The Installation

“Dense Boogie” and ‘For the Birds’

The installation structure of both “Dense Boogie” (DB) and ‘For the Birds’ (FTB) developed from the same proposal to situate the foreground playback of a recording together with a complex of further ambient background recordings, rerecordings and real-world sounds. Although structured around the same paradigm, each of the installations was quite distinct. Their shared features are described below, before discussing the DB installation itself.

The foreground recording, within this general proposal, was intended to be the ostensible sonic focus of the installation. This focus might be produced by the recording’s content, dynamics or positioning; and supported by a cultural habituation to monologues of mediated sound. Its content would either be

(as in FTB).

Further installation recordings and mediated sounds were intended to be much less sonically obvious. Rerecordings, for example, proposed to closely

levels; unremarkable, ‘neutral’ content; or are indistinguishable from the real- world sounds of the playback context).

‘Installation Player v2’ 5

‘Installation Player v2’ was developed, in response to this proposal, as a generic application which routes, sequences and triggers multiple audio events and functions within a sound installation. Play, record, live and levels and fades were independently written into text scores 6, which could then be

easily loaded, edited or exchanged.

set-ups; including B-format decodes and ambisonic playbacks 7. The latter

were used to produce rerecordings for both installations, and for diffusing

Although some of the same functionality might have been achieved using a mix

8 - which includes

the direct implementation of interactivity using timers and sensors - made it a more appropriate choice. The graphic customization of the Installation Player, that Max makes possible, was also of interest; although this remained only partly explored 910.

5

6 See DVD II: Dense_Boogie/ Installation_Player_v2.2.37/qlists. 7

formats from stereo to periphonic surround sound. (Elen 2001). 8 See p.22, n.1.

9 During the DB installation, the Installation Player was hidden behind the touchscreen interface; although it was still remotely accessible through screen sharing. Whereas in this version of DB, the player was only referenced in the title wall text (‘programming’), it had the potential to become a more visible part of a future installation. This possibility impacted on the way it was developed. Whilst in projects like Sonicinteractions (SI) the software applications were intended to be distributed instead of, or alongside, the recorded sounds, in DB in particular, the Installation Player, although not visible, was still, in this way, partly implicated as a part of the wider work.

10 As well as reiterating a previous performance, in terms of its academic location, the new version of SI also reproduced some of the typography of the original Sonic Interactions potentially to be made available during DB. The Installation Player, in this way, also evidences DB’s wider mimetic approach. See DVD II: Sonicinteractions/Sonicinteractions_v2; DVD II: Dense_Boogie/Installation_Player_v2.2.37.

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‘Installation Player v2’ (“Dense Boogie”)

version of the Installation Player 11. Pre-prepared scores were loaded into

the player before the installation 12

playback and recording start times and durations.

The Installation Player was interfaced with a version of the earlier SI application

13, which was initiated at the start of DB and operated throughout its duration.

This featured an adaptation of SI’s core fade algorithm that now interacted with the player in DB and modulated the foreground and background recordings against their respective rerecordings.

The fades in the new version were set to operate within a narrower parametric

much less obvious, dynamic variation than in the original, where the modulation was heard as an effect in itself 14.

Background to “Dense Boogie” and ‘For the Birds’

This concept for an installation evolved from a practice of making rerecordings ambiences and uneventful rural exteriors. The rerecordings themselves also sometimes included such ambient recordings as part of them. A rerecording might be made, for example, of a foreground recording fading imperceptibly through an ambient background recording into real-world acoustic sounds. This might then be played back in the same place it was recorded in 15.

11 See DVD II: Dense_Boogie/Installation_Player_v2.2.37. 12 See DVD II: Dense_Boogie/ Installation_Player_v2.2.37/qlists. 13

(‘sonicinteractions’ window). 14 See p. 62.

Recording Complexes 09.06.06 to 02.02.09 16

Both DB and FTB were also anticipated by a series of CDR ‘Recording development of the Doublerecording (DR) complexes discussed in Part 2 17,

The ‘Recording Complexes’, again, included a series of rerecordings; now alongside low level ambient recordings, and recordings of equipment noise - horspielstreifen -

and real-world sounds to be related within the complexes. Complexes in “Dense Boogie” and ‘For the Birds’

18, the

complexes of recordings in DB and FTB were developed relatively randomly and intermittently by repeatedly producing recordings and rerecordings. These strategies emphasized the productive, mutable and transient effect of recording, rather than the production of any one stable and repeatable work. This might also be expressed, following DR, in terms of a more subtle, mimetic are played back undecideably. Whilst this might be read as only a practical convenience, by sharing methodologies and recording locations, the DB and FTB installations could also be understood as versions of one another.

differences between recordings and real-world sounds or rerecordings; the minimal eventfulness and virtual silence of the background recordings; and in the use of generic recordings.

16 DVD I: Tracks 37-45; DVD II: Dense_Boogie/Recording_complex_090202; For_The_ Birds/Recording_complex_080502-080812.

17 See p.75.

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“Dense Boogie” Complexes

versions of the installation recordings 19. As they were diffused through the

loudspeaker pair, the DB recordings were simultaneously reproduced through the headphones, alongside the other sounds of the NAB concourse. These as people dining, assembling, and moving about the building, and outdoor sounds through the open windows 20.

only experienced distinctly. This happened intrinsically, between the different and genres of real-world and recorded sound. Differences between individual by using similar locations and techniques, and by regulating and normalising playbacks.

recordings in the installation, these were considered as part of a larger been made over an extensive period of time, as part of the wider recording practice, which had often used the same equipment and locations, and shared content and methodologies 21.

The background recordings in DB were also directly connected to FTB 22,

same technologies and rural location in Suffolk, UK. The same or closely

19 DVD I: Track 120. 20 DVD I: Track 46. 21 See pp. 178-185. 22 See pp. 172-221.

similar, ambient recordings and rerecordings were produced, which had the potential to become the background parts of either, or both, sound installations. All of the DB installation recordings were, therefore, made away from the installation site in London (Perugia, Italy and Suffolk, UK). The original crickets’

usual example of my mundane, everyday experience and nor was it randomly selected, but rather produced in response to the compelling sound of crickets.

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