Radio ist Kino im Kopf, sagt man. Beim
Zuhören entstehen Bilder in der Vorstellung der
Hörerinnen
und Hörer, insofern ist das Radio kein rein akustisches
Medium,
sondern hat auch visuelle Aspekte. Ebenso sind visuelle Medien nicht
allein auf die Wahrnehmung von Bildern beschränkt. In diesem
Sinn
gibt es keine Kommunikationsform, die ausschließlich einen
Sinn
anspricht. Es gibt nur unterschiedliche Gewichtungen von Standbildern
oder bewegten Bildern, von Sprache, Geräuschen, Musik,
taktilen
und anderen Erfahrungen.
Ausgehend von solchen Überlegungen haben die beiden
australischen
Künstler Colin und Yanna Black, die das Webradio-Projekt
Frequency
OZ betreiben, eine Radiokunst-Serie zusammengestellt, deren acht
Episoden im Februar und März in Kunstradio-Radiokunst zu
hören sind. Zu hören und zu sehen, um genau zu sein,
denn es
geht bei der Reihe “The Transmuted Signal” eben um
die
Übersetzung zwischen verschiedenen Modalitäten der
Wahrnehmung.
Wesentlich ist dabei, dass die originalgetreue Übersetzung
zwischen den Medien weniger von Bedeutung ist, als die
Veränderungen eines Originals und Abweichungen von diesem, die
mit
einem Umwandlungsprozess einhergehen.
Frequency OZ haben insgesamt acht Künstlerinnen und
Künstler
mit einem Bild konfrontiert, mit einem visuellen Signal also, das es zu
verschlüsseln und in eine akustische Form zu bringen galt,
sodass
die resultierenden Audioversionen miteinander verglichen werden
können. Im Anschluss wurden alle Teilnehmerinnen und
Teilnehmer
dieses künstlerischen Experiments gebeten, das impulsgebende
Bild
zu zerstören. Das Bild ist allein in seiner auditiven
Transmutation erhalten, in Form von acht Hörstücken.
Das Kunstradio sendet diese Stücke im Rahmen der Sendereihe
„curated by“, die vorsieht, dass
Künstlerinnen und
Künstler on air und online Ausstellungen neuer Radiokunst
konzipieren und zusammenstellen. In der Vergangenheit wurden dabei ganz
unterschiedliche Aspekte der Radiokunst untersucht und
herausgearbeitet, stets jedoch wird eine Erweiterung des
Hörraums
ins Internet und umgekehrt angestrebt. Durch die Beteiligung
internationaler Künstler, wie in diesem Fall Frequency OZ aus
Australien, werden immer wieder künstlerische Positionen
präsentiert, die in Österreich nicht bekannt sind.
Die Reihe
„The Transmuted Signal“, curated by Frequency OZ,
präsentiert Arbeiten von Entoptic, Nigel Helyer, Melanie
Herbert,
Cat Hope, Lizzie Pogson, Philip Samartzis und von Colin Black selbst.
In seinem Stück „Semblance“
(„Anschein“)
sucht Black die Unsichtbarkeit des Transformationsprozess eines Bildes
zu Sound so zu steigern, dass die Vielschichtigkeit des Bildes erhalten
bleibt. Freilich ist dies – wie Black rasch erkannte
– ein
subjektives und von künstlerischem Wollen nicht entleertes
Verfahren. Ebenso wie der Prozess der Umwandlung nicht umkehrbar ist.
„Temporal Planes“ (17’04”)
by Entopic
Temporal Planes is an
improvisation that is performed, recorded and produced by Luke Bozzetto
and Daniel Portelli, both of whom make up the Australian duo Entoptic.
The creative process for Temporal Planes began firstly with both
members having conversations about the given artwork and also detailing
ideas for transmuting the non-audio signal (from the artwork) into an
original audio work.
Out of these discussions, the notion of communication became of
particular interest to both members. Daniel, for instance, focused on
different forms of communication, and the connection between modern
technologies and primitive written languages that seem to both act as a
cultural identifier yet function on similar levels. Luke on the other
hand, drew parallels between communication and its role in his practice
as an improviser. In particular he focused on the development of an
innate musical dialogue that could be developed and shared with other
improvisers. Another idea of interest suggested in the art work and
transmuted in the audio is when meaning behind symbols or sound objects
remain hidden as undecipherable messages to the audience such as not
knowing what is being written by the sound of a pen writing
Elsewhere, the phrase “Hear and Now” (which is embedded as
text in the artwork) is also significant in the duo’s
conceptualisations for Temporal Planes. Daniel notes that:
“The words written on the image ‚hear and now’ to me
became anything that involved real-time interaction and “in the
moment” activity which included improvisation, writing and
playing live instruments with reminisce of an electronic
fingerprint.”
Luke also took from the phrase, complimenting Daniel’s thoughts, stating:
“… the phrase seemed to encapsulate, quite succinctly, my
thoughts on improvisation. The ‚hear’ represents the
concentrated listening a performer partakes in when improvising.
Listening has always been an important part of improvising for me; it
has helped me develop a certain level of restraint during performances
which in turn has enabled me to not contribute to a performance
unnecessarily or to force out any responses. The idea of the
‚Now’ embraces the erratic, yet thoughtful, nature of
creation and the ensuing responses to such creation within
improvisation.”
After discussing the ideas both Luke and Daniel decided on the
instrumentation and sources to use. The duo improvised on their ideas
on an intuitive level and then refined them in the sound studio. The
improvisation involved an amalgamation of electronic and acoustic
technologies that included: a snare drum, prepared nylon guitar, laptop
processing, assorted array of guitar effects, altered malfunctioned
radio, electric guitar, recorder and pen and paper.
The duo utilised a variety of microphones and recording methods which
were used to produce different quality recordings, some having loud
background noises and hums and others were cleaner by using a direct
input recording. This created an artificial ambience that colours the
recording. In utilising a variety of microphones and recording methods,
Luke and Daniel were able to capture an array of spaces and
multi-dimensionalities.
Languid Sigh (27’39”)
by Cat Hope
The non-audio signal was of a hand placed on glass, surrounded by
strange symbols. The things that interested me in the image where the
vivid warm colours of the hand against the black and white background,
the intricate patterns that seemed almost transparent yet somehow
computer manipulated and unnatural, and the ‘hear and now’
words. I decided to make a work that explored ‘close up’ in
three different ways, reflecting the three elements of the image.
This work has three source sounds recorded by the artist: a person
rowing a small boat in the sea off the coast of Western Australia
[recorded from inside the boat], a woman touching herself in front a
heater in her home [recorded with a very close microphone], an
unamplified bass guitar played with a motor [recorded with a microphone
made from a subwoofer built into a drum shell, that recorded the
vibrations of the instrument through the resonance of a table].
This mixture of the very personal in the urban setting, juxtaposed with
the placement of humans in the bigger picture of nature is framed with
a recording of motorised drone. The clarity and seemingly peaceful
sound of the water - which was a rather rough sea at the time of
recording - contrasts with the strange un-erotic sounds of a hand on
flesh and fabric framed by the fan motor of a winter heater. The same
kind of motor is used to produce the drone like bass.
The editing creates unusual embedded rhythms and very long period
patterns that are difficult to hear as rhythmic. Hope’s interest
in the drone and low frequency is reflected in this piece; creating a
low frequency drone on an instrument, the almost inaudible drone of a
suburban home, the drone of the sea, the possibility of long unfolding
patterns.
All recording and editing by Cat Hope.
Sub Mic construction: KFord
Motor bass: KFord.
Boat rowed by Aaron Wyatt
Woman by the heater: Tabatha Purrwell
With Special thanks to Kate MacMillan.
Links:
http://www.frequencyoz.com
http://kunstradio.at/PROJECTS/CURATED_BY/OZ/
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