This sound piece is in three sections totaling six minutes and twenty-one second, including silence breaks between the sections. Part One is manipulated human voice speaking a found definition of communication, which was then edited to emulate the call of birds. The background track of this part, which becomes the foreground after the birdcalls end, is also the same text manipulated in another way. Part Two is based on text in the form of video imagery of a computer keyboard that has been read by software designed as an experimental system to aid blind people. By manipulating what the camera sees a series of sounds were created based on the progression of the alphabet. There is a sweep from left to right, which is the way the software creates a “picture” when used as designed, and this results in the listener perceiving the sound as moving in a circle. Part Three also uses video input based on a random texture that has resulted in sounds reminiscent of computer sound effects of 1960s science fiction. This is the first sound piece that I have structured in parts and the work was arranged to follow the progression of human communication: speech, text and digital data.
Process:The “Definition of Communication” started with an accident. I was manipulating sound on the computer and found a way to create sounds resembling birdsong from a recording of my voice. I had been thinking about how digital technologies have altered how we communicate and how we are expected to communicate. The latter relates to the speed with which messages can be communicated and the expectation that a response will come at the same speed. In this case it was the accumulation of enough related information that lead to the beginning of the first part of the piece. I then went looking for definitions of communication and found the following during a web based search.
"Communication is a movement of matter or energy between two parts of the universe. This matter or energy can be a carrier of information. www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/glossary.htm.
I found the definition intriguing as it broadens the concept of what is thought of as communication. The ambiguous “can be a carrier of information” was where this all started to come together. There is information coded in the sounds that are here but it is very difficult to determine the meaning. Yet when listened to it is possible to come up with some meaning for what is heard based on the listener’s experience. What intrigues me about this “interpreted meaning” is how listeners from different cultural backgrounds will interpret what they hear. Do we share enough common experience? Or have we all been shaped by what we have heard on the radio, television or online? There are moments where an idea will arise in a flash of inspiration and there are moments when prolonged thought and the dissection of those thoughts leads gradually to the start of a work. I have had works come to be via both these processes and works that are created using a combination of the two methods. I believe that revision and reduction are both important to the creative process.
Bio: I have BFA from University of Victoria and a background in film, photography and education. I work with digital sound and also build and install acoustic sound devices or what could be called large acoustic instruments. My interest in sound comes from a wider interest in how we are sensitized and also desensitized to what happens in our surroundings.