This new series of large format works examines and displays sound memory through a new "visualization" and/or representation of Field Recordings. It is also a search for new formats to share sound DATA in an exhibition format.

This is something that I have been thinking about for many years, because I have seen the interest that field recordings arouse in the audience/listeners. However, the only way I have ever seen field recordings presented in exhibition format has always been with the use of speakers.

As far as presentation formats for sound recordings are concerned, many of them end up digitally uploaded to specialized websites, digital sound libraries and sound banks... with the problem that these formats are only attractive to people who are dedicated to in some way to sound practices, but not for the general public.

I was very interested in presenting my field recordings in an accessible and interactive format and that is why I thought about drawing the scenes from the recording (of the soundscape), as an artistic piece and for the museum/gallery, and that these drawings would contain the sounds. of the landscape represented (drawn).

SoundScape #1

These "Sound Drawings" want to open listening practices to a larger audience, through the representation of an event, place, action, etc. to be experienced socially and thereby connect through sound and feelings. It is also an approach to sound as a tool to create awareness, knowledge and a deeper connection with a place.

Soundscape #2

 The series of drawings are called SOUNDSCAPES because they are compositions of drawings that represent various situations, places, spaces, actions, points of view...etc. For example, a drawing or SoundScape can be dedicated to a place, such as a city, and therefore have several unique images of various places that together make up the drawing of that city.

Or for example, the drawing is dedicated to an event: a manifestation and has several motifs of that manifestation in the composition.

 

The drawings can have one or multiple audios, and these audios are listened to through headphones at various points in the drawing. At these points, the headphones will be hung directly on the face of the drawing and distributed at various heights and points, allowing several people to listen to various (independent) audios at the same time.If the soundscape of a drawing has several listening points, you will have to listen to all of them to obtain the entire soundscape represented in the drawing.

It is important that the headphones are connected to the drawing with cable (NO Bluetooth or wireless headphones) since the cable acts as an anchor to the drawn scene; something that allows mobility to a certain extent, making you feel connected at all times to the image/representation/landscape... it is an umbilical cord with the situation that is represented, and a link between the piece (image and sound) and the viewer.

This is a project that will be carried out as a series (which will extend over time) and in which I wish to be able to make many of these drawings, whether representing field recordings that I already have in my archive, new and specific recordings and commissions. specials.

SOUNDSCAPE #1 - El Born (2023)

  • Ink on Paper

  • 240X 150cms

  • 5x Stereo Audio Channels

This year, I had the opportunity to premiere this series with the first "SOUNDSCAPE" drawing - a 4m x 1.50m composition made especially for my individual exhibition "Paisatqe Sonor - El Born", which took place at the Convent de Sant Agustí in Barcelona.

For this exhibition I made a special piece dedicated to the Born neighborhood in Barcelona (where the Art Center where the exhibition was held is located). For her, I made sound recordings in this neighborhood for months through sound walks carried out both individually or in groups in workshops with children from the neighborhood.

For this drawing that was sound and site-specific, I dedicated myself to listening to the beautiful and traditional Born neighborhood in Barcelona. On the sound walks, I discovered that due to its proximity to the sea, much of its identifying and characteristic sound is being lost due to the number of tourists and with it, shops and venues dedicated to tourism.

However, sound walks help to discover what is not seen at first sight (what is not heard at first listen), and these are various areas, places, people and situations that are very typical of the neighborhood and that in a or another way they continue to resist and show us a little of the traditions of this wonderful neighborhood.

Therefore, I was able to choose 6 interesting reasons related to the neighborhood that caught my attention:

- a grocery store where they cut fresh Cod fish and where I was able to record - with their permission - the fishmonger cutting and talking to a customer.

- a street where I found a knife sharpener with a sharpening system mounted on a bicycle, which also allowed me to record it along with the entire soundscape of that street.

-a man playing the flute with his son in the atrium of the Convent of Sant Agustí. He told me that he liked the place because of the acoustics.

- a balcony that always had its blinds closed and from which came the incredible and harmonious songs of 3 different types of Canaries singing together from their cages.

- the soundscape of the old Northern train station, with its public address system, trains and people.

SOUNDSCAPE #2 - Creatures of the Night (2023)

  • Acrylic Paint on Paper

  • 240X 150cms

  • 2x Stereo Audio Channels

In this piece you can listen to a soundscape that I recorded at the beginning of the year in a village in China in the province of Guìzhou. The sound recording was made on a May night with the open sky full of stars, you will be able to hear the sounds of the village and the songs of a choir of frogs, toads and crickets...

The piece was created especially to be premiered on December 2 at the Seismes Festival at the Fabra i Coats Creation Center in Barcelona.

DETAIL

SOUNDWALKS

As I mentioned, I made this first "SoundScape" drawing as a site/sound-specific commission focused on the Born neighborhood (Barcelona) in which I made several exploratory soundwalks and Field Recordings.

 

I also had the opportunity to walk and listen to the place in the company of neighborhood children. With them we made a soundwalk in which they recorded in various places, such as the church of Santa Maria del Mar, Paseo del Born... etc.

 

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The SoundScape number 2, was made from several night field recordings made in a village in southern China.

 
 

SOUNDSCAPES (drawing process).

I was able to make the large-format drawing in the facilities of the Fabra i Coats Creation Center in Barcelona, of which I am a resident artist during 2023. Here I put some images of the process. I made the drawings from photographs I took in the neighborhood and then enlarged their size with a projector. The technique used was Indian ink on paper.

 

INSTALLATION DETAILS - SoundScape #2