A Sound Story

Introduction

My original idea was to use sound to create a place I consider home:
India. The many noices, voices and commotions are echoes from memory
that that keep me company at times when I am lonely. Unfortunately, the
physical distance of space prevented me from gathering the audio to make
that project possible. Yet what fascinated me when thinking about those
sounds was the concept of using the aural medium to create another space,
another time another story perhaps?

The initial effort in attempting to put together a sound piece proved
frustrating while I had various sounds from dripping water to nightlife
sounds, they seemed random and disconnected in the absence of some
structure. The idea of making a story thus took seed and after hours of
editing, I decided that simplicity worked best. Perhaps in my next attempt I
will try and take this concept a step further and try something more complicated.

Conceptual Domain

[Source: http://www.ntticc.or.jp/Calendar/2000/Sound_Art/Works/finding.html]

In posing the question is it possible to record or recognize a certain
spatial situation or condition using sound, I found it relevant to look up the
concept of installation art. If we take a moment to consider the concept of
the frame in art, installation art seems to be trying to free itself from the
limitations imposed by the frame or focus of conventional painting and
sculpture. But some spatial works are still based on the establishment of a
frame or focus in a different sense. In other words, the work itself functions
as a kind of frame vis a vis space.

Installations are based on the physical restriction of closed spaces such
as the gallery and even when they are outside in the open they are
provisionally structured inside a limitless focus. If we include these changes
in space in our perspective they can become an index or system to
conceptually visualize and perceive the work including the axis of time.

Moreover, they are devices to help us recognize situations and
conditions of space-time we would not necessarily grasp as daily
experiences and make us perceive a more open world. And they are
presented with the same subtlety that keeps us from taking any particular
notice of them in our daily lives. By creating a sound story, I have
attempted to make use of the concept of a spatial situation that uses only
sound as the tool of narration.

The Sound Story

In a darkened room, this three and a half minute audio clip tells a
simple narrative story. I decided not to use too many sounds in an attempt
to allow the listeners imagination to create the space when the atmosphere
and situation was provided.

The result is a non-melodramatic story of a couple that is in a happy
heterosexual relationship when one of them meets with an accident and
dies. The piece ends with the spouse grieving.

Click here to listen to the story.