Studies on Canvas
for a 6x5 grid of 30 flat-panel loudspeakers under canvas | June 2004, c.22' looped
NOTES | SOUND&IMAGE | EXTRACTS | PHOTOS
The notion of trompe l’oreille was influential in the conception of Studies on Canvas which, being an extensive exploration of visual/aural metaphor, relies heavily on referential material to present a convincing sonic ‘image’. Thus the listener is invited to ‘look’ into a churning mud-pool in bubbles or at a timber frenzy in wood, ‘watch’ marbles rolling around a bagatelle board and ‘gaze’ upon an (apparently) idyllic woodland ‘scene’ in during foot and mouth in Devon. While the ‘frame’ represented by the canvas clearly abstracts the material from its purported context, in many ways the idea was to transcend it altogether, creating a virtual window on the real, with sounds in their spatial and sonic behaviour being practically indistinguishable from reality – albeit a reality that verges on the surreal in places.
More thoughts on the use of trompe l'oreille or fabricated aural landscapes can be found in recent articles.
