Experimental Sound

Brief 

In this task, we had to create an experimental sound piece based on a chosen artwork for every individual in our class lasting between 1 to 2 minutes.

The picture I was assigned was The Broken Column by Frida Khalo.

Research 

I thought this image was very unusual and powerful, as there clearly is a really dark message behind it. I did some research into  the artist Frida Kahlo and found a lot of inspiring facts that she based this artwork on. 

When she was 18, Kahlo was unfortunately involved in a violent bus accident. Her serious injuries caused her a lot of pain which effected her life. She needed lots of surgery and was unable to have a baby.

When researching into her other work, i noticed a reoccurring theme based around pain and suffering, visably and mental. Her psychological pain are shown through her distorted boy which is split open and containing non human elements. The Broken Column was painted shortly after Kahlo underwent spinal surgery. She shows herself constrained by a cage-like body brace. A cavern of missing flesh violates the integrity of her body, exposing a broken column in place of her spine. The column appears to be on the verge of collapsing into rubble. Metal nails pierce Kahlo’s face, breasts, arms, and torso, as well as her upper thigh, hidden behind a swath of cloth. Tears stream down her face. Set in an open landscape, the artist-sitter is exposed in more ways than one.

Recording - 

Sebastian gave us an introduction into the sound studio and we learnt house to use all the equipment necessary to record. We used a back and fort speaker system to talk to the subject we were recording in the booth which was so interesting.

We used a condenser mic to record the sounds we needed for our project in small groups which made the process a lot easier. I recorded the sound of me crying, breaking sticks to represent bones snapping and the sound of cloth blowing in the wind. 

In the studio with Jorn

Feeling inspired by my image, I took a trip down to Margate beach. In the image, the woman in standing in a wasteland/desert. So I wanted to really get inside her head and feel my surroundings mirroring the image.

I recorded the sound using the Zoom H4 of the wind blowing over the beach which really created the atmosphere I needed for this.

Editing

When it came to editing, I was a little daunted. We had learnt Adobe Audition in class with Sebastian so I was fairly confident at using it.

We had to make an experimental sound piece with a clip of a man speaking so
I chopped up the sound an made a rhythm track with it. This was very enjoyable and gave me the chance to get used to the program more.

I layered each individual clip on top of each other to get a more distorted sound. The main clip I used was the crying woman. This shows the real pain she was experiencing and puts forward to the listener  her situation. I decided to use a lot of the reverb effect, because she is in a wide open space this comes across that she is exposed and vulnerable.

I wanted to keep this sound slightly minimal, because I felt that by creating this more simply and using my most powerful sound as a baseline it would be more apparent that this has a story to tell, instead of a lot of jumbled up sounds.

I'm not very good at sound but I enjoyed making this clip. As I really grew to know the artists story and express it through the power and creativity of sound.

FINAL WORK: