Walk 7: Headphone Assessment and 30 minute Audio

Conclusions:

The 30 minute walk feels much less rushed. People have time to walk leisurely and look around. The addition of the poetry and music balances the rest.
My new narrative sections are shorter and punchier than before.


I tested Sennheiser headphones, sound limiting Sony headphones and earpieces.
The sound limiting headphones were best. 


At certain times of day there is a lot of external traffic sound. Some external sound is fine as it adds to the experience but too much means that any subtleties on the soundtrack are lost.

Creating the Accompanying Book for the Walk

Editorial decisions:

• Large clear font, for ease of reading in situ, by anyone.
• Minimal description, listen to the audio.
• Incorporate the map, inside and back cover
• Additional laminated map for use in bad weather.
• I investigated several book publishing sites and chose Photobox

How should the Audio Sound ?

• Informative and interesting
• Sad but not nostalgic
• Thoughtful and thought provoking
• Atmospheric and immersive
• A juxtaposition of social history, music, comment, poetry, instructions, ambient sound.

There are constant reminders that life goes on despite the inevitability of death and decay. We may rail against the vandalism and the litter but then we get on the train and go home. The dead have to share their world with the living.

Stephen Vitiello : Savvy Traveller

http://www.stephenvitiello.com/?page_id=7

The sound artist Stephen Vitiello talks about his time spent with the Yanomami people and the sounds of the forest

http://www.stephenvitiello.com/?page_id=5


'All those vanished engines'
very haunting sounds very much in the John Cage tradition but more melodic


http://soundcloud.com/stephenvitiello

The Uncanny, by Sigmund Freud translated by David Mclintock, 2003

Schizophonic Sound

The association of place and the feeling of the uncanny or strange. This also links to the idea of schizophonia where sounds which have no connection to the visual can produce uneasy feelings.


http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html

More Recording

Additional Music and Poetry

The beginning and the end of the Doors track 'The End'

Poetry reading from 'V'

Re-edited the audio, and increased the time to 30 minutes

Walk 6 Photographs

In poor light conditions I took photographs to document the entire walk. 
I have decided to use a book format for the map,photographs etc

 

Interesting Juxtaposition

walk 5: Assessing my first 20 minute audio cut

Conclusions:

• The audio felt very rushed, it needs to be much longer, possibly 10 minutes, mostly at the beginning.
• I need to start from the site of the chapel as it is too noisy near the gate.
• If I was new to the place I would need some time at this first point , to orientate myself and to absorb the atmosphere. 
• The volume was fine and  I was pleased with the quality of the sound.  
• No firm conclusion on the headphones yet: I need to carry out further tests, with and without sound limiting headphones.  
• I had a sense of disorientation at times when strange noises occurred. I experienced the binaural effect, particularly the metro and train sounds and the digging sounds. 
• I felt that some music between the chapel area and the area of the Bird and Gillott graves would be appropriate and a way of extending the time. Also I think this would be an appropriate place to have some of the poetry reading.  
• One suggestion for music ; 'The Doors' track 'The End', very melancholic.

Guy Debord and The Derive

The Derive was a word coined by Guy Debord a revolutionary thinker and film maker to describe aimless wandering through urban space. The term is often used in Psychogeography.

Definition :  dérive: literally “drift” or “drifting.”

http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm

Hamish Fulton

Ikon Exhibition and Talk

I have extensively referenced Hamish Fulton previously. Seeing his work in exhibition was a different experience. The work was more powerful than I had realised partly because of the scale. The simplicity of the graphics and the use of colour is very arresting. There is a rhythm to the images which mirrors the rhythm of walking. It was interesting to hear him talk about the reasons for his use of colour and his use of particular words. Most interesting  was the reasons why he walked and how he saw this as an artistic experience.

Hamish Fulton Exhibition

Image courtesy of Ikon gallery

http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/Repository/Media/0BB33067-15E8-461E-8F08-9610BE48781A/0BB33067-15E8-461E-8F08-9610BE48781A_t_6.jpg

Multitracking on Premiere

I have made a 20 minute track and successfully exported it onto my MP3 players. When I listened to it I noticed a lot of rough transitions, repetitions and volume problems.
Re-edit, take it onsite and do another walk.

Technology update Adobe Premiere

I have had two tutorials with Boris on Adobe Premiere. I will be using this for multitracking.
I have now made a series of recordings on and off site, both normal stereo and binaural. My next task is to put my tracks together.

Sagada Ritual Hanging Cemetery

A fascinating glimpse of other people's burial rituals!

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/11/28/hanging-coffins-sagada-ancient-tradition/

More Tutorial References from Sean

Sound as Immersive Theatre

Fierce festival 2011: 

Symphony for a missing room at BMAG

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/mar/24/fierce-review



"Most extraordinary of all is Lundahl & Seitl's Symphony of a Missing Room, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In this exhilarating immersive piece, six people at a time are blindfolded, given headphones, and then invited to have a private dream in a public space. It's like falling into your own personal fairytale, finding that secret garden, or going through the wardrobe into Narnia. You are seduced by the gentle voice in your ear, and by the hands that flutter around you like birds. Yet never for a moment do you feel out of control – it is, after all, your own imagination that gives this work its wild power."


http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/tag/bmag/

 'Symphony from a Missing Room'

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/naimakhan-6622/lundahl-seitl-on-rupert-sheldrake-and-the-relationship-between-science-and-performance-5871/

"After a few minutes with theatre makers Martina Seitl and Christer Lundahl, it's clear that they're asking big questions about existence, presence and how to challenge our perceptions. Einstein, Newton and Bruce Damer (who coined the term Avatar) all pop up in conversation quite frequently, but today they want to tell me about the work of Rupert Sheldrake."

Sigur Ros: 

Icelandic band who combine sad melancholic, atmospheric music with video and drawing. An evocation of a sense of place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrq7ffdV1ro&feature=related

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Nefernegger.

A Ghost story about Highgate Cemetery
There is a lot of historical detail about Highgate and Victorian funeral customs which I found very useful as well as enjoying a 'good read'.

Tony Harrison 'V'

Reference from Sean: A poem by Tony Harrison.  'V'
He describes the decay and vandalism of his local graveyard but it is a metaphor for the disintegration and destruction of working class society by the ruling political classes.
I plan to use some of the verses; slightly amended to make it more relevant. 


http://plagiarist.com/poetry/5618/

Walk 4 Key Hill

A Timed Binaural Recording

• Recording footsteps and ambient sound.
• I want my walk to be immersive but to have some structure.
• The MP3 player can be paused but will this interfere with the immersive experience?
• Non -binaural recordings were made at appropriate points:

                           Entrance
                           Site of the Chapel
                           Chamberlains Grave
                           Common Graves
                           Catacombs, experimental recording in niche.

The fully restored main gates

Turn left along one of the main paths

The toppled grave stones

Muslim grave?

Alfred Bird Family Grave

Grave of Alfred Bird

Gillott Family Grave

Over the Catacombs

Joseph Chamberlain's Grave beyond the rubbish bin

Walk 3 Guided Cemetery Walks Sunday 4th March

The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries : monthly tours

I recorded the tours (not Binaurally) for information.
The guide was extremely informative and interesting however it confirmed my desire not to recreate a similar experience.

William Murphy a preacher who died for his beliefs

Alfred Bird Family Grave

General view

General view

General view

General view

Tolkien Family Grave, JRR Tolkien is buried in Oxford

One of the few remaining carved niches on the Catacombs

Unusually Ornate Grave

Chamberlain Family Grave

George Dawson the preacher

Narrative Script

Content

I do not want a museum style guided walk.

There will be some site specific facts from the narrator which needs to correlate with the walk.

There will be the sound of walking and ambient sound. 
I have binaurally recorded 'digging'
'horses and carriage' and 'bell tolling' was downloaded from a sound archive.

Also I want to introduce music, poetry and 'ideas'.

Music

'The Lamb' by John Tavener 1995: a haunting piece of modern sacred choral music using words by the poet William Blake.

'The Dead March' (from Saul) by G F Handel 1738: a bit of a potboiler but a great finale and if this was interspersed with metro/train sounds it could work.  

Joseph Chamberlain

Radical Reformer

Joseph Chamberlain M.P. non conformist and radical, is arguably the most famous  person buried in Key Hill.
He was responsible for huge changes including vast slum clearance schemes in Birmingham, which in a few short years  became known as the best run city in the world.
As a keen advocate of municipalisation, he purchased  the water companies and the gas companies for Birmingham making great improvements to the availability and quality of both utilities and ultimately reaping great profits for the city.


He expressed a wish for a simple burial despite the wishes of parliament for a state funeral. His name is merely added to the bottom of the tombstone on the family grave.

Joseph Chamberlain

The arrival of the Hearse at the main gate for Chamberlain's Funeral

The Burial

Last Moments

Grave diggers finish the burial

The gravestone

The Chamberlain Memorial in Victoria Square

Birmingham University Clocktower 'Old Joe'

Old Photographs of Key Hill Cemetery

I have found many old photographs which document how Key Hill cemetery used to look. I will try to identify the positions and take photographs in the same position.

I think this is by the main gate

The Memorial Chapel

Main Gates with flowerbeds.

 Celtic cross memorial

Unknown Burial

Relaxing in the Cemetery 'garden'

Looking towards the memorial chapel from the catacombs. 
Avenue of young trees.

Looking towards the memorial chapel,
 possibly from the metro/ rail side of the cemetery

Notice the flowers on the left

View of Chapel.Possibly from the metro side again?

Heterotopia

Michael Foucault

Philosopher Michael Foucault discusses the concept of Heterotopia "other spaces"  with particular reference to cemeteries.
Cemeteries do have an atmosphere of another place, one is aware of the city below ground the 'city of the dead'. No matter how rational we are few of us would choose to spend a night in a cemetery.


http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html


'As an example I shall take the strange heterotopia of the cemetery. The cemetery is certainly a place unlike ordinary cultural spaces. It is a space that is however connected with all the sites of the city, state or society or village, etc., since each individual, each family has relatives in the cemetery.............

Atemporality

Amrit Srecko Sorli

I find the Theory of Atemporality fascinating, and very relevent to my current artistic practice.In essence this states that time is not a universal linear event and is merely a convenient convention through which we organise our lives. Light and sound waves have no beginning or end raising the intriguing possibility that what we see and hear is a continuum.


Quote from 'The Theory of Atemporality' a paper by Amrit Srecko Sorli .www.chronos.msu.ru/EREPORTS/sarli_the_theory.pdfSimilar

"The Theory of Atemporality is based on elementary perception: time cannot be observed in the universe. With clocks one measures duration, speed and numerical order of events that run into atemporal universe. Man is not existing in time, time exists in man. There is no past and future into the universe, both exist only in the human mind. Time is an observer effect. Time exists only when one measures it. Universe is an atemporal phenomenon"

Bruce Sterling lecturing on Atemporality

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/02/atemporality-for-the-creative-artist/


All of these pieces are, to a greater or lesser extent, oriented around a singular idea: atemporality – that the intermeshing and interweaving of the physical and digital causes us not only to experience both of those categories differently, but to perceive time itself differently; that for most of us, time is no longer a linear experience (assuming it ever was). Technology changes our remembrance of the past, our experience of the present, and our imagination of the future by blurring the lines between the three categories, and introducing different forms of understanding and meaning-making to all three – We remember the future, imagine the present, and experience the past. The phenomenon of “ruin porn” is uniquely suited to call attention to our increasingly atemporal existence, and to outline some of the specific ways in which it manifests itself.

Ruin Porn and Atemporality

A term used to describe an interest in ruined and abandoned places, there is a link between  these places and the concept of atemporality 
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/12/the-atemporality-of-ruin-porn-part-i-the-carcass/


We can and should understand abandoned places as atemporal spaces in and of themselves – they are physical spaces in which the experience of linear time breaks down. Through the experience of the space, explorers and photographers (and blends of the two) break out of a conventional experience of the present and into a space where the artifacts of history feel at once fresh and new, and ancient and decayed. Imagination is key to the atemporal experience of these places: One can exist in an abandoned, ruined space and see shards of a dead past on which one can construct a live imagining – who were the people who lived and worked here? What were their lives like? What were their stories? What happened to them? What happened to them in these spaces
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/20/the-atemporality-of-%E2%80%9Cruin-porn%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-part-ii-the-ghost/

Joseph Gillott Penmaker

 The Pen Museum

Joseph Gillott was known as a good employer by the standards of the day. Nevertheless he became extremely rich and was not known for his philanthropy. He owned some of JMW Turner's early works amongst other things and left a valuable estate on his death.

Joseph Gillott was instrumental in automating pen nib manufacturing.

Rules and conditions in Gillott's factory

A typical pen nib manufacturing scene

Display case of Gillott's pens

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1513965&pageno=2
Page 89 for a chapter on Joseph Gillott

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thegrove/gillott.html

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/browse/view.aspx?dbid=6892&iid=6892-7-5-111-1270&rc=1062,286,1227,332;808,2216,980,2248;1007,2213,1157,2244&pid=10882&ssrc=&fn=joseph&ln=gillott&st=g