an opera of clouds - time and space in mixed media performance

8/13/2019 An Opera of Clouds - Time and Space in Mixed Media Performance

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An Opera of Clouds : Time and Space in mixed mediaperformance

Dr Christine McCombe

Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of TechnologyEmail: [email protected]

Abstract

In this paper the author/composer will discuss hermixed media work An Opera of Clouds withreference to the perception and experience of Time

and Space in a performance or installation context.An Opera of Clouds is a hybrid work consisting of chamber music, electroacoustic composition and spoken text with live sound diffusion and video

pro jections. Through combining these dif ferent technologies and performance media the work aimsto explore various temporalities and imaginaryspaces. This paper will discuss the compositional

process and structure of An Opera of Clouds and,by focussing on the use of audio and visualtechnology in the work, will explore the composersapproach to perceptual Time and Space. Criticalanalysis and discussion will be based on the aesthetic

and temporal theories of Susanne Langer and Jonathan Kramer as well as referring to the work of Sean Cubitt on the aesthetics of digital art and Gaston Bachelards seminal work The Poetics of Space.

In this paper I will discuss the relationships betweenthe technologies incorporated in the work and thedifferent levels of interaction between the sonic,visual and spatial elements. This interaction of technologies is central to the articulation and animation of the main themes of An Opera of Clouds the strangeness and intensity of human

experience, distance and disembodiment, and our perceptions of time and space . The use of variousaudio and visual technologies has allowed me tocreate a work which is part performance, part installation and which attempts to find new contexts

for musical expression.

[] the violent clouds announcing them, the bloomof carnal waters and the cries,

abrupt and wordless, which presented them:they are yet present, rumoured wings in rooms

where doors and windows shudder shut against them

from Angelsby Alison Croggon

Art has always been perceived and understoodprimarily through the senses. Painting is a visual art-form; a sculpture can be both visual and tactile;theatre is heard and seen. Dance is seen but often oneneeds to hear the music which accompanies it, inorder to more fully understand the dance. Theseobservations are fairly self-evident. Art is more oftenthan not a multi-sensory experience there is nothingnew about mixed media performance. Art may beperceived through the senses but that is merely thestarting point for any aesthetic experience.Architecture is experienced through sight and hearingand touch and the combination of sensory inputs andcognitive processes which provide us with a sense of Space. Music is heard and sometimes seen and isexperienced through Time. Aesthetic experience iscreated through a rich web of association, patternrecognition, memory and the vastly complex processof cognition. The relationship between sensoryperception and cognition means that we canexperience and understand Time and Space inaesthetic as well as physical terms.

Art and technology have always coexisted andinteracted. Artists, in whatever media, are theproducts and reflections of their environment andTechnology has always shaped that environment. Arecent exhibition at the Australian Centre for theMoving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, Deep Space ,showcased the work of various Australian and

International artists working in the area of installationand actively engaging with current visual and audiotechnology. Installation art, or the art of immersiveenvironments, can be seen as a direct response to thepotential offered by new technologies. In her essaySpace Odysseys: Sensation and Immersion 1,Victoria Lynn states that evolving technologies havepowerfully influenced our sense of geography, spaceand travel. Telecommunications technology meansthat geographical separation is no longer a barrier tocommunication or interaction. Computer 3Danimation and advances in audio and visual

1 Lynn, Victoria. Space Odysseys: sensation andimmersion


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technology mean that we can experience a spacethrough Virtual Reality that does not actually exist.She continues, space is itself continuallymorphed, in a constant state of electronic mobility.Such changes have a profound affect on ourexperience of the world. 2.

It is specifically this electronic mobility of sound and image that continues to fire theimaginations of artists working in a variety of stylesand is resulting in the emergence of new creativeforms and approaches to the use of current andemerging technologies. Composer Steve Reich andhis partner, video artist Beryl Korot have beendeveloping their own artistic response to the potentialoffered by audio and visual technologies in a series of works, culminating in their latest epic productionThree Tales, a work dealing with three majortechnological advances of the twentieth century air

travel, the atomic bomb and cloning . Technology hasbeen a strong influence in much of Reichs work,starting with his earliest pieces using tape and timephasing. The most recent works in collaboration withKorot, incorporating digitally manipulated sound,video and live performance, take technology as theircentral theme as well as their modus operandi. In herarticle on Three Tales, Kila Packet describes theReich / Korot collaboration as Where technologymeets imagination 3. Packett makes the point thatdigital editing software has allowed both Reich andKorot to expand and develop the possibilities of theirrespective art forms. The result of their collaborationis a new genre, crossing media boundaries, an artform that is thriving in the first years of the twenty-first century, but that has yet to receive a name. 4

Another American composer, Terry Riley wascommissioned by NASA to compose a new work forthe Kronos Quartet, Sun Rings 5, based around soundrecordings made by the Voyager probe as it passedthrough our solar system on its 25 year journey intoDeep Space. Riley used the recordings as startingpoints for ten short musical sections and the recordedmaterial was then constructed into soundscapes bycomposer David Dvorin. In the performance thesespace sounds are triggered by the players with fibre-optic wands. The staging, lighting and video designare by Willie Williams, best know for designing stageshows for U2. Sun Rings is staged in front of threegiant screens onto which images from Space areprojected and the performers are surrounded by silverlight-tipped sticks Art meets Science meetsMultimedia Spectacular.

2 ibid.3

Packet, Kila. Pop Matters Music, on line4 ibid.5 Riley / Kronos Quartet 2002

As these two examples show, the converging of various new technologies and media is resulting inthe creation of new performance contexts and theredefining of the boundaries between art forms. Myrecent work, An Opera of Clouds (2002) is a hybridform part chamber music, part music theatre, part

soundscape, part installation. The work encompasseslive performance (with and without amplification),electroacoustic composition with live sound diffusionand live mixing of video projections. It is in allsenses a mixed media performance work, blurring theboundaries between different modes of performanceand presentation and exploring new contexts formusical expression. In this paper I will focus on thecombination and interaction of audio and visualtechnologies and describe how this interaction iscentral to the realisation of the main concepts of thework imagination and the experience of time andspace.

An Opera of Clouds was composed over a periodof several years while living in Scotland. The textsare by Australian writer Alison Croggon and thevideo images were created by Edinburgh based visualartist Adrian Lear. The initial idea for the work cameafter seeing a performance of Harrison BirtwistlesPulse Shadows in 1998; a work for chamberensemble, soprano and string quartet where thedifferent groupings inhabit different musical worlds.Around this time I was becoming increasinglyinterested and involved in electroacousticcomposition and collaborative work with visualartists, particularly in the area of mixed mediainstallation and site specific work. My ambition with

An Opera of Clouds was to combine these differentstrands of my own creative practice and develop anew form of performance work that utilised soundand space in a more exploratory way than in thestandard music performance context. Also aroundthis time (1997/98) I was introduced to the ideas of several writers whose work addresses the concept of Temporality as it relates to Music (I will discuss theseideas in greater detail later in this paper). It was thistheoretical perspective that gave me the conceptualframework within which I could begin to explore andarticulate the themes of An Opera of Clouds.

The structure and form of An Opera of Cloudscould be described as modular and is a response tothe challenges of combining different technologiesand modes of performance in the one performancecontext. The intention was to create a work thatcould be adapted to a variety of performance contextsand physical environments, through therearrangement of the various elements of the work.For instance, the work can function as a continuousperformance of approximately an hours duration or itcould be realised as a series of separate but relatedinstallation works, occurring in several adjoiningspaces.


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Figure 1. Structure and Temporal Hierarchies of An Opera of Clouds

The work is based around a series of nine texts byAlison Croggon three are spoken and six are set forvoice and chamber ensemble. The placement of thesetexts provides a series of fixed moments in thestructure around which the other material, sonic andvisual, is arranged. The electroacoustic soundscapesweave around these fixed moments, fading in and outof aural focus and interacting with the live mix of video images. The sense of fluidity and flowbetween live music and electroacoustic soundscape isdisrupted by three brass interludes which punctuatethe work and shift the audiences focus. The overallcontinuity of the work is provided by recurring orcontinuing sonic and visual images which provide abackdrop to work as a whole.

Goethe is supposed to have once commented thatArchitecture is frozen Music and, like music,Architecture is also experienced in time. As we walkfrom room to room we experience a sense of space byour being in and moving through that space in time.In a similar way, I wanted to explore the potential forexperiencing space as we listen to and experience

music through time. The structure of An Opera of Clouds reflects a strongly architectonic conception of the work, with the various sonic and visual elementsof the work outlining a hierarchy of continua,articulating different qualities of musical time andspace. [see Figure 1]

In order to discuss in detail my approach toTemporality, or experienced time in An Opera of Clouds I will first refer to the work of two writerswhose theories about Music and Time have stronglyinfluenced my own work. I was first made aware of the work of Jonathan Kramer in 1997 when a

colleague suggested I read Kramers The Time of Music as a possible approach to music analysis.

Kramer makes the assertion; Time is both the

essential component of musical meanings and thevehicle by which music makes its deepest contactwith the human spirit. 6 Kramers work is verystrongly influenced by the theories of philosopherSusanne Langer, in particular her book Feeling and Form. In this book Langer suggests that music canbe understood as a symbolic expression of time andhow we experience it. She makes the cleardistinction between clock time, which she describesas a one-dimensional, infinite succession of moments 7 and the time we experience when welisten to a piece of music. She describes this livedor experienced time as a sense of passing time thatis measurable only in terms of sensibilities,tensions and emotions an altogether differentstructure from practical or scientific time. 8

Kramer takes Langers ideas about musical timeas a starting point and develops a system of musicaltaxonomy and analysis based on categories of temporal modes. Kramers work attempts to isolatethe different types or qualities of musical time bydescribing how various musical structures andtextures shape the listeners perception of temporality. His two main categories are Linear andNon Linear time, a division which roughly parallelsthe philosophical distinction between Becoming andBeing, movement versus stasis. 9. He defines Lineartime as processive whereas Non Linear time is non-processive. Kramer proposes various relatedcategories of musical temporality which emphasisethe roles of continuity and discontinuity in the waywe listen to and experience musical time, as well asthe significance of durational proportions in the waywe perceive musical form.

6 Kramer, Jonathan. The Time of Music , p.27

Langer, S. Feeling and Form , p.1118 ibid., p.1099 Kramer, P.17

Song

Video Image (tree and cloud) - continuous

Song Song Song Song

S oken Text Spoken Text S oken Text

Electroacoustic soundscape interrupted continuity

Videoscape live mix of recurring images

brass brass brass

Song


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Although there is a certain amount of ambiguityand openness in Kramers definitions, he emphasisesthat these temporal modes are strategies forlistening to and experiencing music and offer a wayof better understanding the variety of symbolicmeanings embedded in any piece of music. The

strength of his approach is that it allows a multi-levelanalysis of music, identifying the different qualitiesof musical time and looking at the differenthierarchies of the musical edifice, adopting theSchenkarian terms of musical fore-, mid- andbackground . It is this way of looking at musicalstructure and form, the different hierarchies andtemporalities and their interaction, which influencedthe composition of An Opera of Clouds .

The passing of time is represented in various waysthrough both the different sonic and visual layers of

An Opera of Clouds . There is one single image

which provides a temporal continuity for the wholework a video projection of a tree on a hillside withthe almost imperceptible change in shape of theclouds behind it and the gradual fading of the imagefrom light to darkness [figure 2]. This image lasts forthe entire duration of the work and functions as aconstant presence, a visual marker of the passing of time, and a backdrop and point of reference fromwhich the rest of the work can be understood. Theother visual and sonic layers of the piece representalternative ways of understanding or experiencingtime, reflecting different temporal modes.

Figure 2. Still from Video[copyright Adrian Lear 2002]

If the image of a lonely tree on the hillsiderepresents the temporal background of the work,

then the electroacoustic soundscape forms the nextlevel up in the temporal hierarchy. This componentof the work is a series of sound images some

abstract and some referring directly to the texts -which are combined to create a cloud of sound. Theword cloud here is particularly apt as what Ienvisaged was a soundscape which continuallychanges, morphs and reconfigures itself through thelayering and overlapping of various sound images

and textures. This cloud of sound also recycles andrevisits material a technique which I use to evoke asense of memory and association in the work. Thespoken and sung texts share various recurring images(clouds, water, birds) and the reference to theseimages in the soundscapes is thus a structural deviceto create association and relationship betweendifferent elements of the work. The quality of time inthese soundscapes is non linear in the sense that it isbased on cycles and recurrence of material, with eachcloud being open ended and part of a continuum thatproceeds throughout the work. The clear sonicidentity of these cloud sections and the relationship

between subsequent cloud sections creates a sensethat this sound world continues even when it is notaudibly present like something which periodicallydisappears from view but which the viewer knows isthere regardless. An interrupted continuity.

The three live spoken vocal texts emerge from theelectroacoustic cloudscapes but their identity assonic events is clearly distinguishable from the lessfocussed ambience of the diffused soundscapes. Incomparison, these three sections are like momentswhere time stands still. The immediacy created by

physical presence of the speaker,combined with the amplification anddiffusion of the voice, creates at oncea sense of both intimacy andexpansiveness. A sense of Beingrather than Becoming.

Where the electroacoustic cloudsoffer a diffuse and amorphous sonicexperience, the six song settings forvoice and chamber ensemble areintended to function as periods of intense musical focus. As with thespoken texts, these songs areperformed live (and withoutamplification) and so have animmediacy and physical proximitywhich the cloud sections lack. Theperformers are in front of theaudience, the singer is singing tothem in a direct and human exchange.The human rather than technological

identity of these songs emphasises their almostvisceral quality in comparison to the cloud sectionsbetween which frame them. The temporality of thesongs is one of immediacy and focus, with a clearlinearity and a narrative structure in both the text andmusic. But these are also musical moments of being,points along the continuum where the attention is


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actively engaged, where the immediacy of the livecreation of sound and all the tension inherent in thisact, creates a very clear and uncompromising musicalpresent.

The sonic continuum of the work is broken by the

interjection of the three interludes for brass triowhich occur outside the performance space but arestill clearly audible. These sections are short and self contained and their clearly identifiable charactercontrasts with the surrounding material. However,pre-recorded fragments of brass texture are woveninto the electroacoustic soundscape at several pointsduring the work, as both a prefiguring of these ideasand as a recollection of them. In this way the idea of passing time is turned on its head a small section of recorded and manipulated brass sounds is heard in thesoundscape before the audience are aware of thepresence of the live musicians. Memory is used as

a temporal device and time is manipulated.

Alongside the sound world of An Opera of Cloudsthere exists a parallel world of visual images,articulating their own various temporalities. Inaddition to the continuous image of the hillsidedescribed earlier, there are a series of video loops of various images which are mixed live and projectedinto several areas of the performance space. Theseimages are recognisable yet random images, somewith a clear relationship to the texts and others with amore abstract nature. These images fade in and out,often recurring, and represent captured moments of time, the abstraction of the images contributing to thegeneral sense of strangeness which I aimed to createin the work as a whole. These recurring images alsoplay with the idea of memory and recollection in asimilar way to the use of recurring sonic images inthe electroacoustic soundscapes, providing anotherlevel of relatedness and cohesion in the work.

Whereas Susanne Langer proposed thatexperiential time is the primary illusion of music 10 ,she suggests that Space is the secondary illusion.Langer states that music creates an illusion of movement and this by its nature implies movementthrough space, if only conceptually . Tonality isanother example of a spatial understanding of music,inherent in the sense of distance or proximity fromthe tonic, and when we refer to music being denseor sparse in texuture we are also referring to spatialconcepts. This use of terminology of orientation andvolume both imply space. Langer states; thespace of music is never made wholly perceptible, asthe fabric of virtual time is; it is really an attribute of musical time, an appearance that serves to developthe temporal realm in more than one dimension. 11

10 Langer, p.10911 ibid., p.117

In this way Langer makes the point these illusions of Time and Space in music are interrelated.

The architectural approach to the overall structureof An Opera of Clouds is an indication that from theoutset the work is very much about conceptual as

well as perceptual space. The various sonic elementsof the work have distinct identities and serve differentroles within the work, articulating different qualitiesof time and space. The four sonic layers of the workcan be defined as:

1) Chamber Ensemble with Voice: situated in themain performance space, no amplification. Specific,focussed and apparent physical location resulting in areal and directly experienced sense of space themusicians are clearly present in the space at that time.

2) Live spoken text: performer at periphery of

main performance space; the voice is amplified withsound diffused through speakers. A clear physicalpresence in the space but a voice that is filtered,amplified and diffused so that it exists in a largemobile space.

3) Brass Trio: outside of main performance spaceand out of view, no amplification. The lack of avisible sound source creates a sense of confusion asto whether the sounds are real or recorded and alsoemphasises the sense of another space, events takingplace elsewhere.

4) Electroacoustic Soundscape: diffused througha four speaker set up in the main performance space.Consists of various recorded environmental soundswith clear physical associations of another space, eg.Wind, Water, Birds, Voices.

The spatial position and auditory location of sound are the main ways in which these four soniclayers are differentiated, using the physical orperceived location of the sound source or as a meansof articulating space. Auditory localisation is centralto how we perceive and understand a particularsound. Live sound diffusion through a multi speakersystem quite literally allows us to move sound aroundthe space creating the illusion of mobility. Throughthis use of live sound diffusion, as well as physicalpositioning of performers, the work sets up aninteraction between the sound and the performanceenvironment.

The other way that space is explored through thework, defined as the fourth sonic layer, is bymanipulation the imagined source or location of thesound. A sense of virtual space is created throughthe use of specific sonic (and visual) images thatclearly denote a space other than the performancesetting. These digitally recorded sounds are used tocreate soundscapes which, when combined with


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visual images, result in an immersive environment, animaginary space, a virtual reality. The fact that theelectroacoustic cloudscape sections lack a physicalpresence impacts significantly on the way they areexperienced by the listener. These disembodiedsounds are removed from a direct aural experience by

the absence of their original sound source, yet thenature of the sound source is implicit in the soundsthemselves. Christian Metz discusses this quality of recorded sound in his article Aural Objects wherehe states; To understand a perceptual event is notto describe it exhaustively but to be able to classifyand categorise it: to designate the object of which it isan example. 12 The sound that we hear isunderstood in terms of its imagined source thesound of lapping is not heard as just a set of frequencies but as a particular sound made by gentlylapping waves. The clear associative link betweenrecorded sound and imagined sound source is

exploited in An Opera of Clouds to create a sense of imaginary space.

The exploration of the experience of Time andSpace in An Opera of Clouds is achieved largelythrough the use of variety of audio and visualtechnologies. Video images are edited, slowed downand looped. then projected and mixed in real time tocreate a sense of fluidity and interaction with thesound material. The soundscapes are created throughthe manipulation of digitally recorded environmentalsounds using a variety of editing and soundprocessing software. In the case of both the visualand sonic material, what the technology allows us todo is to mobilise these images. In his book Digital

Aesthetics, Sean Cubitt discusses the ways in whichsound recording technology allows us to separatesound from its source and recontextualise it and thusinfluences the way we listen. As well as the primaryauditory perception involved in the act of listening,memory and association also come into play, helpingto create a context for the things we are hearing.Cubitt states that recording technology negatesmemory by replacing it with an external storage 13 .He continues, every recording is a piece of the pastrestorable to the present. 14 Although I dontnecessarily agree that this technology nega tesmemory, the ability to mobilise sound allows us tomanipulate memory and create our own landscape of association.

In his essay Reflections on the poetics of time inelectroacoustic music, Julio DEscrivan states thatthe ability to exactly reproduce and manipulate asound event and its unfolding gives rise to a virtualtime and is the means of shaping the listeners 12 Metz, Christian. Aural Objects in Film Sound:

Theory and Practice , p.15613 Cubitt, S. Digital Aesthetics, p.9914 ibid., p.100

memory and his perception of musical pace. 15

DEscrivan argues that recorded sound is imbuedwith its own temporal identity and that by usingrecorded sound in electroacoustic composition thecomposer is able to translate and superimpose thesetemporalities onto their composition. He continues,

Refrain, mimesis and quotation are the instrumentsthat allow us to shape the musical narrative throughthe articulation of time; they are its poeticprinciples. 16

These observations about the impact of recordedsound are, I feel, equally applicable to recorded visualimages and the sense of space which they can create.French phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard discussesthe strong associative quality of specific physicalspaces in his book The Poetics of Space . Bachelarddiscusses the particular qualities and essences of specific domestic spaces as well as the dialecticbetween the concepts of inside and outside spaces.From his phenomenological perspective, particularphysical spaces come to exist as archetypes in ourimaginations a cellar has a quite different set of imaginative associations than does an attic or a cave.Even a door has a particular essence; The doorschematises two strong possibilities, which sharplyclassify two types of daydream. At times, it is closed,bolted, padlocked. At others, it is open, that is to say,wide open. 17 It is precisely this phenomenologicalapproach that I have adopted in the use of both visualand sonic images in An Opera of Clouds .

The lines from Alison Croggons poem Angelsquoted at the beginning of this paper, rumouredwings in rooms / where doors and windows shuddershut against them, allude to an image orphenomena which is then reflected in both thevisual and sonic elements of An Opera of Clouds .Rather than merely illustrating the text, the idea oressence of these lines is reflected in particularmoments of the electroacoustic soundscape(manipulated recordings of banging shutters) andvideoscape (doorways and windows in derelictbuildings). This phenomenological approach to theuse of recorded sound and image is central to theaims of the work to evoke and manipulate memoryand association in order to create a sense of archetypal spaces within the work.

Although An Opera of Clouds is representative of an emerging genre of new forms of mixed mediaperformance discussed earlier in this paper, I feel themain innovation of the work is in its approach tocognition. The use of a variety of audio and visual 15 DEscrivan, Julio. Reflections on the poetics of time in electoacoustic music , in Contemporary

Music Review , p.197.16 ibid., p.20017 Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space , p.222


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technologies, in the form of digital editing andmanipulation of sound and image, as well as themeans of electronically projecting sound and imageinto a particular space, has enabled me to create animmersive performance experience which engagesdirectly with the imagination of the audience.

Bachelard uses the expression intimate immensityto describe the nature of imagined experience and thisis exactly the type of feeling I have aimed to create in

An Opera of Clouds . As well as allowing us tomobilise sound and image, audio technology has alsoenabled me to create an intimacy of experiencethrough the amplification and diffusion of sound. Awhisper, or the sound of gently lapping waves or therattling of a shutter are all very delicate, intimatesounds, normally associated with close physicalproximity. The ability to manipulate the associativeproperties of sound, to recontexualise and mobilisethese aural objects allows me to tap into the

imagination of the listener and create a virtual worldwith a variety of layers of meaning and significance.Time and Space become the dimensions in whichthese imagined experiences take place, in theintimate immensity of the audiences imagination.

References

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space , BeaconPress, Boston, 1994

Chion, Michel. Audio Vision: Sound on Screen ,Columbia University Press, New York, 1994

Clifton, Thomas. Music as Heard A Study in

Applied Phenomenology , Yale University Press,1983Cubitt, Sean. Digital Aesthetics , Sage Publications,

London, 1998DEscrivan, Julio. Reflections on the poetics of time

in electoacoustic music , in Contemporary Music Review ; Volume 3, part 1, 1989

Langer, Susan. Feeling and Form , Charles ScribnersSons, New York, 1953

Lynn, Victoria. Space Odyssesys: sensation and immersion in exhibition catalogue for DeepSpace installation exhibition, published by theArt Gallery of New South Wales and the

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2001.Packet, Kila. Pop Matters Music, on linehttp://www.popmatters.com/music/concerts/r/reich-steve-021019.shtml

Riley, Terry / Kronos Quartet. Sun Rings, infoonline at

http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/KronosSounds.html

an opera of clouds - time and space in mixed media performance

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