David Cunningham
AHRB proposal
Activated Space - the
transformation of internal spaces to become audible and interactive.
Activated
Space is a proposal to develop and present a series of installations
that alter an architectural space to allow its resonant frequencies to
become audible and interactive. The proposal combines elements from
sculpture,
electronic media, music, architecture and acoustics.
research programme:
research questions:
Primary:
How can active listening be
encouraged?
How does our awareness of
acoustic surroundings influence our perceptions?
What happens if you magnify the
sound of a room?
Secondary:
Why is the role of sound
increasingly coming to the fore within the Fine Arts?
How does technological change
cause perceptual shifts which generate new potentials for awareness
both inside an art/music context and generally?
aims and objectives:
To foreground and reveal how
the spatial elements of sound contribute to the conditioning of human
activity. To investigate what happens if you magnify the sound of the
room. To expose the nature of hearing, how to a very precise degree we
are subconsciously constantly aware of our immediate acoustic
environment.
As a sustained attempt to
produce and monitor this work, one distinctive feature will be to
maintain an online diary of the creation and duration of each component
installation open to the interactive scrutiny of peers (See Appendix 2). This electronic resource will be
complemented by my own published texts both online and in other media,
continuing a discussion of the research questions above and a parallel
investigation of the documentation of such experiential work.
To place this investigation
within the related concerns of the Newcastle University Fine Art and
Music Departments and exhibition within the established regional
context of innovative time-based work eg: the development of the New
Media Centre at the Baltic Centre and the work of Locus+.
research context:
This work is entirely
dependent on real-time activities, taking the sounds in a space and
allowing people within that space to hear the space in a qualitatively
different way, to begin to listen actively.
This series of works could
be
considered to be architectural or sculptural in the sense that there is
a
consistent structure moderated by external factors. Formally it is
situated within the practice of Fine Art, a minimal aesthetic with much
concern for
the materials and structures, an open or experimental situation within
which
the viewer/listener is an essential component.
The installations have a
musical function and unlike much other time-based work are responsive
to musicological analysis, creating a slowly shifting series of chords
based on a fundamental which is always a resonant frequency or a
harmonic of the space. Possible developments involve the creation of an
active acoustic environment for music performance, an interactive
harmonic environment which is quite different in nature to conventional
reverberation or echo.
Amplified sound surrounds us
constantly, increasingly employed by industrial and commercial
concerns, often in inverse relationship to any value to be derived from
that sound and to the detriment of any idea of an aural ecology.
New technologies of
reproduced surround sound are emerging and these technological shifts
generally alter listening habits. This research is concerned with
individual perception
of acoustic space and builds on these perceptual shifts to emphasize
potentials for awareness that may well become relevant outside an
art/music context in the near future.
I am not aware of other
research in this specific area elsewhere. Technologies of amplified and
reproduced sound are industry-driven and are diametrically opposed to
my concerns of observation, of listening and valuing the acoustic space
inhabited by an
individual. My concern is shared by the Swiss-based World Soundscape
Project - their output (mostly documentation of an ecology of sound)
provides support for an implicit ideological position rather than
practical or technical
comparison.
research methods:
The methodologies of this
work combine those of an interdisciplinary practice of experimental
music/sound/sculpture/time-based art within a Fine Art tradition and
those of professional music/sound production. These processes are
grounded in many years experience of creative work, both commercially
and artistically.
The process of development
is
integral to and directs the work towards a final structure.
The working procedure will
be
to initiate installations in a range of spaces amplifying the sound of
those spaces in accordance with their inherent acoustic properties of
reflections and standing waves. Various techniques are employed
to allow the resonant frequencies of a room to become highly audible in
real time (See Appendix - Installation Technologies). This process is
modulated by very slight acoustic
changes as people move around the room, by ambient sound, by humidity,
by
the movement of air.
A parallel and complementary
component of this research will consider the placement of the viewer in
physical, perceptual and critical relation to the work.
Exploration of an acoustic
is
by its very nature site specific and one key element is to use as many
sites and situations as possible developing, documenting and refining
the project throughout the duration of the Fellowship. The main
criterion for the selection of installation sites is the specific
acoustic offered by each space. There are a number of practical
secondary factors, access, invigilation, power supply and so on.
Development of these
research
stages and methodologies will be documented (see Appendix 2) and made available on a
continuing basis throughout the project in order to reveal how this
specific research process leads to the expansion of the research
questions above.
ii - research
dissemination:
The prime output will be a
series of installations to be developed and presented in a series of
locations - gallery spaces, disused buildings, public spaces. This will
be monitored and supported by an online diary of the creation and the
duration of each installation and complemented by online discussion as
the work emerges. There will be continuing documentation of each stage
of the process.
Documentation of such
site-specific work with its implicit focus on the real-time presence of
the viewer/listener within the active installation presents significant
problems and a continuous aspect of the programme is to actively
investigate appropriate recording techniques within the spaces created
(see Appendix 2) which will be referenced and annotated within the
online diary.
Year One - Initiation of the
website and online diary. Installations within the Fine Art Department
exploring variants of the work with existing spaces and experimentally
trying alternatives to the basic technology. Exploration of the spatial
variants introduced by the reflective qualities of different spaces, in
particular arches, vaults and domes, using the variety of architecture
within the University.
This ongoing work will be
offered to musicians within the Music Department to begin to formulate
strategies for performance within the installation - performer(s) using
enhanced room acoustics as a musical component. Refinement of the
technologies over the period of the Fellowship would suggest the
parallel development of a formal compositional approach to the
musicological aspect of the work. Involvement with the Department
of Music at Newcastle is an obvious step and the Department's response
has been positive.
Year Two - A formal
presentation of the work in a public space in the Newcastle area;
continuing development of technical aspects of the work eg: computer
control of amplification and spatial diffusion. Collation and formal
documentation of work to date including recordings in DVD 5.1 audio
format.
Year Three - Extrapolation
of
the key innovations developed through the Fellowship into a series of
public installations, the precise nature dependent on the way the
research has led the work, but the aim is to incorporate a public
space, a formal gallery space and a performance space.
Collation and publication of
documentation of the installations and indexed online archive.
Throughout the Fellowship I
expect to continue to exhibit variants of this work outside Newcastle
and internationally which will incorporate research developments and
provide feedback.
iii - career development:
My career has been based on
work with music and sound in a variety of contexts: performer, producer
and
recording artist, gallery installation works with sound and writing for
a number of art and music-related publications. Other work has included
technical consultancy, assistance and collaboration with artists' sound
installations, video and film. I have lectured on sound within many
Fine
Art departments working with students from BA to PhD level; this has
involved
practical studio tutorials, workshops and thesis supervision.
Commercial recording work
alongside part-time teaching has funded my own research to date but to
move the project forward will entail a sustained period of development,
access to University facilities and the opportunity to engage with
experts in complementary fields such as musicology, acoustics,
linguistics, architecture, perceptual psychology and neurology
alongside a continuing dialogue within Fine Art.
The Fellowship is a release
from the demands of work within the commercial domain, enabling a
significant enhancement of the scale and pace of my research interests.
Facilities provided by the
University and the Newcastle area in general:
Locations for work -
Newcastle's history of innovative time-based exhibition, and the city's
architectural and economic past has created a significant number of
possible locations for this work including locations within the
University for controlled test work. The University's Music Department
and Computer Centre (See Appendix 2) will
provide essential support.
The University Staff
Development Unit offers a Postgraduate Certificate in Research
Management which will be valuable to the progress and dissemination of
this work.
To an independent
practitioner like myself people are the most significant
resource. The University environment offers audience, helpers,
collaborators, critics and the inevitable mixture of all of these.
iv - contribution to the
institution's research environment and culture
1 - Teaching, in the
broadest
sense
Sound has played a significant
part in art practice over much of the last century, from Dada to
contemporary work, in particular artists' involvement in time-based
media without there being any formal provision within most Fine Art
Departments of specific expertise, practical or theoretical. Within
Newcastle I intend to offer a series of seminars and workshops with
staff and students to explore and develop the role of sound within Fine
Art
2 - Presentations within the
Institution
Installations within the
University will provide a basis for workshop activity with students and
as an introduction to the principles of the work for interested parties
from elsewhere in the University, thereafter to refine and develop the
work expanding the principles outlined above.
My initial intention is to
use the installation space to encourage interdisciplinary meeting
and activities with students and staff from several departments
to discover and discuss areas of overlapping interest and to generate
collaborative and cross-disciplinary work. This discussion will extend
to the online website.
Coming, in part, from a
music
background, collaboration is normal within my work. Newcastle is one of
the
few British Universities offering the disciplines of Fine Art,
Architecture and Music and it is my intention to take full advantage of
the possibilities of cross-disciplinary collaboration, in particular
the electronic interface with time-based work being developed by
current Fine Art AHRB Fellow Monica Ross.
APPENDIX - Installation Technologies:
The basic system components
of the installations are a microphone connected to a noise gate (in
principle a switch which activates according to the volume of sound
passing through it), amplifier and speakers in a highly reverberant
room. The system is arranged in such a way that when the microphone and
loudspeaker begin to feed back the amplitude of the sound causes the
noise gate to cut off the signal. The feedback notes resonate through
the space accentuated by the
reverberation time of the space. As the sound falls below the threshold
of
the noise gate the system switches back on and the process continues.
The available pitches of the
sound are primarily determined by the distance between the wall, floor
and ceiling surfaces in the space, and by the location of microphone(s)
and loudspeaker(s); by the time it takes a sound to travel and be
reflected in three dimensions; not a simple equation. Microphones are
Pressure Zone type to enable the plane of a room surface to act
microphonically.
It has been my intention to
keep the technology involved in these installations minimal and
comprehensible to the viewer. This does not preclude future
developments with alternative technology, in particular the development
of a software-controlled version of the installation.
For other software-related
developments see Appendix 2, the
electronic resource.
OTHER SECTIONS OF PROPOSAL:
Appendix 2, electronic resource
Summary Curriculum Vitae
List of publications