Listening to Objects: Sound as an Expression of Material Flux

This research paper examines the use of sound in art as a means to explore processes of movement, transformation, and change as they operate within the physical relationships that exist between energy, matter and space. It situates the author’s own material-based sound art practice in relation to its primary historical and contemporary influences, identifying critical developments in art making that offer creative, conceptual and practical insights into the nature of physical processes. In doing so, the paper locates the origins of sound art within late 20th century sculpture, experimental music, and installation practice, and introduces a number of key concepts that form the underlying theme of sound as a manifestation of temporal and material flux. This theme is developed through a focus on energy, considering how sound can be deployed to model and access energetic flows. The discussion is framed around particular art practices that employ the mediation of sound to explore the physical dynamics of sound energy and its expressive relations to space and matter. The paper explains how environmental aspects of sound conjure certain modes of listening, and explores the use of simple sounds and methods of technological transduction as means to evoke and make perceivable the intangible qualities of natural processes. The creative works produced over the course of the author’s research reflect the practical and conceptual objectives that drive this research paper. These works deploy experimental methods drawn from the field of science (particularly acoustics) to guide their particular approach to sound as a material medium. Such works include Mandala (2012) and Sifting (2014), which incorporate Cymatic systems aimed at conveying the dynamics of sound energy in visual form, and Pressure Vessel (2014) which explores processes of thermo-acoustic transduction and the propagation of acoustic energy in space. A sustained investigation into the system of electro-acoustic transduction developed by American experimental composer Alvin Lucier’s Music on a Long Thin Wire (1977) also forms a central line of enquiry within this research-based practice, resulting in a series of works that culminate with Untitled, Wire No. 6 (2017). Through its various manifestations, this prolonged experiment witnesses the affects of material and environmental variables on Lucier’s system. A number of these works are discussed at length within the research paper