The sound connects me to a world from which i had disengaged. From an early age we learn to analyze sounds and collect information about the world, based on acoustic perception. Nevertheless, sound is still considered ephemeral, and listening to an environment or a city is rarely considered. In the forest, still a highly acoustic place, biodiversity is listened to rather than seen. This work is an attempt to analyse the sound landscape and remodel those same spaces. Its goal is to raise awareness of the sounds that surround us and yet which we no longer pay attention to, acting as if they were dimmed. It is an attempt to reveal a hidden layers of reality through the imagery of the act of listening. If you are disconnected from the awareness of the sounds, you risk being disconnected from your environment. Listening is a practice of life. The relation between listening and the land is the soundwalk. At the frontier between a poetic, ecological and spiritual act, the soundwalk is a practice, an act that relies heavily with the world.
Radio Zero is an itinerant sound project born from the encounter of a musician and a sculptor. Concerned about global disinterest in the world of sound, they decided to reappropriate this audible matter through empathetic interaction with everyday life, in order to draw attention back to collective and individual sound atmospheres.
PROCESS
The work is divided into three phases:
1st phase: Recording 2nd phase: Remodulation 3rd phase: Retransmission
The approach towards the work is the same throughout all three phases and is also the catalyst to the whole project: improvisation.
This is the creative form that most resembles everyday life.
This process is very clearly explained in a text by Fred Frith on improvisation:
«Being able to do what you want to do; being alert to, and present in, the moment; awareness of your physical and social environment; the ability to listen alertly and in detail and instantly to translate what you hear into a possibility or an opportunity; and the ability to change your course of action without hesitation if the situation demands it.»
1st phase: Recording
Method: Field recording
The approach is heavily reliant on the environment, which might be geographic and/or social. This approach is shown in the diagram below
The sound is recorded, all the while trying not to influence the sources of the sound in order to preserve objectivity (capturing real life). This approach is shown in the diagram below.
2nd phase: Remodulation
The sound material is then analysed, classified and visualised on an intuitive score. Next the sound composition is created, using the sound instruments classified beforehand.
The sound composition, made with the help of computers, is subject to a process of improvisation enacted by the composers.
3rd phase: Retransmission
The sound composition is retransmitted to the world it came from. Through web radio, the captured sound can return to the ears of the world. Each member of the audience will listen to the composition from the perspective of their personal memories. This personal listening is subjective listening that differs for each person. During the radio show, an open chat allows the public to communicate with the creators and other listeners. This chat is a place where the different subjective visions can be compared. The intimate act of radio becomes a new space for communication and collective exchange.
The decision on the thematic sound compositions have been influenced by the daily life that we were going to live in Madrid during the month of September 2012.
Location: Intermediae, Matadero, Madrid
Event: Participar by Goethe Institut and Instituto Cervantes
Date: September 2012
Authors: Jonathan Frigeri & Daniel Kemeny
Website: https://radiooozero.wordpress.com
Tag: #Field Recording #Etheral Culture #Lucid Dream #Active Listening