Image And Sound And The Space In-between

(Note: the following essay is based on a review of a fictitious exhibition)

Our perception and understanding of the world relies on the visual reading of the immediate space around us. The way we see things is affected by accompanying sounds that can alter and determine our reading and interaction with the environment and the imagery. If one is to hear a piece of music for the first time that moment can be heavily influenced by the happenings in the space around them. Repeated listening of the recording can stir the visual images attached to the previous memory of experiencing those sounds. These visual memories now interweave with the new images and interactions of the immediate space, in which the music is being heard. This process between viewing the surroundings and the relationship to the soundscape can have varying consequences and in the way one interacts with the elements and the memories of that space and moment of time. These spatial relationships and personal imprints that occur between sound and visual landscapes is the topic of exploration in a current sound and electronic art exhibition, The Space In-between, at Glasgow’s contemporary visual and performing art venue, Tramway. The ideas attached to the interpretation of sound and visual landscapes and their connection to varying spaces and surrounding events is a prominent element to a piece by Frank Scheffer called Music for Airports. Scheffer’s 48 minute video installation is projected into the café bar area of the venue, offering another challenging perspective in the reading of the work. The piece was completed in 2000 and is a visual response to the 1978 recording of Ambient 1: Music for Airports composed by Brian Eno. This composition accompanies Scheffer’s installation, with both works playing at varying moments throughout the exhibition. The intention of both artists is to access their work in a public domain, allowing the pieces to become part of the environment.1 This is successfully achieved in the exhibition creating an ephemeral dialogue between the visual and sound elements of the works and the café bar atmosphere. The dialogue begins with the sound piece. Haunting and mesmerising tones pulsates the audience’s eardrums. The sounds do not cause a droning hum or create conflict and distraction with the events unfolding in the space. Instead the 1

Performing Arts, “Music for Airports”, www.ideale-audience.com/site/contemporary.236.0.html

composition compliments and enhances our awareness of the environment.2 Disregarding the typical lineal arrangement of music, Ambient 1: Music for Airports provides a textural ambience that floats through the space and slowly seeps into our hearing zones. The recording challenges the popular four minute song structure of the day, providing sections of music, four in total. The names of the tracks are acknowledged with numbers that refer to their order and side of the album they appear on. This numbering system emphasises the lack of importance one track has over another and encourages the recording to be read as a whole. The music is constructed of synthesized tones and is accompanied by the music group Bang on a Can providing the piano and stringed instruments sounds.3 As the recording progresses a layer of harmonious vocal sounds appear in short bursts, intertwining and providing a hypnotic element to the composition. Each note is extended, emphasising the length of the tones and creating the sense of travelling through space and time. The spaces between the tracks have been increased to a period of roughly thirty seconds, again increasing the sense of the sounds moving through space. The beginning of each section softly increases in tempo gently building up to a wistful, but yet calming melody. These gentle tones are singular in structure and are often flow in a repetitious form. The recording has a mediative quality which make’s one aware of their place in time and the surrounding space. A textural atmosphere is created which is not over demanding, perhaps more supportive and complimentary. Creating music that becomes apart of the environment and is not the overbearing element in the space was the main intention of Eno.4 This idea of the audience choosing when and for how long to engage with a piece of music, rather than the sounds confronting the listener, occurred to Eno as a result of an accident. He was immobilised for a year after being hit by a car. At a point during his recuperation he asked a friend to play a recording of 17th Century harp music, which she did but unintentionally left the music on a low volume. Unable to adjust the volume, Eno surrendered to the music, only hearing the loudest notes above the background noise and inturn developed a concept for environmental music.5 The ephemeral sounds, exaggerated distances between tones and the singularity of elements featured in Ambient 1: Music for Airports can perhaps be traced back to that moment of listening to the harp recording.

2 Brian Eno, “Ambient Music”, www.music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html 3 “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, 4

www.musthear.com/reviews/musicforairports.html Brian Eno, “Ambient Music”, www.music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html

5 “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, www.musthear.com/reviews/musicforairports.htm

Ambient 1: Music for Airports introduced sounds that are intended to have a calming effect and provide space for one to think. Through the development of this recording, Eno coined the term ‘Ambient Music’ which was the introduction of a genre of music that accommodated many levels of listening without being enforceable or ignorable.6 The 1978 recording allows one to appreciate and develop a sensory awareness of the surrounding space. This concept is also approached in the music of John Cage, whose interests in sonic minimalism, the ideas of observation and chance stems from the philosophies of Zen Buddhism.7 His 1952 piece, 4’33” comprises of a piano player poised for performance but does not play. He sits in silence, closing the lid on the instrument after 4 minute and proceeds to sit motionless for another 33 seconds. The piece is then over.8 Cage is challenging the audience to acknowledge and appreciate the surrounding sounds in the environment rather than adding to it. Ambient 1: Music for Airports works on a similar level. The recording enhances the audience’s awareness of the atmosphere of the surrounding spaces. The ambient and unobtrusive nature of the composition is visually complimented by Scheffer’s Music for Airports installation. This cinematic interpretation of Eno’s recording encourages the audience to wander through images soaked in hazy, rich tones, described by Scheffer as ‘emancipation of blur’.9 Scheffer recorded this installation in an airport, reflecting on the title of Eno’s original music score. The installation is projected in harmony with the musical composition responding visually to each four sections of Eno’s recording.10 The images are abstracted through overexposed and out-of-focus camera shooting techniques which create ephemeral imagery that appear to hang in the air. This emphasis on the apparent movement and reading of elements in a 3-D spatial sense is reflected in Eno’s composition. The sense of waiting and acknowledgment of time passing is highly present. Aeroplanes, vehicles, building structures and people fade in and out seemingly becoming part of the changing visual landscape. Intense light is reflected from the waxed floors and filtered through the solid but changeable forms, creating a surrealistic and hazy atmosphere. The strong hues radiate and melt together adding to the sense of a delicately to the changing environment. The gentle pace of the moving stills has a rather organic character that implies a softness to the forms and relates the harmonious tones of Eno’s recording. The 6

Brian Eno, “Ambient Music”, www.music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html 7 “John Cage”, www.w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/cage.html 8 “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, www.musthear.com/reviews/musicforairports.htm Performing Arts, “Music for Airports”, www.ideale-audience.com/site/contemporary.236.0.html 10 Remembrance and the Moving Image, ed. by Ross Gibson (Melbourne: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2003), 9

117.

installation has a repetitive element; there is no climax, start or finish, rather a non-ending mediative journey. Filming the video in the airport emphasises this transient narrative, which is also present in the Music for Airports recording. Events unravel, people arrive and depart, distinction between day and night becomes unapparent. The merging colours, fading forms and slow pace of the installation emphasises the feeling of anticipation, movement and atmosphere of an airport.

Frank Scheffer, Music for Airports, DVD Projection, 2000.

The colour-filled stills of Scheffer’s piece begin with some solidity but as time passes the forms merge and become abstracted, appearing to be semitranslucent shadows, reminders of the flow of time and the changes around us. The opaque light that seems to filter through the colours and forms of the installation is reminiscent of the works by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.11 Klee’s 1914 watercolour, Hammamet With Mosque, is a flat composition constructed with beds of colour that represent stylised building forms, overlooking cultivated earth. The vivid and dense colours bleed together creating 11 Performing

Arts, “Music for Airports”, www.ideale-audience.com/site/contemporary.236.0.html

Scheffer’s ‘emancipation of blur’ aesthetic. The variety of the translucent elements of the blocks of colour accentuates a flickering effect and emphasises an impermanence to the image. This lack of a strong visual presence and a defined wholeness to the forms is common motif in Scheffer’s work. The randomness of the shapes evokes a sense of dream-like imagery that allows one to melt into the mood of Klee’s work. Hammamet With Mosque does not have a confronting presence, rather the decorative façade that slowly encapsulates the viewer in the same manner as the Music for Airports installation and recording does. The abstract nature and luminous aesthetic of Scheffer’s work is also evident in the oil paintings by Kandinsky from the period around 1909. In these works the essence of colour and the appreciation of the formal qualities of the pieces have a similarity to the evocative tones and forms of the Music for Airports video. Kandinsky’s works radiate feeling through the means of colour and form. These abstract expressionist qualities resonate in Scheffer’s installation and are important in emphasising the tone of his work.

Paul Klee, Hammamet With Mosque, Watercolour, 20x17cm, Heinz Berggruen Paris, 1914.

The aesthetic richness of the imagery of Scheffer’s work reflects the enhanced sensory experience of Eno’s recording. The presence of the music and the subsequent video is acknowledged, but is not over bearing. This is achieved through the pace of the installations, the repetitive nature of the dialogue and the ephemeral, floating feeling of the elements of the pieces. Eno referred to the ideology of Cage in his development of the ambient music style, (which heightens the awareness of the surrounding environment of the listener). Scheffer also sources the workings of Cage as an influence, in particular his experiments with the Chinese philosophy of chance.12 The out-of-focus shooting techniques, use of 12

Ibid.

overexposed stills and the randomness of the editing of the Music for Airports video is evidence of these ideologies flowing through from the visual imagery to the recording. The relationship that is formed between these two works begins with the music. The tones of the recording seem to shape the visual components of the installation. A hum of a note is reflected in the movement or change of a form in the video. This interaction is humble and complimentary on Scheffer’s part with the visual elements seemingly playing the supporting role and is perhaps a subtle acknowledgment on the importance of Eno’s composition. To the majority of people, this is primarily a visual world, with sight being the forerunner over sound. It seems that Scheffer has perhaps placed a deliberate emphasis on the sound of the works to be the more significant element. Eno’s recording seems to shape of the surrounding atmosphere of the viewer. The musical tones soak into the audience’s subconscious creating a relaxed spatial mindscape. Through this process the senses are awakened and the installation then becomes the point of focus, as if it is the visual release to these feelings. The stills of the video gently floats through the space to the viewer in a nonchalant manner that allows one to absorb the images at their own pace and to the level of detail in which they please. The presence of the sound and images are, as Eno describes, ‘tints’ filtering through the environment.13 Both artists created the works with the intention of them being displayed in public places, enhancing the environment and not becoming overbearing objects within the space. This approach is evident in the Music for Airports recording and installation. As I sit in the bar, the works do not demand attention, rather they allow me to choose how and when I want to view and respond to the pieces. I do feel a sense of calmness and positivity (which, I should add, could be the result of the glass of wine) or perhaps not. Why these two pieces seem to promote a feeling of relaxation could be due to their non-confrontational aesthetics and the pace of the works. The elongated tones of the recording, matched by the exaggerated fading and changing of forms in the video piece does allow one to approach the surroundings in a slower manner and provides an enhanced sensory experience. Exhibiting the works in the café bar area of the venue challenges the static containment of the white cube gallery space and creates a dialogue between the work and the information in the space. This provides a different viewing experience and interaction with the pieces for the audience. The installation achieves a heightened sense of dimensionality in this environment, which can be described as creating an augmented space. In his text, The Poetics of Augmented 13

Brian Eno, “Ambient Music”, www.music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html

Space: Learning from Prada, Lev Manovich coins the term ‘augmented space’ to illustrate the act of placing the viewer inside a space filled with contextual data and the viewer then interacting and adding to the landscape.14 The Music for Airports installations encourage the audience to physically become a part of the space in order to read the data, which in this case is the relationship between the imagery and the recording. Their understanding is affected by the variable environment of the bar, which can be seen as another layer of information being added to the space. The reading of the interaction between the works and the space by the audience adds another layer of information, which perhaps is an emotional response rather than a physical addition of data. Whether or not the sound and video pieces provide a full sense of a threedimensional experience, which Manovich views as the future of the white gallery space, is questionable. He refers to works by artists such as Janet Cardiff and analyses her ‘audio walks’ in which, he argues, is primarily a three-dimensional path and does not create a complete 3-D data space.15 This could also be said of the Music for Airports installations. The manner in which the imagery and the soundscape acts as a frame surrounding the space and enticing the audience in to this area to view the pieces, does work in a three-dimensional sense. But the projection of Scheffer’s video on to a screen that has the rough dimensions of 2 x 3 metres is only a two-dimensional imprint and lacks a further level of spatial relationship with the audience. The relationship between the soundscape data and the audience is received in a 3-D space. Though Eno’s recording doesn’t offer any direct involvement with the audience, so in that sense it could also be referred to as a three-dimensional path. These points do not detract away from the success of the strong dialogue between the sound and visual landscape and the varying readings of the works affected by the café bar context. Exhibiting these pieces in this public area does enhance the viewer’s awareness of the environment, though the relationship between the data and audience in the space could be increased. Perhaps this is the next step in the expansion of the white cube.

“The Poetics of Augmented Space: Learning from Prada”, www.manovich.net/DOCS/augmented_space.doc 15 Ibid. 14

1. “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, Must Hear Reviews, www.musthear.com/reviews/musicforairports.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 16.15). 2. Article, “The Poetics of Augmented Space: Learning from Prada”, Lev Manovich, www.manovich.net/DOCS/augmented_space.doc (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 15.48). 3. Bolter, Jay David, Remediation: Understanding New Media, Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 2000. 4. Brian Eno, “Ambient Music”, Music for Airports Liner Notes, www.music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 14.30). 5. Cage, John, “The Future of Music: Credo”, Sound by Artists, edited Dan Larder and Micah Lexier, Canada: Art Metropole, 1990. 15-19. 6. Eno, Brian, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, England: Virgin EG Records Ltd., 1978. 7. “Frank Scheffer”, Mode Records, www.moderecords.com/profiles/frankscheffer.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 13.00). 8. Grohmann, Will, Klee, London: Thames and Hudson, 1987. 9. “History of Ambient Music”, Ambient Music Guide, www.ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 15.13). 10. “John Cage”, Classical Music Page, www.w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/cage.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 12.32).

11. Kandinsky in Munich: 1896-1914, New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1982. 12. Manovich, Lev, Kratky, Andreas, “Absences”, Soft Cinema – Navigating the Database, DVD recording, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2005. 13. Performing Arts, “Music for Airports”, Ideale Audience International, www.ideale-audience.com/site/contemporary.236.0.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 14.20). 14. Remembrance and the Moving Image, edited by Ross Gibson, Melbourne: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2003. 15. Remembrance Exhibition, “Frank Scheffer”, Australian Centre for Moving Image, www.acmi.net.au/remembrance/r2/frank_scheffer/artist_fs.html (Accessed: 24.09.06 at 13.30). 16. Rush, Michael, “Media and Performance”, New Media of the Late 20th Century Art, London: Thames and Hudson, 1999, 36-75.