Author: Elliot Armitage-Woods

Creative Sound Work: metal+noise and a pitch black Odyssey

My creative sound piece for this unit consists entirely of organic, untouched field recordings, both in and outdoors, as well as patches of processed synthesis and live instrumentation.

Each individual field recording was recorded on a H5 ZOOM. The constant chatter, born from myself placing the device in a crowded lobby space, intended for post exhibition discussion and general chatter. The exhibition in question was ‘Future Shock’, at 180, the Strand.

As well as this, a constant vinyl crackle is heard throughout, also organically recorded in my bedroom. The work consists of many organic recordings, including a vintage telephone, morse code, cars and keys, and two isolated naturalistic environments.

To have the two constants; the vinyl and the chatter, as a constant theme throughout, is something I allude to in my essay, and this idea of ‘ecological consciousness’ and a heartbeat. To have this heartbeat as two organic recordings, both ambient and unsettling in their nature, is something new to me, but something I will definitely be exploring further, as I now treat such an ideology as crucial to the type of work that I make, and would subsequently want to continue making throughout my sonic career.

Collaborating Works: Photos from a sound-walk, pt3

a tower-block in South East London. There was a birds nest at the very top of the building, but the Zoom was only able to pick up scraps. Some used.
an early evening sound-walk in my local park. Sat next to birds.
on way home from a sound-walk in central London. Wanted to capture the rumble of my train as part of underlying ambience. Proved unsuccessful.
a piece of land not far from where I live. Got caught in the rain attempting to capture more birds. Accidental rain recording proved most useful.

External Work and my Future

Throughout this unit, I have been exploring my future career possibilities, as well as intertwining this exploration with a few external scoring and personal projects, which I hope to aid my search for a suitable career choice, upon completing my course.

Firstly, a series of short, experimental videos (more to be released as the summer months go on) produced with my longtime collaborator Tobias Futers (UAL, Chelsea, Fine Art). As well as this, I helped to sonically design, score and film his experimental short film ‘VALA’.

My stand alone, sonic work which I have been working on and releasing intermittently throughout the year is available to stream here:

I have also been recently commissioned to produce an accompanying sound work for a third year’s final piece, which will be exhibited in Chelsea on the 17th of June.

I am finding much enjoyment in scoring work, and can see a partly sustainable future in this, so long as I continue to expand my network of collaborators, as well as taking time to further strengthen my craft.

Collaborating Works: Photos from a sound-walk, pt2

a stream/current under lewisham arches. used momentarily within works.
taken from the gates of a graveyard. a low rumble was captured and used in works. both picture and experience of collection extremely surreal and supernatural.
an attempt at capturing the ambience emitted from these lights. attempt failed but an attempt nonetheless.
a church near my house at night. home to many birds nest and other noises.
a late night walk in Dungeness. a stream was parallel to this road that I managed to capture, but it was too dark to see anything of it.

Collaborating Works: Photos from a sound-walk, Pt 1

a selection of photos taken on various sound-walks between January and June.

a wisteria bush, home to a birds nest featured within the Zen Room
me and my trusty H5 (used for all sounds)
a view from primrose hill, taken on a later evening soundwalk
a peculiar house, tree home to a few small birds
a overgrowth home to many birds. i really appreciated this particular light and wanted to capture it.

Visiting Practitioner Series: Makoto Oshiro

Makoto Oshiro is a Sound Artist and performer, based in Berlin and Tokyo. His preferred field is sound, but he also uses other elements including light, electricity and movement of other physical/human/man-made objects. Within live performances, he uses man-made tools and instruments that are based on electronic devices, everyday materials, and trash. His installation work tackles sound as a physical and auditory phenomenon, and focuses on characteristics such as both technical/digital and human vibration and interference. He is also a member of the live installation/performance group The Great “△(夏の大△)” with Takahiro Kawaguchi and Satoshi Yashiro, and runs the label Basic Function.

His most recent album, entitled “Austin Meeting”, composed alongside Kawaguchi and A Spirale, is an hour-long collection of live instrumental and physical recording, taking place between the Ana Lark Centre, in Austin, Texas and Cloud Tree Studios, also in Austin, Texas. He released his first ever solo CD Phenomenal World, in March 2014, on Japanese label Hitorri.

Visiting Practitioner Series: Felisha Ledesma

Felisha Ledesma is an interdisciplinary artist and organiser, Sound Artist and musician, based in Berlin, and Portland, Oregon. Ledesma founded and directs a project/art space that hosts live experimental music, performance and visual art as well as being the physical headquarters for the Synth Library – a renting facility for electronic music equipment.

Felisha talked us through her most recent body of work, which entailed designing and conceptualising a synthesiser, AMQR, together with instrument designer Ess Mattisson, which was subsequently used on Ledesma’s releases for labels Ecstatic Recordings and ‘Enmossed x Psychic Liberation’. This groundbreaking collaboration led to the formation of ‘Fors’, a music technology project creating software instruments.

Felisha has an upcoming, 6-channel sound exhibition entitled ‘corner of my eye’

“The birds chirp, theirs calls cutting in and out of the breathing sound of wafting conversation, I can pick out individual words, but strung together these exchanges mean nothing to me. The only thing is sometimes I feel like I learned the key to the universe but cant quite remember it”.

Visiting Practitioner Series: Lindsay Wright

Lindsay Wright is an award-winning multi instrumentalist and composer, whom combines both experimental and traditional practices and techniques in order to create a particular, unique sound for every score. Intertwining electronic finishes with transformative acoustics, Lindsay’s work has seeped through mainstream culture, working to produce scores such as Apple Tv’s ‘ROAR’, ‘Stan Lee’s Lucky Man’ and Sky Atlantic’s ‘The Tunnel’. Wright was also the chief music editor on series 3&4 of Netflix’s ‘The Crown’, resulting in her first primetime Emmy nomination. As well as this, Lindsay’s short form work for Hewlett Packard’s ‘Orchestra’ won bronze at the LIA awards for original score, and at the Clio awards for Film Craft: Original Music.

Lindsay gave us a sneak preview of some of her upcoming work, including HBO’s ‘The mystery of DB Cooper’.

Talking about how she works, Lindsay mentioned that she writes/scores to script, or picture/video/rough cuts that are sent through by the editor. DAW issues (lagging) mean that Wright uses Videosync, a visual accompaniment for Ableton Live.

Lindsay starts without template, building the project as she goes. Lindsay enjoys the “one or two day process at the start” collecting a range of sounds and timbres for particular characters, before manipulating within her chosen DAW. This process resonated with me, as it’s exactly the type of exercise I use and enjoy when creating my own work.

Visiting Practitioner Series: Hannah Wallis

Hannah Wallis is a multi-media artist, organiser and researcher based in the Midlands. Hannah’s work, spearheaded by her self-proclaimed fascination of the boundaries between construction, performance, locality, curating and disability rights, consists mostly of three disciplines, outlined in her discussion with us. The concern of visual and performative knowledge production, and how it can inform and be informed by collectivisation, collaboration, and both long and short-term research cycles.

After completing a monumental, curator-in-residence position at Wysing Arts Centre as part of Future Curators Network; a programme supporting the career development of D/deaf and Disabled Curators, in partnership with DASH, Hannah now works full time within the Wysing team.

Hannah spoke most fondly of Dyad Creative, the two-person collective she shares with artist Théodora Lecrinier since 2014, and is supported by organisations including a-n, East Street Arts, National Centre for Writing, Kettle’s Yard, and Arts Council England, Hannah has led self-curated residency programmes and learning projects, developed interactive commissions and curatorial research, as well as managing several temporary artist-led project/art spaces.

Wallis is a strong voice for both disabled rights and workers rights as a whole, with some of her work demonstrating such ideologies. Hannah used this time with us partly, to represent her views on the difference between able-bodied and disabled artists’ struggles. “The world is sort of built and made a certain way… it’s made, it’s made for the able bodied.”