Ice Records by Katie Paterson

3 litres glacial meltwater, 3 litres silicon, 3 turntables [2007]

Sound recordings from three glaciers in Iceland, pressed into three records, cast, and frozen with the meltwater from each of these glaciers, and played on three turntables until they completely melt.

The records were played once and now exist as three dvds. The turntables begin playing together, and for the first ten minutes as the needles trace their way around, the sounds from each glacier merge in and out with the sounds the ice itself creates. The needle catches on the last loop, and the records play for nearly two hours, until completely melted.


http://www.katiepaterson.org/

On FormFiftyFive

I have found the Glasgow's Central Station site/community hugely supportive over the past year or so. Given the standard of material on there, I've additionally been honoured to have had some work from my portfolio selected on its homepage and then was even more excited when there was talk of contributing to a book that they were producing [I'll update on that in a separate post].

What I wasn't aware of - something that explains the large number of views of an image from the Sshhh project in recent times - was that the site has also been publicising my work alongside that of some majorly talented artists. This nicely prompted an appearance on the wonderful FormFiftyFive for which I'm very grateful.

Mike Cina for Ghostly International

I mentioned Ghostly International in a previous post when noting the US label's issuing of the Terry Riley composition. The latest artwork was the work of Mike Cina who, alongside Will Calcutt, has been responsible for most of the sleeves in 2010. What he's produced this year is really inspiring. I mean, the label itself doesn't have a generic sound and each of these disparate recordings have been given an equally individual identity. But it's the approach to visualizing sound in a way that conveys a sensation that really works for me. The abstraction involved is a perfect way of creating a referent for this completely different art form: one that hints at the texture, timbre, pitch and tone of what the contents of each package might contain.

Creative Director Cina also has his own company with its portfolio at http://cargocollective.com/michaelcina. His clients have included Coke, Apple, Diesel, Hitachi, Pringles and more. He also founded http://www.youworkforthem.com/ - an excellent design resource.

Pioneers

Before embarking on this project I wasn't aware of Oskar Fischinger. However his name has repeatedly been referenced in the material I've viewed and suddenly I'm aware of what an influential figure he is. There's a good feature on him at http://www.tate.org.uk which explains his background and approach to the synthesis between sound and vision.

Throughout this project I've been switched on to a lot of other atists, animators, directors, designers and musicians working within this field. The Whitney brothers are another example of seminal figures responsible for combining noise and image that I similarly hadn't encountered previously. That's a bit worrying really: starting this without knowing the Whitneys and Fischinger feels like I've elected to study cubism without any prior knowledge of Braque and Picasso. And I've become aware that there's still so much more out there that I'm yet to see. With such a wealth of inspirational material I feel like I'm only just scratching the surface.




Oskar Fischinger - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (created for Disney's Fantasia) (1940)


John Whitney - Permutations (1966)


James Whitney - Yantra (1957)


John Whitney - Catalog (1961)


Harry Smith - Circular Tensions: Homage to Oskar Fischinger (1950)


Hans Richter - Rhythm 23 (1923)


Viking Eggeling - Symphonie Diagonale (1921)

Upcoming projects from Matthew Herbert

While engaging with this project's recordings, it was impossible not to recount the work of 'found sound' artists. Musicians like Matmos and Matthew Herbert, for example, have been sampling everyday noises for years before constructing them into intricate, if sometimes wonky, compositions. Today I received notification of three new projects by the latter which are all due for release this year.

Herbert's first - titled One One - is a solo album which is something of a departure after a series of collaborative works. It also includes his singing. The second will be One Club: a long-player assembled from sounds recorded in a German nighclub. The last - and perhaps most controversial - is One Pig.

The process for the final offering has been documented at http://thisisapig.blogspot.com/ and, yes, it involves the noises made by a pig. However Herbert intended to use the sounds of the pig's slaughter in the piece but had difficulties finding an abattoir and attending vet willing to allow the recording of this act.

Last month PETA condemned the project as "cruelty as entertainment" which prompted Herbert to argue that he had merely intended to record the pig throughout its entire life cycle. And the pig at the centre of the controversy was born on a farm that raises its animals for consumption. Herbert pointed out that he hadn't interfered in any way with these events but also made a case for the right to draw attention to just how meat is produced.

Subsequently this (currently unfinished) work has possibly become less about "entertainment" and more about challenging ideas: notions not only about how we feed ourselves (plus the hypocritical squeemishness we develop when faced with the truth about what ends up in our supermarkets), but also the role of art in providing information that might otherwise be hidden from the public.

Which is even more interesting when you consider that Herbert [who isn't a vegetarian; I'm not either] insists that he started this project with no agenda. Especially given that the issues surrounding the work have additionally inspired a campaign for clarity regarding the methods involved in food manufacture (http://www.seeyourfood.org/).

Lise Malinovsky postcard

An obscure item in the gift shop at the Statens Museum for Kunst (the National Gallery of Denmark) was the above postcard. It's labelled as being a work by Lise Malinovsky titled 'Det Skjulte Maleri'.

The front features a grey surface with only the tiniest variations in the print noting some very feint markings: the only clue that it has actually been manufactured with an "image" on it. Very minimal, yet different enough to stand out when displayed amongst the more well known miniature reproductions of the Rembrandts, Picassos and Titians.