A Look At Sound (2022)
Director: Pip Dearlove (PIPIDAEYA), Producer: Jen Wong, Technician: Dan Woodward, Musicians: Shaku (band)
The A Look At Sound installation was created as part of an Arts Council funded residency at Insert Studios, Leeds. The residency concluded with a sold out event raising money for a local charity, We Belong Here, which champions arts engagement in under-represented communities.
The audio-visual installation explored how emotive sounds impact our perceptions of space and colour through the creation of five contrasting ‘environments.’ The visuals for these environments were developed by the project’s technician, Dan Woodward, by motion-mapping the rhythm of emotive sounds such as thunder claps, rain sounds, sex noises etc. to corresponding imagery. These visuals were then projected throughout the space.
The set was designed in collaboration with designer Jen Wong, through the creation of five fabric structures or pods. These pods formed the spaces for each of the improvising musicians. A key aspect I was interested in exploring was how obscuring the visual communication between musicians would impact their improvisation. These structures also had the additional application of providing screens to carry the visual projections; meaning that both the audience and the musicians were surrounded by the visuals.
Reflections:
The performance created an interesting, unexpected effect, wherein the musicians, who were largely concealed, felt more comfortable having been out of sight from the audience. The audience subsequently seemed to take on the role of the performer and were moving around the space and observing each other. It seemed that they required some active involvement to feel comfortable. Therefore, in developing this project further I would seek to engage participants through using touch sensors to control the visuals, so that they can switch between the environments and influence how the installation is experienced. Another possible development would be to remove the improvising musicians and substitute for pre-programmed compositions that correspond to the motion of the five visual environments, so that, for example, when selecting ‘thunder’ the visuals change to that theme and a loud booming sound programmed to the rhythm of thunder plays out through surround speakers.