Browsing by Author "Batchelor, Peter"

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    Acousmatic Approaches to the Construction of Image and Space in Sound Art
    (Cambridge Journals, 2015-07-07) Batchelor, Peter
    This article considers ideas of image and space as they apply to acousmatic music and to sound art, establishing overlaps and compatibilities which are perhaps overlooked in the current trend to consider these two genres incompatible. Two issues in particular are considered: compositional (especially mimesis and the construction of image, and what shall be termed ‘ephemeral narrative’) and presentational (in particular multi- channel speaker deployment). While exploring several relevant works within this discussion, by way of a case study the article introduces the author’s GRIDs project – a series of four multichannel sound sculptures united in their arrangement in geometric arrays of many (in some cases potentially hundreds of) loudspeakers. These permit, by virtue of being so massively (and geometrically) multichannel, the generation of extremely intricate spatial sound environments – fabricated landscapes – that emerge directly from an acousmatic compositional aesthetic. Owing to their alternative means of presentation and presentation contexts, however, they offer very different experiences from those of acousmatic music encountered in the concert hall. So the latter part of this article explores the various ways in which the listener might engage with constructed image space within these sound sculptures, along with the relationship of the audio content of each with its visual and situational setup – that is, its environment.
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    Beyond
    (2014) Batchelor, Peter
    A series of geodesic spherical structures with speakers placed in the vertices between the triangular panels of each. Listeners sit within the domes, experiencing sound circumferencially and distally—always outwards/surrounding. The spheres are designed to be unenclosed and thus acoustically transparent, enabling a listener within to experience the soundscape beyond the playing loudspeakers (ideally a park or other outdoor public space) as an extension of that presented by the dome itself. This work emerges logically from previous REF outputs Studies on Canvas (REF2007) and DOME (REF2013).
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    Beyond (Richard Steinitz)
    (2023-02-15) Batchelor, Peter
    Beyond (Richard Steinitz Building) (2023) is a multichannel installation produced in collaboration with visual artist Ian Bilson. Consisting of a spherical geodesic structure and containing 40 loud speakers, it builds on research conducted for Beyond (2014) and other previous research surrounding the fabrication of aural landscapes and trompe l’oreille. As in the previous version of the installation, the speakers are conceived collectively as a single sound-producing unit, accommodating the detailed spatial construction of sonic images over the surfaces of the domes. Beyond (Richard Steinitz Building) presents new site-specific compositions which take into account the audio ‘assets’ and idiosyncracies of the Richard Steinitz building at the University of Huddersfield. The presented scenes are designed to extend the sounds of the building, its immediate surroundings and the countryside of the nearby Yorkshire moors, in order to draw the ear outwards and encourage closer listening to the local aural environment.
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    Cascade
    (2018) Batchelor, Peter
    Much of my research to date has been concerned with the relationship between acousmatic compositional practice and sound art. In Batchelor 2015, I attempted to identify some potential overlaps and compatibilities between these two apparently incompatible forms which might prove fruitful when applied to broader, Sound Art-related practice. A not inconsiderable part of my discussion concerned the relevance of acousmatic music to a wider listenership, and how such work might be brought to new audiences. I argue that there is much to be gained from the application of acousmatic compositional techniques and practices to sound art contexts, and that detailed ‘musical’ as well as referential listening might be encouraged in real-world contexts if appropriate strategies are implemented to accommodate it. One of the aspects of acousmatic music most immediately compelling to the uninitiated listener is the deployment of sound in space. However, the large-scale coordinated multichannel speaker arrays required for the high-quality presentation of acousmatic works are usually seen as the preserve of institutions who can provide the resource required for reliable, high quality signal processing and sample-accurate digital audio conversion. Recent developments in low-cost computing, however, allow affordable distributed networks which, while requiring certain compromises and modifications to workflow, can nevertheless accommodate rich acousmatic soundscape generation over multiple channels at a relatively low cost. This in turn permits the development of particularly extravagant multichannel arrays. As such, since 2004, I have been developing a series of works, collectively entitled GRIDs, comprising such affordable, user-defined multichannel arrays. These are sculptural insofar as they are physical, navigable objects comprising geometric configurations of many (in some cases potentially hundreds of) loudspeakers. Being so massively (and geometrically) multichannel, they permit the generation of extremely intricate and immersive spatial sound environments, which encourage ambulatory investigation and scrutiny. My approach to the composition of material for all of these environments has emerged directly from an acousmatic compositional aesthetic and associated spatialisation practice, employed with a view to exploring how listeners might engage with constructed image space (e.g. experiencing it through, beyond, or within the physical object). The current work, Cascade (2018), presents a flat-panel array of 256 small loudspeakers suspended in a 16x16 array above the listener. The volume of speakers is accommodated by the use of affordable technologies as described above—in this case, networked Raspberry Pi computers and cheap multichannel gaming interfaces. Aside from exploring the technical and aesthetic challenges inherent in managing such volumes of loudspeakers with a view to creating a coherent spatial sound environment, the installation seeks, through a series of short compositions, to consider the deployment of acousmatic compositional materials and strategies across the ‘flat panel’ speaker space. Batchelor, P., 2015. Acousmatic Approaches to the Construction of Image and Space in Sound Art. Organised Sound, 20(2), pp.148-159. For further information: http://www.peterbatchelor.com/cascade
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    Grasping the Intimate Immensity: Acousmatic compositional techniques in sound art as ‘something to hold on to’
    (Cambridge University Press, 2019-11-29) Batchelor, Peter
    This article explores the accessibility of acousmatic compositional approaches to sound and installation art. Principally of concern is the consideration of intimacy to create a means of ‘connecting’ with an audience. Installations might be said to explore ideas of intimacy in two ways which increase accessibility for the installation visitor: through cultivating installation-visitor relationships, and through encouraging visitor-visitor relationships. In either case the experience of intimacy might be said to help to provide ‘something to hold onto’ (Landy 1994). A variety of ways in which various acousmatic compositional techniques relating to intimacy might be brought to bear on, and operate as a way of drawing a listener into a work are explored, in particular as they relate to the consideration of space and spatial relationships. These include recording techniques, types of sound materials chosen, and the creation of particular spatial environments and listening conditions. Along with a number of instances of sound art provided by way of examples, my ongoing GRIDs series of sound sculptures will provide a case study of works related to an acousmatic aesthetic where these concerns find an outlet.
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    Kaleidoscope: Cycle (multichannel electroacoustic compositions, 2013)
    (2013-10) Batchelor, Peter
    Fissure (2006) [completed prior to REF period; submitted for RAE 2008] Nebula (2012) Pulse (2013) Fuse (2013) This series continues my exploration of spatialisation strategies in the composition of multichannel acousmatic music, presenting immersive sound fields that are spatially and musically coherent irrespective of audience position/orientation. It employs strategies of spatial deployment that involve peripheral, rotational, oppositional and envelopment activities and relationships (in contrast to left/right and back/front) such that listeners receive similar subjective weightings (relative levels) of front, sides and rear wherever they are situated (even if the positions/trajectories of spatial gestures are perceived uniquely by each). Collectively the works explore the idea of elemental cyclicity, pursuing a narrative from fragmentation (Fissure), through fragment deployment across particulate structures and periodicity (Nebula, Pulse), to reconstitution (Fuse). Through this narrative, the works deal with well-established concerns of acousmatic compositional practice, enhanced by the above spatialisation strategies. For example, each piece focuses on one of four stages along an articulation continuum identified by Smalley: Fissure on predominantly attack characteristics and discrete events, Pulse on impulse and iteration, Nebula on granularity, and Fuse on effluvium. Spectromorphological characteristics relevant to a work’s position on the continuum are enhanced by their spatial deployment. Issues of aural/mimetic discourse (Emmerson) are also explored: poetic implications of each title play out through the chosen source materials and their treatment, and the works frequently transition between recognition and non-recognition, often allying anecdotal materials alluding to physical processes or states with musical equivalents (e.g. openness and closure, anacrusis and cadence). The ability to fabricate sound landscapes such that ‘the walls disappear’ within a concert environment is facilitated by the spatialisation techniques applied to the materials, facilitating the transformation of and transition between these landscapes.
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    Lowercase Strategies in Public Sound Art: celebrating the transient audience
    (Cambridge Journals, 2013-04) Batchelor, Peter
    Public art invariably involves the drawing of individuals into the roles of audience and participant by virtue of it being in the public domain – in public places where those individuals are getting on with their everyday lives. As such, a large proportion of the ‘audience’ is an unwitting one, subjected to the art rather than subscribing to it. This is equally true of public sound art, where response to an intervention may vary from engagement to non-engagement to indifference to unawareness, along with a variety of transitional states between. This essay seeks to investigate this ambiguous territory in public sound art, proposing it both as an area rich in possibility for creative exploration and as a means by which artists may reveal and encourage sensitivity to the existing characteristics of a site (thus accommodating the pursuit of agendas relating to acoustic ecology). In particular it investigates and presents a case for the use of lowercase strategies in sound art as ways in which the public might be invited into a dialogue with works (invitation rather than imposition) and thus empowered as partakers of public sound art.
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    Orbits
    (2019-02-07) Batchelor, Peter; Blow, Mike
    Orbits form the basis of the physical movement of objects throughout the universe, from stars and planets to electrons in an atom. Different forces are at work to create these orbits at different scales, but at all levels the result is to group objects into order, acting against a state of entropy. This installation explores relationships between the order created by orbits and the entropy from which they form. Six rotating speakers are presented within an evolving cloud of sound in the Clore Ballroom, functioning as centres from which sound objects emerge and depart — coalescing and condensing, disintegrating and evaporating. Orbits was produced with support from the Philharmonia Orchestra. It was inspired by Péter Eötvös’s work, Mulltiversum, and scientific discoveries from NASA.
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    Studies on canvas (2004) electroacoustic installation.
    (2004-06-13) Batchelor, Peter
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    Through the Looking Glass: Reflectivity vs Transparency; and the embedding of Place through Sound.
    (University of Lapland, 2018-07-01) Batchelor, Peter
    Presenting electroacoustic music has traditionally involved large spaces and high quality listening environments set up in (very often) architecturally imposing spaces. Recent works of mine involve the development of smaller-scale multichannel environments using affordable speakers and DIY construction techniques. While retaining the capacity for spatial interest and precision in sound localisation, this accommodates much more intimate listening conditions for audiences along, importantly, with portability, which in turn allows the presentation of rich multichannel sound worlds in settings far removed from the normal concert situation. Such environments encourage consideration of how sound materials appropriated from life might be experienced when, after creative/compositional intervention, they are reinserted back into life (the real world). This in turn invites exploration of ‘rhythm[s] between transparency and reflectivity’ (Bolter and Grom (2004)) of the artistic ‘interface', where the boundary between real and unreal sound environments become ambiguous, and consideration of how musical space might be reconceived in terms of its relationship with place.
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    Towards a framework for analysing public sound art.
    (De Montfort University, 2013) Batchelor, Peter