George Coggan – BA Sound Arts

In this session, we discussed the nuances of what it means to be a ‘sound artist’ and whether this is a term that we as individuals would want to be associated with. I am not close to coming to a conclusion on this topic yet, however I do have some opinions about the term, and…

In todays lesson, we discussed different types of listening, aswell as exploring the idea of ‘text scores’. When I got home, I researched more about text scores, I came to the conclusion that they are usually used with the intention of instructing a performer or reader how to perform a piece, disregarding the idea of…

In todays lesson we collectively had a discussion about how we felt that the course was going, and specifically the introduction to sound arts element. We also spent time critiquing sound arts works. My follow up task for this week was to write about the differences between the terms listening and hearing, how they function…

This week as a class we learned about and discussed key practices involved in sound art. We spoke about Musique Concrète, which is the process of composing music using recorded sounds as raw material. These sounds are then often modified and effected through signal processing and tape technologies. My task for this post was to…

In our lesson this week, we discussed the relationship between sound and the environment. We spoke in detail about what a field recording is, and how it is defined by its context (eg artistic, archival, etc). We also spoke about the origin of field recording and how it can’t be misrepresented as a discipline that…

‘Babel’, Cildo Meireles, 2001 This week, as a class we visited the Tate Modern. Without looking up a description, or looking at a picture of the description that I took of the piece, I want to try and describe the piece for myself from memory and feeling. ‘Babel’ is a sculptural installation approximately 20 feet…

Book I chose from the unit bibliography: Sounding New Media by Frances Dyson ‘The microphone and magnetic tape were essential technologies in this development [sound becoming a compositional material rather than a support for the spoken word], and both were surrounded by, and indeed produced, certain narratives about the meaning and being of sound that…

The piece I chose to study as part of my work this week was ‘From Here to Ear’ by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, specifically his 21st version which took place at Copenhagen Contemporary. In this piece, Céleste has 44 zebra finches playing compositions on electric guitars and basses. With no beginning or end, the birds flew around…

Composition – For me, I like the idea of producing a piece that has been carefully constructed and composed. I believe that this stage of deconstructing and constructing ideas is part of the art and each action adds to a non-visual collage in my head. Bass/Low Frequency – After years of watching live music and…

I have always been very interested in composition, production and listening; therefore I was quite set on studying a subject like music production at University. This changed when I discovered Sound Arts. Whilst reading into the course, and undertaking general research of the subject, I realised that this area of sound interested me much more…