Inventing Air

Abstract

The title of this work is derived from an E. E. Cummings poem—evoking imagery of twilight as a vast spatial canvas for birdsong and a zone of spiritual reflection. In the work I wanted to create the sense of intimate fusion between the sculpting and interaction of sound figures and the notion of surrounding air as tangible space in itself. I was inspired by the idea of sounds, as spectral forms, leaving gestural traces that continually give definition to an emerging spatial architecture. As such, Inventing Air aims to project a structure in which a set of spatially and sonically rich material is continuously reinvented and recontextualised. Inventing Air and Smoke and Mirrors together make a sequence entitled 'Forms of Space' in which Inventing Air is the first of the pair. It presents a highly articulate field of surround sound to stimulate awareness of the space around the listener from which more recognisable, naturalistic sounds will emerge in Smoke and Mirrors.