Month: March 2025

What we did

Today we had a workshop with Rory, I like his workshops because of the creative freedom he gives to us. He had a big pallet on the floor and told us to make instruments to attach to it.

I sorted by making a spring instrument, by drilling screws into pieces of wood I made a funny sounding noise. This was interesting experience because of the unusual noised that could come from just a few things.

The Zane Knight guitar

Later on in the lecture I saw that there where tuning pegs for a guitar and decided to try and make a simplistic instruments that could have pitch, we where able to drill in the pegs into the wood. After we attached it to a long string from an old guitar then turn the pegs. The gutter didn’t have a neck with frets that where long enough to play chords but we used a violin string on them to create a unique sound.

How it applied to our creative radio project

It was eye opening to see how easy it is to make an instrument and attach a compressed mic to it to create a sound. I think we want to use this in our radio project as it’s able to make drone sound effects. After the lecture we ran the contact mic the gutter strings where near and got some fascinating noises.

Instrument creation

Looking further into instrument creation I like the idea of making a guitar from scratch, it’s an inspiring project that could be implemented into my art to create something individualist.

Leo Fender (1909-1995)

There are some obvious music instrument pioneers like Leo Fender (1909-1995) who created the Fender guitar, which was revolutionary at the time as it was easier to play than the current electric guitars available to play at the time due to their short necks.

Christiana Kubisch (1948)

She made an instrument that uses headphones to convert electromagnetic sound into audio signals. Her exhibition “electrical walks” (2007) lets people walk through and hear all the hidden electrical currents coming from different things.

Its relation to radiophonic art

The main benefit of creating new instruments for radiophonic art is the possibility of not using traditional tools. The abstract nature of radiophonic art means that creating something that hanse been seen or heard of before is of great significance. Its good to reimagine what sound can be when wanting to create something new to our ears, creating musical instruments is changes the traditional channels of media.

References

France, P. (n.d.). 8 Things You Might Not Know About Leo Fender. [online] www.fender.com. Available at: https://www.fender.com/articles/behind-the-scenes/8-things-you-might-not-know-about-leo-fender.

Kubisch, C. (n.d.). Electrical Walks. [online] christina kubisch. Available at: https://christinakubisch.de/electrical-walks.

Radiophonic art

Radiophonic art is an innovative form of artistic expression through the medium of radio. It’s a platform for artistic expression and contemporary arts through broadcasting and radio.

Case study: Daphne Oram “The lost world” (1965)

Daphne Oram (1925-2003) is one of the central figures for the development of British experimental music, she was also known for founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958. She mainly used tape manipulation in her art, creating a new form of sound synthesis at the time.

The creation of “The Lost World”:

Oram’s “The Lost World” was first broadcasted in 1965 by the BBC. It was one of her earliest works to explore radio as an art form, merging narrative elements with interesting tape manipulation.

When Oram created “The lost word” (1965), when she was working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which was becoming a new space for experimenting with new ways to produce and broadcast contemporary sound. “The Lost World” (1965) was a sonic experiment that utilised tape loops, environmental sounds and electronic manipulation to create a narrative in a non linear way.

The impact it had

The reception it had on its original release was one of innovation, something of this magnitude had been attempted before this. Her music created and influenced electronic musicians and contemporary sound musicians. This piece expanded the idea of electronic music as an art form.

Musical techniques

Layering – By layering several natural and synthetic sounds Oram was able to portray the feeling of “The Lost World“(1965)

Tape manipulation – Oram famously used tape manipulation in her work, this was an early age of music concrete music

Conclusion

 While much of Oram’s work remained under-appreciated during her lifetime, her contributions to the world of electronic music and sound art where massive. “The Lost World” (1965) stands as an example of experimental sound design in creating immersive experiences on the radio. Today, Oram’s work continue to inspire artists exploring the world of sound art, technology, and storytelling.

References

-Grierson, M. (2015) Daphne Oram Collection, Goldsmiths, University of London. Available at: https://www.gold.ac.uk/ems/oram/ (Accessed: 16 March 2025). 

-Goldsmiths University (2017) Electronic Music Pioneer, Daphne Oram. Available at: https://www.daphneoram.org/ (Accessed: 16 March 2025). 

The human voice

The human voices importance to radiophonic art plays a big role. The main features of the human voice in radio art are that it carries the meaning and emotional dissonance to emphasis the meaning of a script. The voice is an art form beyond written words, it can carry the rhythm of a piece or provide the art with some identity and context.

An example of an artist that uses the human voice as an art form or medium is Laurie Anderson (1947) she is seen as the queen of voice-as-art, she likes to layer spoken word over different effects and vocoders to blur the line of human and machine. her work in “United States Live” (1984) pushes this idea of playing with layers and repetition to evoke an sense of sonic theatre.

Music as a bed

Using music as a bed is a common technique used in radio phonic art to sit underneath the voice as a sonic layer to create atmosphere or as an emotional guide. Music can change the shape of the listeners emotional state, it emphasises us the listen to the voice making it an important tool for story telling.

Music can also provide the listener with context where there are no visuals, it helps the listener orient themselves into time, place and mood. An example of an artist who uses sound as a bed is Chris Watson (1953), who was one the worlds most acclaimed recording artists. His focus is on wildlife, he uses ambient and natural sounds to bed his artwork into. “Glastonbury Ocean Landscape” (2019) shows his attention to using nature sounds that he collects on his field recorder. His distinctive taste of nature bring forth a surreal landscape for the listener.

Eds Thoughts

Reflections

Reflecting on my own personal work, I realise the intimacy that the human voice carries. How do I want my listener to feel when they listen to my piece? There are ways that we can drawer the listener in, to make them feel part of the journey. Delivery of the voice is something that I want to look at, rerecording vocals in different expressions to change the way my work feels.

Voice is the embodied sound within radio, it grounds the piece in the human aspect of my work. It doesn’t matter who is saying but it will always make the artwork more human.

Looking into music as a bed, the sounds we decide to use for a piece with carry the undercurrent of emotion next to the voice. It can guide the listener in a more subtle way so we can connect the different elements together.

References

BBC (2024). Episode One: The Real World. [online] BBC Radio 1. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025tzx [Accessed 8 Apr. 2025].

Collins, P. (2019). Chris Watson. [online] Chris Watson. Available at: https://chriswatson.net [Accessed 8 Apr. 2025].