This phase indicates a conclusive point in my research. Through this research and the making of a work, which built on all earlier testing, I felt that I found an effective domain for composition.
I answered questions about sound from building materials, the abstraction of riddim, and the dialogue between the senses.
The final approaches, which can be applied through installation, represent a ‘settling’ of the palette I wish to work from, within the context of a defined field, a fully developed approach to sound-sensation dialogue, and a good knowledge and intuitive understanding of use of the table as an instrument.
This phase involved more advanced approaches to vibration generation, including collaboration, real time pitch shifting and processing, and microphonic and tactile feedback to enable deep, textured and predictably manipulable vibrations.
I also worked with new materials, including an oil drum, and new microphone techniques. The composition ‘undulation’ ties together the research findings and practice.
This period explored the following principal research aims:
I reflected on approaches taken to the abstraction of riddim, from rhythmical/musical, to smudged riddim, to drones, to building sensation from basic components, to stutters and plosive sensation, and modulation.
I focused on an effective point, slow passages of deep undulation, which I felt found the right balance in my aim to reference the qualities of musical riddim, without explicit reference to musical contexts. I intend to continue to use this approach within sensation composition.
I also reflected on the timbral range from materials that I’d covered in the program, including large and small objects, and subtle to harsh sounds.
I found a comfortable point in my approach to exciting materials, whereby I could express the ‘potential’ for vibration energy in materials, through moderate and appropriately constrained resonance/vibration, without leading into full discordant vibration sound.
I felt that I had answered questions about the capacity of vibrating materials as a basis for composition. I had found a flexible enough range of sounds to base a composition entirely on this source material – although I do not feel a need to limit myself to this approach for all future work.
I also settled on the approach to sound/sensation dialogue. During earlier research, I experimented with entirely synched vs ‘contrapuntal’ approaches. In the ‘undulation’ work, I maintained a general correlation between audible and vibration elements, with more subtle departures, or ‘easing apart,’ enabling a communicative link between the two senses.
The findings during this phase should be read in conjunction with the installation and presentation context section, which responds more specifically to thoughts around audience access and interaction with the work, in an installed context.
Research detail subpage: 6.1 - Abstraction of "riddim" – basslines moving from musical to environmental