REPORT ON SONIC ARTS EXPO
REPORT ON THE SONIC ARTS EXPO - MANCHESTER - 23rd June until 26th July 2006
On the 23rd of June Manchester I experienced the famous Sonic Arts Expo for the first time and it wasn’t long before it became apparent this was to be a weekend of sonic bombardment and audio disturbance.
With a backdrop of a city centre going about its normal pop-tastic weekend, the Expo gave the impression of something experimental stirring underneath occasionally raising its sonic head to deliver performances that were at the sharp edge of experimental music and interactive entertainment.
The Expo kicked off at Cornerhouse with the official opening of the Expo held in a gallery room with Helmut Lemke’s piece Klangeln VIII hovering above everyone’s heads. The piece invited listeners to aurally explore the gallery space by interacting with fishing rods hanging from the ceiling. As listeners opened and closed books attached to cables, a subtle sound piece was performed. The visual impact of over 20 fishing rods performing automotive music above your head was something that was original and well conceived (and took a week to set up!) It was a strange installation to experience, and it was a great indication as to what the weekend had in store.
Staalplaat Soundsystem's ‘The Ultrasound of Therapy’ was hugely enjoyable; A piece that merged the extreme and immersive, giving every visitor the chance to experience a unique personal sensory experience by being strapped to a hospital bed and subjecting the ‘patients’ to personalised sound therapies. The concept comes from an ancient French hospital, known as "La Salle des Malades" and consisted of individual sound therapies intended to give a personal sonic experience.
The ultrasound of therapy starts with an 'intake'. You are asked to fill out a patient form and told to take a seat and wait. In the next room can be heard strange sounds that start to build the anticipation that you are about to be prescribed a sonic assault that you perhaps wouldn’t recover from.
After a short while, a “doctor” emerges from the next room, checks the patient form and gives a diagnosis as to what sound therapy to administer. By now, the tension is growing and when asked to lie on the bed, put a blind fold and head phones on, the apprehension the interactive has built and the desired submissive effect is created.
The sound therapy will vary in time and treatment: since each patient is different, and will be individually treated and instructed. Some therapies will be relaxing, others energising or even disturbing. After having the “Hot Muscle” treatment (a bed with a massage machine using an AEG to take body sounds and two bass shakers mounted under the bed with a constant sound track of relaxing synthesized whale noises) the effect was amazing.
Separate from the individual interactive stations, an overall sound is created for the whole space, unifying it into one sound installation.
Having worked on numerous interactive experiences that manipulate user feelings to enhance the experience, The Ultrasound of Therapy used apprehension as a delivery tool to create the magic that made this piece my favorite over the weekend.
It was over to the Manchester University for day two, with sound pieces from artists answering the calls for work and throughout the day, performances of some of the most leading edge sonic art to come out of the UK was the order of the day.
”White Elephant” drew from the full history of experimental music and sound over the past 75 years, incorporating elements of synthesized music, musique concréte, tape music, amplified sound, found objects, noise, sampling, free improvisation, and non-linear notations, with multiple creative personalities blending their skills into a single work. A composer with roots in avant-garde and performance art, who has also long experience in film and television scoring, Byrd imagined a "space opera" in the form of an extra-galactic journey by a vast exploratory vessel in the year 9050, in which present-day photographs from the Hubble/NASA telescope form the basis for a score of notated, sampled, and improvised sound, occurring simultaneous with the Dreams of Tall Buildings score.
On Sunday, the Sonic Arts team took over Manchester’s vast and historic Victoria Baths, winner of the first series of BBC’s Restoration, with a specially curated programme of sound installation, sonic intervention and performance. Although a little distance from the main centre of activities, it provided another amazing backdrop for a day packed with sonic art. From the moment of walking into the Baths, the juxtaposition of the ancient marble and enamel set against strange noises with curious ‘sonic experiments’ around what seemed like every nook and cranny, made for a experience that was totally unique.
The Sonicarts expo comes to the Southwest for 2007 with Plymouth hosting the activities so it was great from the perspective of a southwestern creative company to experience how the Expo was delivered and how it can culturally raise the profile of Plymouth.
The Sonic arts team put on a great show and with the support from the many creative companies, institutions, networks, artists and individuals based here in the southwest, I’m sure that just a good show can be put on in 2007.
Korash Sanjideh
HMC Interactive
