When Art Forms, a Leeds City Council Music and Arts Team, set a brief, I saw an opportunity to integrate my project within their education ethos, placing my work within the context and constraints of a school educational environment. I produced the film required by the brief, but believed their campaign failed to reflect ethereal creativity music can evoke. My intention is to create multi-sensory, interactive, kinetic sculptures that imitate diverse sounds inspired by nature, and challenge the foundations of the instrumental families. My aim is to reshape children’s preconceptions, encouraging them to question what they classify music to be. Introducing experimental sound eradicates the pressure of comparing their own work to established composers/musicians, leaving room to engage with music unrestricted by traditional instruments and scores. The music theorist, John Cage, believes that, “Everything we do is music.” [22]. This resonates with my personal belief that, sound is a global communicator, immersing and involving us in our surroundings. My future intention is to provide educational sound experience workshops throughout the school system, therefore, the sculpture needed to be made out of safe, long lasting non-biodegradable, everyday materials, and could be collapsed efficiently, for transportation. I conducted two investigations. The first workshop, primarily concerned with adult play, took place outside. The second workshop, conducted inside, focussed on child play. Both events were documented and compiled into a comparative publication, which illustrates the close relationship between the Audio Playground and Graphic Scores project, how both adopt my ideology that listening is a way of learning and sound can be used as a form of graphic communication.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 2. Adult Workshop: Graphic Scores (5.3.14)

Figure 3. Child Workshop: Graphic Scores (14.3.14)

Briefs and Intentions

Graphic Scores

As music develops experimentally so potentially does it’s parallel experimental notation. It is not a compulsory requirement to find a way to record our compositions to allow us and others to repeat our music. Graphic scores are less strict musical notations and more a piece of art in it’s own right inspired by the sounds it reflects. After attending Joanna McGregor’s: Graphic Scores [14], I became aware that every sound had it’s own visual imagery which extended the possibilities and direction my project would take. The introduction to McGregor’s event stated that the, “created project is an enthralling journey into this re-imagined way of writing and performing music.” [14]. I now developed my ideas to reshape people’s preconceptions, questioning what they classify as music, by providing opportunities to evolve their own experimental notation, and unique visual art to accompany their compositions. (Fig 2 and Fig 3). Music composed within the Audio Playground does not fit the constraints of traditional music with its harmonies and discords and conventional melodies. Therefore, to document this new conceptual soundscape it becomes necessary to develop an alternative classification. The composer is liberated from the confinement of traditional notation, free to create and compose without the burden of having to understand traditional music. I presented the graphic scores into contrasting publications. The hardback book, a formal, comparative documentation is primarily to inspire the reader to take the concept seriously. The informal newspaper edition, designed for easy, cheap distribution in public establishments promotes Audio Playground and concepts relative to visual sound. It includes a section allowing the reader to visualise and document sounds they are hearing at that moment, implementing their unique graphic score, which they can upload onto a website, encouraging collaborations between music and artists. A compilation vinyl record presents compositions created by musicians I invited to interpret graphic scores from the book. This introduces an evolving cyclical process through music and visual art.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 4. Act 1.

Figure 5. Act 2.

Figure 6. Act 3.

Briefs and Intentions

Drip Music

This project focusses on harnessing the resonating sonorous tones and the importance of water. Trevor Cox states, “The remarkable thing is that in both a roaring tidal bore and a lazy winding creek, the tiny air bubbles make sound at the frequencies where our hearing works best...Perhaps our hearing has evolved specifically to discern the frequencies produced by running water. After all, if our hearing worked in a different frequency range, we would be deaf to water, a substance vital for survival.” [2] He implies that we have evolved to recognise and decipher individual everyday audio experiences because they are fundamental to life.

Drip music began as a series of experimental musical installations suspending melting ice six floors high. Act 1, (Fig 4) magnified the tone of a singular drip. Act 2, (Fig 5) destroyed the shape of the drip, elongated and held the note as it sizzled and crackled. Act 3, (Fig 6) intensified the volume and highlighted the violent dispersal of a singular drip. Each Act explored the language of dripping and was documented through film and sound recordings. When I had completed Act 1, I discussed it with sound artist, Alan Dunn,who exposed me to the work of Fluxus member, George Brecht and his Event Score Cards. The card entitled Drip Music resonated with my initial experiment. In retrospect, I can see a synergy between Brecht’s work and my own. Brecht described his art as a way of, “...ensuring that the details of everyday life, the random constellations of objects that surround us, stop going unnoticed.” [26] He clarifies his vision through his experimental simplistic performances. I continued to experiment with everyday objects and their effect on the substance of water, concentrating on the diversity of sounds. I recorded these experiments in my book, Drip Music, and on DVD, enabling the viewer to experience my explorations within controlled environments and consequently heighten their awareness of the language of dripping in everyday settings.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 7. Consequences.

Briefs and Intentions

Surrealist Poetry

This project releases the creative potential of writing through the irrational juxtaposition of images in the unconsious mind as our conscious mind attempts to make sense of apparently unrelated statements. Writing freely, without the constraints of traditional techniques encourages the author to unlock observations within their unconscious self. This belief is echoed by Mark McGurl who suggests, “that literary practices might partake in a larger multivalent social dynamic of self-observation.” [7] He implies that writing becomes a tool enabling us to class ourselves as protagonists unlocking secrets from our unconscious self. Discovering, A Book of Surrealist Games [1] led me to pursue my own experimental poetry, creating dramatic imagery that encouraged lateral thinking in preference to vertical thinking. (Fig 7) Collaborating with Ben Hall, I am currently creating the Surrealist Poetry website http:// cheekybeef.co.uk/MPhil/lmu/alan/index.php. The first player writes a hypothetical sentence beginning with if or when. The next person submits a sentence in the conditional or future tense not knowing what the previous sentence read. All the text is collated into a poem which takes unanticipated directions using elements of chance. Max Ernst, believed that, “All good ideas arrive by chance.” [1] I hope my website will become a pool of self perpetuating, floating ideas that will help me think laterally in order to generate work in the future based around the flexibility of abstract communication.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 8. Audio/Visual: Grass.

Figure 9. Audio/Visual: Water.

Figure 10. Audio/Visual: Fish.

Figure 11. Wind Chimes.

Briefs and Intentions

Natural Forms Archive

During the first semester I made audio-visual recordings of how natural forms react in my environment, and noted how elements move within the natural surroundings, creating their own natural graphic score. (Fig 8, Fig 9 and Fig10) An eight minute audio/visual compilation catalogues the recorded events to use as future reference. I created a series of instruments that could be played by the wind. I built an aeolian harp which is played using the von Karman vortex street effect. (Fig 12) The delicate procedure of building the harp gave me a greater understanding of the intricacies of design within nature. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s limited success producing sound meant it was superseded by other more successful and safer sculptures in Audio Playground.

Figure 12. Aeolian Harp.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 13. Leaf Zine.

Figure 14. Metal Leaf Sculpture.

Briefs and Intentions

Leaf Zine

Responding to the annual cycle when deciduous trees discard their leaves, I observed the diversity of shape, colour and texture leaves present. Drawn in by the sonic playful activity of crunching leaves while walking, I began a multi-sensory transfer, keeping a daily visual document by scanning each leaf, which concluded with my Leaf Zine. (Fig 13) Although, I feel the zine reflects the transient qualities of a leaf, I missed an opportunity to communicate my ideas by presenting my zine at events such as fairs. I began a permanent suspended representation of a leaf, a large scale metal sculpture and still aspire to complete this memorial over summer while new leaves are emerging. My way of paying homage to those who once grew in their space. (Fig 14)

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 15. Magnet Fishing Event.

Figure 16. Collection of Metal Objects.

Figure 17. Printing with Metal Objects.

Briefs and Intentions

Magnet Fishing

Magnet Fishing explores the mysteries lurking submerged beneath the gloom of our canals. Initiated by Ben Hall, the investigation aims to discover real junk in a society where everything is resold as vintage or antique. On 27.02.14 we used magnets to recover metal objects from the Leeds and Liverpool canal lock. (Fig 15) I photographed the objects (Fig 16) and, because of their relationship to water, presented these images in my Drip Music publication. I collaborated with illustrator Michelle Crocker and printmaker Meara Withe to create a sequential series of graphic scores, drawn with the metal objects, inspired by the sounds of the Drip Music performances. (Fig 17 and Fig 18) I intend to collaborate with animator, Ben Hall, to develop an interactive phone App. Fusing, new and old, useful and useless, exploring new methods of conceptual restoration within our modern digital age, highlighting the concept that anything can be recycled. The App is a tool to encourage people to explore the audio everyday world. Juxtaposing the rusty scraps of metal with the chiming songful resonating notes these objects make as they collide on the screen. Even so called junk can play its part creating music.

Figure 18. Graphic Scores Drawn with Metal Objects.

Briefs and Intentions

Figure 19. Pij-uhn.

Briefs and Intentions

Chris Watson Workshop

A three day workshop, focussing on the creative potential of sound, run by freelance recordist Chris Watson. We explored various strategies and techniques on how to record, edit and play back sound effectively. I produced the film titled, Pij-uhn (Fig 19) inspired by a technique Chris used when recording vultures feeding from a carcass in Africa. I used two Tascam recorders, functioning in stereo, placed one metre apart with bread in the middle. Using Steinberg Nuendo editing software, aided by Chris, I matched these recordings, playing them back through quadrophonic surround sound creating the illusion the listener is the bread. The domesticity of the pigeons enabled me to place a camera in their midst without interfering with their eating habits. I realised, from this low perspective, the pigeons mannerisms became more animated giving the sense that the footage had been sped up. I emphasised this perspective by time stretching the audio recording. In my interview with Chris, he said, “I record because I really love going out and capturing the sounds of these places and then working with them in many different ways.” [19] He showed me how to manipulate the sounds I captured, illustrating the flexibility of communication as a way to realise the creative potential of sound. I submerged a hydrophone in the canal directly under a railway bridge, Using the fact sound travels nearly five times faster in water I was able to pick up the vibrations of the trains through the water. This edited recording can be heard as the track Eau Chemin de Fer on my CD. Reflecting on my Magnet Fishing brief, as I was in the same place, however this time I was revealing hidden sounds rather than hidden objects. I interviewed Chris, asking questions that related to my interest in sound as an educational tool and learned from Chris’s vast knowledge and experience. I took this opportunity to ask Chris if there were any future projects he was involved in that I could participate. Chris invited me to join him in the commissioned project, Hrafn (Raven) in the Kielder Forest, in October.

Sixual Text

Figure 20. Shooting into the corner. (2009)

Sixual Text

Anish Kapoor

Kapoor allowed this art machine to change and develop in his absence. The audience, myself included, [11] became inactive observers, unable to control the performance. This reminded me of Palle Nielsen’s The Model, where the role of the parent was challenged by the uncontrollable agenda of the child. Larsen says the children had, “...an identity of their own who could question the supposed authority of adults.” [6] Nielsen and the parents became inactive observers, losing authority over their children, who, like Kapoor’s cannon, commanded authorship of the performance. Kapoor considers the relevance of authorship when he comments on an Indian newspaper article that a stone, “Being transported by a lorry in order to be transformed into an image. For whatever reason I don’t know, it falls off the lorry and becomes an object of veneration...There is always the possibility that an object might manifest itself, might create itself.” [4] This encourages me to question my role as designer. Who holds authorship over the work I produce? This issue is discussed in an article by Michael Rock when he explains, “A director can be the esteemed auteur of a film he didn’t write, score, edit or shoot... The meaning of his work is not in the story but in the storytelling.” [8] Even though I am the originator of my design I accept that I will not be the sole author. As a participant, I found the physical experience of the cannon firing couldn’t be separated from the psychological experience. The anticipation of waiting for the cannon to fire reminded me of the quote by Trevor Cox when he explains that, “Silence adds dramatic tension by subverting expectation...” [2] The violent sound was the powerful tool, triggering actions and reactions from us. “Kapoor implies that the very act of making a mark is violent. And yet, out of this violence, something of beauty arises.” [4] For me, the abstract shapes of red wax slowly changing over time represented a graphic score for the violent performance of the cannon, suggesting that graphic scores can also communicate emotions.

Sixual Text

Figure 20. 200 prepared dc-motors, 2000 cardboard elements 70x70cm. (2011)

Sixual Text

Zimoun

This art machine uses simple functional materials to represent a soundscape. I also use biomimetics to create my sound sculptures built from simple everyday materials. Zimoun’s work is based on his own personal sonar experiences. He is constantly building an archive of recorded sounds found in nature and the physical environment. He then uses these recordings as a starting point for his abstract soundscapes. In my interview with Chris Watson he feels, “The documentation of my work is important because it is the sound of places, and it’s the sound of places at particular times, some of which have passed into history.” [19] He continues to say that he wants to pursue, ”... working with them in many different ways which is the great thing about sound.” [19] I used similar strategies, referring to my Natural Forms Archive for the biomimetic design of my sound sculptures. Zimoun wants his sculptures to, “activate the visitors and allow them to make their own connections, associations and discoveries on different levels.” [28] For me, the sonorous tapping of wire on cardboard reminded me of the sound of rain. My Surrealist Poetry brief also illustrates how our conscious mind attempts to make sense of apparently unrelated events. Using everyday objects to make something extraordinary is also a constant recurrence in Brecht’s work, because he is, “...ensuring that the details of everyday life, the random constellations of objects that surround us, stop going unnoticed.” [26] Zimoun’s machine, like Kapoor’s, shows how shared authorship works, determined by the experiences of its audience.

Sixual Text

Figure 22. Resilience Art Machine.

Figure 24. Resilience Graphic Score.

Sixual Text

The Resilience Machine

The three members of our Sixual Group created our own Art Machine (Fig 23) developed from artists research we collated, and the theme of Liz Sterling’s Resilience Exhibition. We defined resilience as our ability to continuously strive to overcome problems that arise in our everyday lives. Zimoun uses simple functional materials to build his installations and we decided to adapt everyday objects around us to communicate the concept that we can overcome difficulties using, “...the random constellations of objects that surround us.” [26] We used a quote by Kahlil Gibran, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” [n/a] Gibran believed that overcoming physical or emotional pain enhanced and strengthened a character. The mark made by Kapoor’s cannon had made me contemplate if it displayed a graphic score for Violence, and for the same reason, I considered the repetitious, infinite trail of our printed quote was the graphic score representing the resilience of man. (Fig 24). Once again, I question my role as author when I consider that the person who operates the art machine may believe they are the author of the graphic score, and also, Kahlil Gibran plays his role as author. Beatrice Ward’s metaphor, ”...that design (the glass) should be a transparent vessel for content (the wine),” [8] allows me to see that my role as designer is to initiate ideas, create the transparent vessel that can then be manipulated and allowed to evolve by the content of others.

Review

Figure 25. Cageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Water Music Graphic Score.

Figure 26. Artikululation (1958).

Review

“One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”

Lou Reed [23]

The more complex the information we are able to absorb, enables us to experience the sonic world in a more experimental way. I visited three events based around experimental music to gain a deeper understanding how every sound has its own visual imagery. In October I visited Joanna MacGregor’s: Graphic Scores [14] event and became interested how the performance of Cage’s Water Music, employed unconventional methods, such as water, whistles and a deck of cards, alongside a piano to make sounds in the composition. I became aware that traditional musical notation could not meet all Cage’s needs because he introduced a hand written score alongside traditional piano notation. (Fig 25) For me, this performance clarified Cage’s belief that “Everything we do is music.” [22] I now contemplated how we can translate everything we hear into a visual form and was interested to see another example of how this can be achieved in Ligeti’s Artikulation, a music score written by Rainer Wehinger, twelve years after the original music was recorded. (Fig 26) Concert pianist, Alfred Brendel says, ”The composer leads from the first note to the last.” [20] which implies that it is the performer’s job to follow the instructions given by the composer. However Brendel also states that “You need three or five hands to play Ligeti” [20], which makes me realise how hard it must be to understand Ligeti’s instructions. An article in, the Telescoper, says that, “In order to capture the dynamics of the performance Rainer abandoned the conventions of standard notation, concluding it was ineffective in dealing with compositions devoid of regular meter and harmonic scale.” [32] Considering each viewpoint, I can see Wehinger’s electronic interpretation of the score as a tool to create a greater understanding of the piece. However, when contemplating Rock’s theory of Authorship, I believe Ligeti, the performer and Wehinger can all claim authorship.

Review

Figure 27. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS/AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (2004).

Review

This concept of shared authorship becomes more elaborate in Jennifer Walshe’s THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS/AND JUMP OFF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. Her initial instructions were presented in a physical copy designed by the Milker Corp. (Fig 27) Walsh also handed ownership of her work over to the performer, allowing them to interpret her score. I feel this process of creating evolving, shared musical experiences is a liberating idea that I want to communicate through my practice. During the performance, the cellist used his whole body, creating an auditory and visual experience. The sound artist, Harry Partch’s theory of Corporeality requires one to adopt the attitude of the composition into a full body illusion. This led me on to discovering ways my own work can pursue a multi-sensory experience requiring full body engagement. In November, I visited Vicky Bennett’s, Consequences [12] (Fig 28) where a soundtrack was created using film as the graphic score. The musicians created spontaneous improvised sounds using everyday objects such as duct-tape, a deck of cards and kitchen implements, reminding me of the performance of Cage’s, Water Music at MacGregor’s event. In an interview with Vicki, I asked, “Do you think children should be less influenced by what people tell them music is?” [16] She responded, “My theory is, that everything can be popular, it’s just a matter of educating people on what the way in is. People want to enjoy all kinds of things but they can’t find the door in, so, I think the job of the avant garde or experimental artist, is to show them the doorway and to open the curtains and the windows.” [16] This more informative concept directed my practice to adopt a more educational focus. The information I have absorbed during my visits to the two events enabled me to consider more carefully how I deliver my ideas to use experimental audible experiences to educate that sound an effective way to communicate in the realm of graphic arts However, it’s not all quite jazz yet.

Review

Figure 28. Consequences (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER). (2013).

Figure 29. Hy Brasil. (2014).

Review

In February I visited Chris Watson’s portrait of Hy Brasil, [13] a soundscape for the unproven existence of an ancient island. (Fig 29) This portrait took corporeality to a new level. I was an outside observer at the cellist’s performance, but now I felt physically transported onto the island. Chris achieved this multi-sensory experience using ambisonic twenty channel surround sound and ambient lighting to shape the island. During my interview with Chris he elaborated on the delicate balance of creating a soundscape when he says, “What’s crucial about presentation of any sound work, ...is the level at which it’s presented. It’s very easy these days with the power and technology that we’ve got, to play things too loud and that completely destroys the effect, breaks the spell of the piece I’ve found through experience.” [19] This made perfect sense to me because entering the portrait, I thought it was quiet for a sonic exhibition, however, thirty minutes, it seemed to be getting louder. I spent three hours in the portrait and on exit my hearing became more sensitive, I was more aware of everything around me. When I presented my experience to Chris he explained that, “...you’ve maybe had your ears cleansed, you go outside and you hear how bad the real world is. We tune a lot of it out but it is still a very power hungry process.” [19] The opportunity to filter out certain acoustics for a short length of time actually enhances our ability to hear afterwards I now want my work to provide opportunities to cleanse our hearing. Using the spirit of the three chords of jazz to plan my research has given me a deeper insight into experimental music. Combining the knowledge I gained from three experiences helped me assess and focus the direction of my future practice.

Interview

Interview with Chris Watson 8th April 2014 17:33 42’15” My earliest memory of sound, or the reason I like sound so much is because, when I was younger, my house has got loads of different sounds inside, it’s such an old house and there are all these ticks and clicks in the floorboards and I think it was swelling pipes. So the pipes swell and hit the wood they would do it violently and then it would calm itself down. And I think one of my earliest memories of sound is that and it would put me into that relaxed state of mind where it would slowly click down and put me to sleep in a way. So winding down. It was kind of of a therapeutic kind of sound for me. What were your childhood memories that instigated your interest in sound? I can’t honestly remember a particular moment before a time when I became interested in sound, but what really prompted it was my parents bought me a portable reel to reel tape-recorder and I was either twelve, thirteen, maybe fourteen, one of those three ages and it was either for a birthday present or a Christmas present. My birthday’s in late November so I can’t remember, but anyway it was that, that really set me away to what I’m doing now. Whether I’d asked for it because I’d had an awareness of sound I don’t know, I was certainly interested in electronics at the time, as a young teenager and I used to make, build, like opponent radios and things like that. I was interested in electrical sound, so sound through the radio. I used to have in my bedroom short wave radios that I’d tune in, like many kids of that age and that era, in the 1960’s. I’d just become fascinated with the sound of the world beyond where I lived and in other countries. So I had this fascination with tuning into the world, usually through short wave radios. Would you say it was more communication? No I wouldn’t say it was communication. It was sound, but it was sound presented through radios. At some point I must have said to my parents, I’d like to,it’s so transient and ephemeral this, I’d like to capture it in some way, and so I was given this gift, amazing, inspired gift of a portable reel to reel tape recorder. A National tape recorder which I’ve still got

Interview

in my studio. Small, reels of 1/4 inch tape, so that was just fantastic and I investigated everything in the house with it, just as you were saying. So, I recorded our heating pipes, I recorded the sounds in the kitchen, I recorded all the doors, creaking and closing in the house, handles turning and the locks being turned and all the different rooms, the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom. The sound of my mum, just go round the house, conversations with my father. So I became totally fascinated, and also, then I started to, I realised, because tape recorders are very creative tools, that you could not only record and document these sounds, you could play them back and give them a new life. You could also manipulate them, so you could turn the tape over and play them backwards, or you could speed it up or slow it down so it was remarkably tactile, and sculptural and creative and I was really opened up to this world of sound and the creative use of sound,particularly tape recordings. So that was the starting point for me. Very interesting, I guess that was more of an introduction for you and the environment and how it came about. The next few questions are more about the project that I’m doing and how what I’m doing relates to that. You might remember yesterday I showed you the Audio Playground and also the Drip Music stuff that I’ve been working on, so that’s using the sonorous tones of water. A lot of the work I do is primarily education based. You create these workshops to teach university students, to use sound as an art form. However have you ever tried to do something similar to educate children, and if that was the case, what have you done differently and how would you go about teaching a group of children, possibly in primary education? I have worked with primary school children on a project I did recently, in Sheffield, inside the Circle of Fire. Part of the contract, part of the project was to do sound walks with people in Sheffield and do some work with schools when I chose to work with a primary school in the south side of the city so I went there for a day and I worked with them in exactly the same way as I work with everybody else because the thing I like about working with young children is they have no prejudice for sound, they are very open to explore and to innovate and to investigate, they are very creative with it. I had to alter some of my techniques so I could communicate effectively

Interview

with them about what I do. I talked a lot about animal sounds, but then got them to imitate animal sounds and we went outside and did some recording. I took the bat detector and I took the contact microphone and recorded the fence around their school. Was this a full classroom of twenty to thirty kids? Yes, accompanied by several teachers. I worked actually with the whole school, all day, they were in groups of about fifteen at a time and there was maybe sixty children in the school, primary school,so they were about nine I think. It was remarkable because they don’t have any prejudice for sound so they just go straight into it. They weren’t particularly attuned to music so they were quite open to listening to sounds as music. They didn’t have any artificial barriers. I just really talked to them about sound and played them stuff, played them my recordings, played them sounds they might be familiar with, played them sound that might have been completely alien to them, but a lot of the communication was through animal sounds because children are very aware of that. A lot of people these days have them as pets, so they are aware of the sound of a dog and a cat, or the guinea-pigs or the mice. So there’s a very free and easy exchange. I just went along with them, I wasn’t trying , you know I’m not professionally qualified to teach or educate people, but everyone is interested in sound. People that I’ve found anyway, everyone has an opinion and everyone thinks of it in many different ways so I was just happy to engage with them, really went with their flow in certain dimensions. Yes, I think it’s really important now we’ve got this new technology, like the bat recorder and the contact mikes. How something as small as a fence can make such an amazing sound, for a child that must absolutely blow their mind. I think that was the key thing that I was interested to take with me was the fact that, at the end of the day they were much more aware, for a start, to the sounds of their environment, which is crucially important, It’s the first step in learning to control your sound environment, so if

Interview

there was a message, it was that I’m very concerned with the effects of noise pollution on all of us, not only on children, so I talked to them about that, and we talked about how bad the sound was in the classroom with the overhead projector whirring away constantly, poor acoustics, bad sound, poor sound insulation, which they’re all aware of. But drawing it to their attention and to their teacher’s attention, really brought it home. They then started to become much more critical of their own sonic environment. Then we went outside and listened to that, and listened to traffic noise and listened to birdsong and how you can move your location to radically change the sounds of your environment by simply, the fact that if you go further away from the road the quieter it becomes. Very obvious things to us but things that were interesting exercises for young people. Yes, they almost take it for granted a little bit until you show them. Yes, there are certain things I think are innate within us , and things that help being pointed out and you can build on. A lot of sound is experienced, experiencial so if you were being exposed to certain sounds and not others, or vice-versa. I’ve read Trevor Cox’s new book, Sonic Wonderland that I showed you yesterday and he basically states that “The remarkable thing is that in both a tidal bore and the Lazy winding creek, tiny air bubbles make sounds of frequencies where our hearing works best and physics seems just right.” He basically says that this is more than a coincidence and that perhaps our hearing has evolved specifically to discern the frequencies that are produced by running water, and if our hearing works on a different frequency wave we would be deaf to a substance vital to our survival. Can you elaborate on your findings of sonic qualities of water and maybe shed some light on the hydra-foil tool? Obviously I’ve been using that last night so I do know quite a lot about it. I’m very interested in the sounds of water, above and below the surface, and it’s a very broadband sound, all sounds of water are very rich in terms of the spectrum in terms of frequencies, so it can mask other sounds quite effectively so there are certain animals, and this may include humans, that

Interview

have evolved to communicate above and around the sounds of water and particularly there is a bird called a Dipper, which lives in upland streams and rivers, in the North England in particular and it’s song it sings by the edge of running water and it sings sometimes on rocks in the middle of fast flowing streams. This is a bird that needs to audibly communicate over a very dense wide range of frequencies of running water, so it’s song has actually evolved accordingly over a long, long, long period of time. It’s song is remarkable, it cuts through the sound of running water, quite a challenge, it’s one of the few birds that have done it. There are other water birds that have taken this into account, there are other mammals that have taken it into account. There is a species of bat, the Daubenton’s Bat, which it’s common name is the Water Bat, which hunts for insects, flying above the surface of running water. Mouse Bats, or insectivorous bats anyway, use echo location, they use pulses of sound. They listen to what comes back and build up an image as we imagine based on the sounds around them. The Daubenton’s Bat uses ultrasonic echo location calls which are above the frequency of running water. So their echo location has evolved, like the song of the Dipper, to cut through it. I’m not sure about human evolution around the sounds of water because we have the ability to move towards and away from water, we’re not tied to it, as in the same way as a Dipper is, or a Grey Wagtail or a Daubenton’s Bat, so I’m not sure how vital our communicative frequencies are locked into the frequency of water because we can simply move away, but it’s an interesting idea, but it wouldn’t explain why we have evolved to live in so many different habitats. As a result of recording by water, I often record the sounds of running water above the surface, but I’m actually particularly interested in the sounds in water, underneath the surface, for which I use hydrophones, underwater microphones. I really enjoy recording sounds and revealing sounds that would be otherwise hidden, certainly to our ears. So I record a lot in the oceans, the saltwater where sound travels almost five times faster and I’ve also done a lot of recording in freshwater, in lakes and rivers and pools and lagoons, in all sorts of places, continually fascinated by that and I think that’s something to do with the harmonic content of sounds in water and places like that.

Interview

I think it’s because, and this is a long shot, when we first start to hear, we’re sixteen weeks old in our mother’s womb, that’s when our hearing develops, as a foetus - sixteen weeks old, so we hear sounds for many weeks until we are born, in our mother’s womb through the amniotic fluid. So we are experiencing the sounds of the world through a fluid before we are born and then we are born into a world of changing air pressure sounds . I made a radio program a few years ago about tranquility and what it is and if it’s a place or a state of mind and one thing that convinced me making that program was that the things that people describe as tranquil are things that have a low dynamic range and a very rich harmonic content. Waves washing on a beach, wind through trees, the wind through a reed bed, you know sort of sighing leaves, sounds like that. Harmonic, lots of different frequencies but not massively dynamic. In other words, not dissimilar at all to the way we hear sound before we’re born. So, I think one reason we find underwater sounds so sort of magnetic and potentially attractive, I think, is possibly because we are so thinking of how we heard sound before we were born, so you see it’s quite a deep psychological place to go. I think that’s really interesting how you hear through a fluid before you were born. Don’t you think that would make the internal world of the mother seem really loud so that when you’re born, you are exposed to the sounds coming through the air, you’d be coming to somewhere more silent? No, I think it’s the other way round. The sounds through that fluid, although it’s quite dense and would probably propagate sounds, it also insulates you from high frequencies certainly. So you hear more mid and low frequencies, but I think, I don’t know, but you are suddenly exposed to a much greater dynamic range. You hear and it must be a real shock, to transform that sense - I know you’ve got vision and things like that and smell, and tactile senses but suddenly to be born into that world of sound must be astonishing. So I’ve always been interested in sound, in freshwater and seawater because it’s such an efficient medium for sound to profligate. I’ve been studying non-graphic scores as a way of making visuals to represent sound. Have you ever made a graphic score or allowed people to interpret your work visually or do you think this distracts from the sonorous experience?

Interview

I normally create a score for my pieces, my installation pieces, which can be anything from notes to sketches to objects or to words so I create what you could loosely call it a collage which I then use as a score, which I carry with me and keep in my head so I can recall it constantly and I also hear it as well like a lot of composers I guess. I imagine how I want it to sound and that’s how the narrative develops as well. My work, generally has a narrative so I quite often use maps, map scores, or create a score, using shapes. Could you perhaps draw a map of a rough outline of how you would do it? (Fig 29) Well there’s one piece comes to mind in particular. I worked on a piece with the artist Alec Finley and he had this idea for a piece called siren, which was based around the song by a famous artist called Tim Buckley, ‘Song to the Siren’, and he wanted two people to sing to each other, and they would sing these words to start with “Here I am, waiting to hold you” but, the irony of it was, they couldn’t hear each other, but they were singing to each other. So the place we chose to film this was an old pier into the harbour and the two singers, male and female would be at either end of the pier at high tide and this is too far, even with a singing voice to be heard, it’s a couple of hundred metres. So with the sound of the sea swell and the other sounds around them they could sing these songs but they couldn’t hear each other and so, there’s a plan view, they were singing and I was to record this process, so I chose to come out with the lifeboat captain in a boat who then rode me between these two points, like that, so it’s very similar to the score piece, so they would start to sing and I’d be rode out and I had a microphone recorder mounted on the boat and we would approach this singer with the microphone. The lifeboat captain, who was piloting the boat, didn’t stop, his instructions were not to stop. We sailed out, we rode out to here and when I got the sound of the ocean, and then at some point this person came on mike, I started to hear them, and then they got quite close, and then the captain kept on rowing. I kept the microphone oriented in the same way, so I heard them and then about there it cut off and there it picked up.

Interview

We heard the singer again only till we got about here and then we heard the other singer, Maria singing and then we lost Maria there and picked Clive up again here. So we had this cycle of song, so we had this score which was concentric circles which was the sound radiating out. That was the piece and I did quite a bit of postproduction on it where we go underwater at some point. Do you think making a graphic score like that is better than doing it as a five line stave? Yes, I can’t write music. I’ve no interest in that from that point of view, but that’s perfect for me. Do you think that children are put off by that, the systematic five line stave,how regimented it is? I know it’s got it’s purpose and it’s place but I think if you were to give that to someone, they’re not going to be too intimidated by it. Yes, that’s a really good question. I mean written music is for a very particular purpose, it’s not for everybody. I just picked this up intuitively working with other artists and working with people like Alec Finley who is brilliant and very good and so part of the exchange of ideas we drew notes like this to start with and then we’d build on it and use that in the piece and that became the score and so I don’t think you can substitute it with a conventional musical score. It would serve no purpose because the behaviour of the actions are also crucial to it and you can impart that through that kind of graphic score. In the same way, I was really interested to look at your book last night, there is some fantastic potential in that with the graphic scores. It reminded me a little bit of a friend of mine’s work Geoff Riland- French ,who has photographic scores. They are photographs of places which are then interpreted, but I found that book very engaging, the Audio Playground and intuitive. For me it’s like the Oblique Strategy Cards by Brian Eno. It’s something you can look through and make music from whenever. It’s that kind of engagement, a graphic score engagement. It’s not, read like this, it’s maybe read it like that and pick a page, maybe use the other books. Thanks for

Interview

your input on that, I really appreciate you saying how good it is. Do you feel your work is just documentation for posterity for future generations, or is it to educate people to the diversity of sound in the natural world? The documentation of my work is important because it is the sound of places, and it’s the sound of places at particular times, some of which have passed into history. So we’ve got recordings of places such as Brighton Pier, the west pier, which was mysteriously burnt down in several arson attacks. I’ve got recordings of the starlings roust on that which has now gone. So as a piece of documentation, sounds like that are vital because they have passed into history, so I’m very conscious of that. But that’s not why I make recordings. I do go out and document some places but it’s not usually the prime reason for going out. It’s usually for commissioned work, or I have an idea or I’m simply inspired to go somewhere and so until that goes beyond documentation I want to work with those sounds creatively, not just archive them and file them away in a library system. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s important that that’s done. Places like the British Library, the National Sound Archives, they are vital components of their work. It’s not the reason why I record. I record because I really love going out and capturing the sounds of these places and then working with them in many different ways which is the great thing about sound, whether it’s a feature film, a radio drama or a sound installation. Actually my techniques are very similar but the end result can be very different. I chose to spend three hours in your project Hy Brasil which I enjoyed. When I entered the exhibition I thought it was quiet for an exhibition on sound. However, after about half an hour, it seemed to be getting louder. My hearing must have become more sensitive because I came out more aware of everything around me. Even buses and traffic was more monstrous. It was almost like listening had been reinvented. Was this an intentional, temporary souvenir for the participant, or was it just kind of a coincidence that being exposed to something for that long has that kind of adverse effect on you? That’s really interesting. I’m glad, I’m really pleased that you went in to it for that length of time because it was a very much, durational piece of work.

Interview

What’s crucial about presentation of any sound work, whether it’s a feature film or a radio drama or an installation in the Howard Assembly Room is the level at which it’s presented. It’s very easy these days with the power and technology that we’ve got, to play things too loud and that completely destroys the effect, breaks the spell of the piece I’ve found through experience. So I try to be really careful with levels and it’s all comparative as well, particularly with a piece like Hy Brasil which is underwater and then above the water on the surface, on the beach and ends up on a mountain top. But from what I’ve found from sound through experience, the best level to appreciate, or to engage with any sound work, and which is very simple with my work because it’s location work mostly, is to play it at the level you’d experience it at in reality. It’s really easy to turn stuff up and to project and blast people with sound, but our ears and brains are very good at telling us that that is just too loud and disengaging with it. The piece, like all the pieces, I wanted to engage people in the piece, get them to listen to it, so one effect of doing that is to play it at the right levels so people have to listen, they become quiet, stop their conversations and they start to listen to it. Then you can still introduce dynamics, but the level has to be very crucially assessed before you start. I go to great lengths to tell Myah, who does all the special effects for the sound for those pieces to accomplish that. So, you’re right when you go outside, all of a sudden you’ve maybe had your ears cleansed, you go outside and you hear how bad the real world is. We tune a lot of it out but it is still a very power hungry process. You were in a band when you were roughly our age. What kind of instrument did you play, was it a synthesizer? Yes, I was in a band called Cabaret Voltaire from the late 1970’s or the mid 1970’s or even the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s and we were mostly electronic music, not exclusively though. Base guitar, vocals keyboard, sometimes a drummer, lots of electronics. Three of us were from Sheffield, so we lived there, we were born there, brought up there and we used it as the medium of expression of our age. I was in the band from sort of my late teens to being about twenty seven.

Interview

Obviously, you kind of were a musician before you started documenting sound is that right? No, I was recording before I was in the band. It was recording that got me interested in music, Musique Concrete and particularly the work of Pierre Schaeffer in France in the late 1940’s early 1950’s. It was the tape recorder that got me involved with music, and then later, electronics. I was listening to some of Pierre’s stuff yesterday and there is one he does with a train. Etude Aux Chemins de Fer. Yes, I think that’s it. I briefly watched it and yesterday you played your recording of the train. When you were on the train for as long as you were were you thinking of what he did and did that influence you? Yes, certainly. If you get the album. It’s dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer, It’s in honour of him. He’s not just influenced me, loads of people. I mean, trains have great rhythm, ready made music, the rhythm of the railways. It’s powerful, it’s creative, it’s inspiring. I like train tracks, most people do. I like the sound of trains and everything about them. The sense of speed and rhythms and timbres. They are very musical, mechanical devises so I’m not surprised Schaeffer chose them. Not surprised, living on a train for five weeks, how much I enjoyed it and other people have done it and other people have done it, like Peter Hamford to Kraftwerk have used the sounds of trains. Well I was thinking about that piece you played yesterday as well, The Cheetah, purring and that had a nice rhythm to it as well. That was something amazing and something you wouldn’t hear, well you very rarely get the chance to be so close to a cheetah in any case, but to pick up that animal rhythm was such a powerful sound, it was great.

Interview

Do you ever get worried about your own safety when you’re recording certain animals? Well I’m careful, not stupid and I work a lot with the scientific community, or naturalists, ranges of people like that. In this country you’re pretty much okay, unless you go onto the moors in summer and get bit by an adder, which can happen. But in places like Africa and South America, some places in Australia can be dangerous places and it’s very easy if focussed on one thing to forget where you are or your surroundings, so I pay careful attention to what I’m told and I look after myself and I’m aware and try to keep one ear and one eye on the open environment as well. It’s no good getting killed and animals like that are not out to get you, but they are not forgiving either. You need to be aware, and most of it’s common sense. You don’t put yourself in hostile situations. I mean, sometimes you have to, to a certain extent, but you need to be careful and aware. You can obviously get amazing results without having to do that. Like you said, when you did the turkey carcass in your own garden and then you scaled it up to the vultures. You had obviously learnt that technique and that meant you didn’t have to go anywhere near. Yes, the process, Fieldcraft is the term for it and so you can’t get it out of a book, you have to get out there and experience it. It’s like today, freezing to death on that canal side. The wind howling underneath that railway bridge. That’s the point where you decide you quite enjoy it or you hate it I’m much better off working with files in a studio rather than going out captured my own material,because it’s just a challenging environment. This country might not be dangerous from animals but from a weather point of view it can be pretty hardcore. Is there any further advice that you’d give me to pursue and get into what you do? I think you’re doing okay, you just need to stay focussed in what you’re interested in and follow your nose. That’s what I’ve done and that’s really

Interview

broadened my horizons with who I get to work with, radio programs, feature films, installations. That’s the great thing in the power sound house, it allows you to relocate yourself as well as your work across lots of different mediums. You seem to be doing a really good job doing that. I know it’s going to seem really cheeky, but is there anything I can get involved with you in future projects? I’ve not got much I’m doing in this country at the moment. I’m doing a big installation in Kielder Forest next October which may require a few people to come along and help, so you’d be welcome to come along and help. I’d really love to. Well, It’s being commissioned and produced professionally, but if you’re interested i’ll certainly put you down. Would I be able to get your email as well? Yes sure, I’ll write it down Thanks Your writing is really fluid. I love it but would you be able to say it just so I can have it on here. (I have omitted Chris email for privacy reasons) Brilliant, if you could keep me in mind for that project because when I come out of uni I feel , like I was saying last night, Alan Dunn does his Fine Art and he’s a good contact for them and he’s obviously going to be a good contact for me but I haven’t got that much guidance with the tutors on my course so it’s really fortunate for me and I don’t want to waste that. Yes, I understand. At the very least I can put you in touch with a technical manager who sets these things up. If you want to investigate it, go to jerwood@openforest and look there, you’ll see the commission, it’s called Hrafn. That’s onomatopoeic it’s the old norse for raven. Hrafn, that’s what they say and it’s the sound for a translation for a raven roost in Kielder Forest where there are no ravens. But, we’re going to bring the sound of hundreds of them back to the forest canopy and do a big installation. I’ll keep you posted. It’ll be in Kielder Forest at the end of October, but prior to that there’ll be some rigging. We’ve got professional tree climbers involved rigging speakers in the tree canopy in a big sort of elipse.

Interview

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d really love to be involved. Drop me a line. So will that be in October. End of October, Kielder Forest, Northumberland. But if you go to that website youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see it and keep in touch. http://jerwoodopenforest.org/

Figure 30. Chris Watson: Graphic Score.

Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis - Audio Playground

“One is forced to translate thought into action and action into object...I am not a teacher who tells his students only to think. I say: act; do something: I ask for result. It may take different forms. It can have the form of sound, or someone can do a book, make a drawing or a sculpture. I don’t care...”

Joseph Beuys [17]

The premise of Audio Playground is to act upon gaps that exist within the realm of communication using a pedagogical approach, teaching listening as a way or learning. Like Beuys, I am a pedagogue of art, an instructor who has developed my own conceptual knowledge and now want children to establish their unique metacognition using sequential learning within a liberating creative environment. The pedagogical approach is a tool, to broaden and shape the application of art, gravitate social, political and educational surroundings, and unlock new systems that vindicate this new co-operative process. In the article School Days Rob Giampietro proposes that, “the recent “pedagogical turn” in art, which suggests that education is itself a form of art, a facilitator of artistic development and a method for activation art in the public sphere.” [7] In my practice I am required to be the facilitator who also challenges conventional methods in our cultural education system. Giampietro also suggests that there has been, “... a shift toward the classroom as a lived experience in which people, places and real-world projects come together in a pragmatic whole.” [7] Audio Playground is a practical workshop experience, a meeting place where ideas can be shared and exchanged through experimentation and play. When constructing Audio Playground, I used everyday objects to emphasise how the ordinary can become extraordinary. I used wood, metal and plastic to represent materials found in our natural and manmade surroundings. They are specifically chosen for their strength, resilience, malleability and primarily for safety. Neutral tones ensure sound and form are the focal point. I considered the semiotics of each instrument a crucial aspect to meet my learning objectives, allowing them to indirectly recognise and recall how natural sonorous tones in our environment communicate to us. One sound sculpture denotes plastic triangles attached to a metal sheet.

Critical Analysis

(Fig 31) This holds connotations evoking recollections of fish scales and bird

feathers. Further connotations of music may be realised if the participant recognises the shapes are plectrums. Our culture holds these semiotic links because they are familiar associations with our environment.

Figure 31. Sound Sculpture.

In the adult workshop, Participant 7, Wendy challenged my design, understanding that, “If you are truly trying to find an interpretation of a sound into a visualisation from it we shouldn’t be able to to see anything, we should just hear the sound and we shouldn’t be able to feel anything because that’s going to affect the translation.” [18] Although this is a valid point, I don’t accept sound can be a purist medium for communication. We should inherently contextualise our environment visualising the reverberation of sound for communication and survival. Steven Waller wrote, “In the deep caves of Font-de Gaume and Lascaux, the images of horses, bulls, bison and deer are found in regions with high levels of sound reflection, whereas feline art is found in regions of the caves with poor acoustics.” [2] Our Neolithic ancestors intuitively linked sound with image but in our 21st century culture, we have become desensitised to making these connections and it is this lost communication that my practice is trying to revive. I conducted two workshops to observe audience participation. Comparing my workshops with Palle Nielsen’s, The Model, I can see, he takes the constraints of the setting into consideration, when he explains how, “...the intensity of play and the frequency of group playing increased when the spaces set aside for them were made smaller, such as screened, angular spaces or elevated vantage points, rather than with large, open areas.” [6]

Critical Analysis

I was unaware of this concept when deciding where to place my workshops, however, in retrospect, it seems I intuitively situated the adult workshop outside where maturity has taught them to be comfortable. In comparison, I placed the child workshop inside, because this would provide them with a safe liberating, creative environment. I observed them playing confidently, experimenting corporally. (Fig 32)

Figure 32. Child Workshop.

Trevor Cox notes, “Evidence suggests that the size of a room, sensed through reverberation and other audio cues, affect our emotional response to neutral and nice sounds. We tend to perceive smaller rooms as being calmer, safer and more pleasant than larger spaces.” [2] This consolidates Nielson’s observations with my own findings. This understanding enables me to place Audio Playground in appropriate settings to create social learning opportunities. To encourage metacognitive sequential learning I asked each participant to create their own unique graphic score that responded to the music they created. I became aware of my pedagogical authority and how it effected the attitude of each participant. I observed a child, who had made several intelligent graphic scores now making a drawing secretively. The drawing represented myself and another adult. (Fig 33) Initially, I thought nothing of this, to me it wasn’t a graphic score. It was only after reading, “Walter Gropius’s famous assertion that ‘art cannot be taught’,” [7] that I reflected on it’s relevance. My instructions were broad and liberating, but this child still rebelled, implying that he either, needed me to create new challenges to re-engage him, or, he was testing my authority over him.

Critical Analysis

Figure 33. Rebellious Score.

The last element to the workshop was to leave the constraints of Audio Playground. Rob Giampietro says, “An art school, it would appear, does not teach art, but sets up the conditions necessary for creative production, and by extension the conditions for collaboration and social engagement.” [7] This highlights a new dynamic in the potential of the playground’s malleable creative process. I propositioned musicians to compose music from selected graphic scores by workshop participants. Beuys believed, “A social organism as a work of art’...every human being is an artist.” [24] However a contrasting opinion by Boris Groys takes Beuys statement literally when he argues, “A vision of the world completely turned into the art world, in which every human being has to produce artworks and compete for the chance to exhibit them... is by no means a utopian vision, but quite dystopian...” [24] I don’t agree with Groys or Beuys extreme statements, I personally believe everyone has the potential to become an artist, however some are reluctant. This point is illustrated by two responses I received. Andy immersed himself in the task and presented his composition through social networking which allowed the initial score maker to experience a variation of their piece. However, Adam listened to this before composing his own work and reacted negatively. Adam never completed his piece as he was comparing his creative musical ability to Andy’s. (Fig 34)

Critical Analysis

Figure 34. Comparative ability.

I intended to create a liberating opportunity to “act; do something”, [17] but not everyone will believe in their own ability. Questioning where this lack of self belief originates, directed me to consider my own course through our education system and where Audio Playground rests within a more personal and political frame. Reflecting on my own education experience as a person with Dyslexia, I felt that the over-support I received in school, only resulted in me feeling socially excluded. Prior to dyslexia being acknowledged as a term to describe children with persistent literacy difficulties they often left school unable to read or write. However, facts and figures from the Dyslexia Research Trust state that today, 20% of children in the UK leave school unable to read properly and 75% of convicted criminals are illiterate. The site continues to state that, ”Dyslexia is still the most common cause of childhood loss of self-confidence.” [21] These figures appear to show evidence that there is still a substantial problem in our education system. I feel it is not the role of the teacher to deliver an education, but as John Dewey put it, “a process of living and not a preparation for future living.” [25] It is about being the facilitator who can create opportunities, give the time and encouragement that will enable children to discover, and consequently they will, learn how to learn. I see my roll as an Avant-garde communicator is to show people the door and liberate them to believe in their own abilities. Lorraine Wild states that a, “...designer could and should develop an individual signature to their work.” [10] I feel that I am developing a pedagogical signature that has been subconsciously influenced from my own childhood experience.

Bibliography

Books [1]

Brotchie, A. Gooding, M., (1995). A Book of Surrealist Games. Boston USA: Shambhala.

[2]

Cox, T. Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound. RHCB, 2014. Print.

[3]

Harline, P.K. Johnson, L.B. Why Write?: A Guide to BYU Honors Intensive Writing. Brigham Youth University. 2006

[4]

Kapoor, A. Bhabha, H. K., Loisy, J.D., & Rosenthal, N. (2009). Anish Kapoor. London: Royal Academy of Arts.

[5]

Muir, J. (2011). My First Summer in the Sierra. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[6]

Nielsen, P. and Larsen, L.B. The Model: A Model for a Qualitative Society (1968). Barcelona: MACBA, 2010. Print.

Articles [7]

Giampietro, R. 2011. School Days. In: Graphic Design: Now in Production. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, Print. pp. 212-221.

[8]

Rock, M. 2005. Fuck Content. In: Graphic Design: Now in Production. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, Print. pp. 14-15.

[9]

Royal Academy of Arts. (2009). Anish Kapoor. London: Royal Academy of Arts.

[10] Wild, L. 2011. Unraveling. In: Graphic Design: Now in Production. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, Print. pp. 19-21.

Bibliography

Exhibitions, Film, Events: [11] Anish Kapoor: 2009, 26 September - 11 December 2009, Royal Academy of Arts, London. [12] Consequences (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER): 2013, 16 November 2013, Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds. [13] Hy Brasil: 2014, 13 March 2014, Opera North, Leeds. [14] Music: Joanna MacGregor’s: Graphic Scores: 2013, 10 October 2013. Opera North, Leeds. [15] Notations: 2013, 16 November 2013. Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds. Interviews: [16] “Bennett, Vicki.” Vicki Bennett interview. Personally conducted. 16 Nov. 2013. [17] “Energy Plan for the Western Man –Joseph Beuys in America –.” Interview by Willoughby Sharp. Energy Plan for the Western Man – Joseph Beuys in America – 1969: 92. Print. [18] “Participant 7, Wendy.” Workshop interview. Personally conducted. 5 Mar. 2014. [19] “Watson, Chris.” Chris Watson interview. Personal conducted. 8 Apr. 2014. Radio: [20] Young, Kirsty. “BBC Desert Island Discs.” BBC Desert Island Disks. Radio 4. London, 15 Nov. 2013. Radio.

Bibliography

Web: [21] “About Dyslexia.” Dyslexia Research Trust. N.p., n.d. At: http://www.dyslexic.org.uk/aboutdyslexia15.htm (Accessed on 26.3.14). [22] Cage, John. (2010). John Cage’s 4’33” [online video] At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4 (Accessed on 24.10.2013). [23] Geoghegan, Kev. “Lou Reed: In His Own Words.” BBC News. BBC, 28 Oct. 2013. At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24704260 (Accessed on 28.10.13). [24] Groys, Boris. “The Weak Universalism.” E-flux. N.p., 2010. At: http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-weak-universalism/ (Accessed on 3.4.14). [25] “John Dewey: My Pedagogical Creed.” Infedorg. N.p., n.d At: http://infed.org/mobi/john-dewey-my-pedagogicalcreed/ #socialprogress (Accessed on 1.4.14). [26] Johnson, Ken. “George Brecht, 82, Fluxus Conceptual Artist.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2008. At: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/arts/music/ 15brecht.html?_r=0 (Accessed on 25.3.14). [27] Milker Corp. (s.d). Overview. At: http://www.milker.org/ notation/not_dir.html (Accessed on 5.11.2013). [28] Mitsios, A. (2011). Zimoun // The Magician of Spatial Sound Installations. At: http://www.yatzer.com/zimoun-the-magician-of-spatialsound-installations (Accessed on 24.9.13).

Bibliography

[29] Northern Light Publishing. (s.d). John Muir Naturalist Conservationist and Visionary 1838-1914. At: http://www.johnmuir.co.uk/johnmuir/index.html (Accessed on 5.11.13). [30] Notationnotes. (2011). Tumblr. At: http://notationnotes.tumblr.copage/22 (Accessed on 5.11.2013) [31] Opera North. (2013). Music: Joanna MacGregor: Graphic Scores. At:http://www.operanorth.co.uk/productions/har-music-joannamacgregor-graphic-scores (Accessed on 5.11.2013). [32] telescoper. (2011). Archive for Rainer Wehinger. At: http://telescoper.wordpress.com/tag/rainer-wehinger/ (Accessed on 7.11.2013)

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Connolly, A. (2014). Audio Playground. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 2. Connolly, A. (2014). Adult Workshop: Graphic Scores (5.3.14). [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 3. Connolly, A. (2013). Child Workshop: Graphic Scores (14.3.14). [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 4. Connolly, A. (2014). Act 1. [Photograph]In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 5. Connolly, A. (2014). Act 2. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 6. Connolly, A. (2014). Act 3. [Photograph]In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 7. Connolly, A. (2013). Consequences. [Photograph] In possession of : The Author: Leeds. Figure 8. Connolly, A. (2013). Audio/Visual: Grass. [Film] In possession of: The Author: Wisley. Figure 9. Connolly, A. (2013). Audio/Visual: Water. [Film] In possession of: The Author: Wisley. Figure 10. Connolly, A. (2013). Audio/Visual: Fish. [Film] In possession of: The Author: Wisley. Figure 11. Connolly, A (2013). Wind Chimes. [Film] In possession of: The Author: Kingston. Figure 12. Connolly, A. (2014). Aeolian Harp. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 13. Connolly, A. (2014). Leaf Zine. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds.

List of Illustrations

Figure 14. Connolly, A. (2014). Metal Leaf Sculpture. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 15. Connolly, A. (2014). Magnet Fishing Event. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure16. Connolly, A. (2014). Collection of Metal Objects. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 17. Connolly, A. (2014). Printing with Metal Objects. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure18. Connolly, A. (2014). Graphic Scores Drawn with Metal Objects. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 19. Connolly, A. (2014), Pij-uhn. [Film] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 20. Shooting into the corner. [Photograph] At: http:www.todayandtomorrow.net/wp-content/uploads /2009/10 anishkapoor_1jpg (Accessed on 5.11.2013). Figure 21. 200 prepared dc-motors, 2000 cardboard elements 70x70cm. [Photograph] At: http://www.yatzer.com/zimoun-themagician-of-spacial-sound-installations (Accessed on 6.11.2013). Figure 22. Connolly, A. (2013). Resilience Art Machine. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 23. Connolly, A. (2013). Resilience Graphic Score. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 24. Connolly, A. (2013). Cageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Water Music Graphic Score. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 25. Artikulation. [Photograph] At: http://notationnotes. tumblr.com/page/22 (Accessed on 7.11.2013).

List of Illustrations

Figure 26. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS/AND JUMP OFF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. [PHOTOGRAPH] AT: http://www.milker.org/notation/peopleonpills.html (Accessed on 7.11.2013). Figure 27. Consequences (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER). (2013) [Photograph]http://www.operanorth.co.uk/productions/ har-music-joanna-macgregor-graphic-scores (Accessed on 5.11.2013). Figure 28. Connolly, A. (2014). Hy Brasil. (2014) [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 29. Connolly, A. (2014). Chris Watson: Graphic Score (2014) [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 30. Connolly, A. (2014) Sound Sculpture. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 31. Connolly, A. (2014) Child Workshop. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 32. Connolly, A. (2014) Child Rebelious Score. [Photograph] In possession of: The Author: Leeds. Figure 33. Connolly, A. 92014) Comparative Ability. [Screen Shot] In possession of: The Author: Leeds.

Notes

Margin Scores I have incorporated Graphic Scores in the margins of my Critical Study to remind the viewer of the background sonorous tones that are always present in their environment. Layout The layout of my Critical Study, especially the title page, contents page and use of the typeface Futura, is heavily influenced by the Event Score Cards designed by Fluxus artist George Brecht. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention is for the reader to treat their involvement as a performance, ensuring that the details of each action is noticed.