Unsound : Infra Sound Art
Finholm, Joakim (2020)
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120927069
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120927069
Tiivistelmä
I have been curious for a long time about infrasound and the exchange between sound and feelings, both psychological and physiological feelings. For this analysis I have chosen to construct a speaker capable of producing infrasound and to make the sound work Lfo consisting of low frequency sounds, both hearable and un-hearable. This artwork has been exhibited and I have discussed the reactions with people who experienced the sound work.
People felt the effects of both the tactile and the aural sounds in very different ways, which was surprising to me. The effects of the infrasound making objects in the room resonate was a pleasant surprise. A totally inaudible sound artwork would have been missed by many people at the chosen location of exhibition, so I mixed sound with the unsound in order to create an awareness that there is sound art being exhibited.
Some people reacted both physiologically and psychologically to the sounds whereas others did not. Also, the tactile feelings people felt were different from person to person, which made me curious why this would be the case. At the beginning I thought that everybody would react in the same way to the tactile sounds, but this proved to be wrong. I found out that the bodily feelings when experiencing the work will wary from person to person.
My methodology for my thesis consisted of building a speaker, creating a sound work, and by using ethnographic methods I subjectively observed how people reacted to low frequency sound art. By having discussions with them I found out different ways in how they were reacting and feeling the sounds. I also did research by reading about sound, sound art and psychoacoustics, in order to find explanations for certain results I was observing that I didn’t predict or understand. The discussions were done as unstructured interviews.
With my artwork I was trying to find out if there is a possibility to create a language, similar to the sonic language, with tactile sound. To have an alphabet of feeling that could be triggered with different frequencies of inaudible sound. This was however not possible because of the varied results I was getting with the tactile sounds.
In my research I set out to find why the reactions were so different from what I was expecting from the beginning and to understand these reactions. Answers were found in for example literature about psychoacoustics, about how sound resonates bodies in different ways dependent on the body mass index. Through discussions with artists working with sound and music, I found some guidelines for what is important when constructing a sound work. The importance of listening and the importance and power of silence were two factors that became apparent through the discussions with the artists. I also researched how sound has been used for both good and bad and also looked into the myths surrounding infra sound.
My artistic goals were to create a sound work that encourages deep listening and deep feeling of the sound. To immerse the audience into the sonic field and to make them become aware of the room surrounding it. I also researched and developed tools with which to explore low frequency sound art. These tools may be further used for other sound artworks.
People felt the effects of both the tactile and the aural sounds in very different ways, which was surprising to me. The effects of the infrasound making objects in the room resonate was a pleasant surprise. A totally inaudible sound artwork would have been missed by many people at the chosen location of exhibition, so I mixed sound with the unsound in order to create an awareness that there is sound art being exhibited.
Some people reacted both physiologically and psychologically to the sounds whereas others did not. Also, the tactile feelings people felt were different from person to person, which made me curious why this would be the case. At the beginning I thought that everybody would react in the same way to the tactile sounds, but this proved to be wrong. I found out that the bodily feelings when experiencing the work will wary from person to person.
My methodology for my thesis consisted of building a speaker, creating a sound work, and by using ethnographic methods I subjectively observed how people reacted to low frequency sound art. By having discussions with them I found out different ways in how they were reacting and feeling the sounds. I also did research by reading about sound, sound art and psychoacoustics, in order to find explanations for certain results I was observing that I didn’t predict or understand. The discussions were done as unstructured interviews.
With my artwork I was trying to find out if there is a possibility to create a language, similar to the sonic language, with tactile sound. To have an alphabet of feeling that could be triggered with different frequencies of inaudible sound. This was however not possible because of the varied results I was getting with the tactile sounds.
In my research I set out to find why the reactions were so different from what I was expecting from the beginning and to understand these reactions. Answers were found in for example literature about psychoacoustics, about how sound resonates bodies in different ways dependent on the body mass index. Through discussions with artists working with sound and music, I found some guidelines for what is important when constructing a sound work. The importance of listening and the importance and power of silence were two factors that became apparent through the discussions with the artists. I also researched how sound has been used for both good and bad and also looked into the myths surrounding infra sound.
My artistic goals were to create a sound work that encourages deep listening and deep feeling of the sound. To immerse the audience into the sonic field and to make them become aware of the room surrounding it. I also researched and developed tools with which to explore low frequency sound art. These tools may be further used for other sound artworks.