Sound Theory - Sound Practice

“Sound has the best pictures” I couldn't agree more with this statement. I think that when you hear a sound, in your head you have a thousand pictures, every sound will provoke a memory of something that has happened to you. It creates a visual perspective that you put along with it. Sound has so much more meaning to us than just a noise created by something, it triggers something in your mind that you can connect with.

“The world of sound is an event world,

The world of sight is an object world”

Walter Ong 1971

What is sound? The scientific definition explains about mechanical waves, frequencies, vibrations but I think the wrong view was taken from this question, I think sound is anything we hear from the tick of a clock to a song that triggers an emotion inside us, good or bad.

Sound isn't just a backdrop in our everyday lives its a constant trickle of memories and feelings being set of inside our heads. We have the ability to concentrate on one particular sound even in a room full of other noises and voices, it's known as “the cocktail effect” it allows us to hold a conversation with someone in a noisy place without being distracted or interrupted by others. It can work in other ways too for instance when you are in a noisy room and someone calls your name you can nearly always pick up on it straight away.

Foley is where everyday sounds are reproduced for use in film making, you can re create the sounds with practically anything and if it is done really well will go unnoticed by the audience. Foley creates a sense of reality instead of having an unnatural quiet in the background.

Foley was created by Jack Foley in 1927, he worked at Universal Studios since 1914 which was during the silent film era. In 1927 he went on to become part of a small sound team for Universal Studios that created foley for their films. He continued working there until his death in 1967. Now years later his techniques are still used, however there are now entire foley studios and a lot more advanced equipment at hand to create the sounds.

Foley is created by mimicking sounds in a sound studio, it is broken down into three categories, feet, props and cloth. Feet is the sound of footsteps, depending on the surface the footsteps are on the foley artists will find the right material for use. Cloth is for the quieter sounds needed such as clothes rubbing against each other. And props is for every other sound needed, this means foley studios have to have lots of different props at hand to use in any scenario.

Sound is around us in everyday life and sometimes I think we can become deaf to the sounds we are so used to hearing, like traffic noise or people talking in the background. I sometimes have to stop and think about what sounds I can actually hear.

Sound has three elements vibration, context and changes in pressure to make up the sound envelope there are also three phases the attack, the sustain and the decay. Sound is immersive, it can't be shut out, it contains depth, it has no directionality and it cannot be frozen. The body and mind are not easily dichotomised so when you hear a sound you cannot isolate to either one of these as a separate, you experience it in both. Sound can be intimate, personal, informal, formal and public it depends what kind of situation you are in when you hear a particular song for example if you are in a club the sound is public, whereas if you were listening to a song on your Ipod that has a special meaning to you it can be intimate or personal.

Sound doesn't have to be melodic though it can be anything, and as John Cage demonstrated with his 4'.3'' which was composed in 1952, where he instructed the musicians not to play any instruments for four minutes and thirty three seconds, the audience instead sat listening to the sounds of the environment around them, Cage had no control to what sounds the audience could individually hear making every performance unique. It is Cage's most famous composition and one of the most famous of its kind. Cage speaks of it as his most important piece of work, and I agree I think it has more impact than any piece of melodic composition ever would.

John Cage 4'33'' 1952

Christian Marclay is a sound artist, he has experimented with sound his whole life. He manipulates or damages records sometimes breaking them and attaching them to others to make new sound. Since 1979 recording and making sound has been an important aspect of his work as has the relationship between sound and image. His creation “Telephones” which is a seven and a half minute compilation of film clips based around dialling, answering, having a conversation and hanging up, is brilliant, it is funny to watch as their facial expressions change to what clip he had slotted in before it. Its as if everyone is having one big conversation and you see the change in all of their facial expressions. Another one of his creations “The Clock” which was a twenty four hour film made up of glimpses of watches, clocks and people saying what time it was all taken from other films and TV shows. Was showcased in New York at the Paula Cooper Gallery from January 21^st until February 19^th 2011.

Christian Marclay “telephones”