Background >> Aesthetics
Theory
Welcome aims to present the listener with a virtual soundscape without requiring suspension of disbelief in the audience. While a typical electroacoustic piece projected through an an immersive sound system may sound realistic, the sonic information contradicts the visual information provided by the concert hall environment. By placing sounds in their natural environment, Welcome's experience takes on a true illusive quality, which Peter Batchelor refers to as "trompe l'oreille."
Sound elements combined to create an artistic piece can be classified into four categories of realism:
- Real - sound recorded and presented with no intervention beyond mic placement
- Hyperreal - subtle manipulations that leave realism intact
- Virtual - obviously imposed narratives, surrealistic presentation
- Unreal - devoid of referential characteristics
The sound presentation of Welcome moves between real and hyperreal states.
Batchelor, Peter. "Fabricating Aural Landscapes: Some Compositional Implications of Trompe l'Oreille", Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (Copenhagen, Denmark, August 27-31, 2007) vol. 1, pp. 149-152 (2007).
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny", 1919.
Related Works
Luc Ferrari's musique concrete compositions, which manipulates environmental recordings to present a sound experience moving between real and hyperreal.
Old Joe Sound Sculpture, by Peter Batchelor, combines the quarter-hourly chiming of a clock tower with manipulated recordings of the clock tower. The real and unreal interact with echoes from surrounding buildings to form the sonic experience.
Robin Minard's sound installations related to architecture, urban noise, and nature.
Time Delay Room by Dan Graham.