The Medium is the Message
In my musical work I tend to amplify the perception of my medium. When I use samples, I would often cut them at points, where it appears to be not logical in the lapse of the musical sound. By that very easy trick, the samples can be re-established as musical raw material – a pre-semantic state, the state of just listening to the medium might be evoked. I'm not sure about what the 'message' of the medium computer music or sample music in the sense of McLuhan might be. Computer music produces a distance to the music played by physical instruments. By listening to recorded music, it isn't necessary to listen at the same time and space of the physical sounding instrument anymore. Furthermore, with all the alterations of samples, a great deal of thought references (the concert hall, the players, the instruments, ...) can be lost. This can also be optimistically expressed: the sound is set free of those references and can show it's immanent qualities. The totally reference-free sound may be the most materialistic and might show immanent qualities of a cultural belief that we call music, but I think that a a lot of musical pleasures come from references within the music, as-well. Computer music has potentials in producing both – the referenced (relative) and the unreferenced (absolute) sound. Within sample music, that unreferenced, absolute sound can even be established by breaking with the samples references (alterations, cuts, filters, ...). And to me, this seemed some interesting way of handling the problem of the medium.
Medium is the message makes me think of my work in lighting design. I have expanded into the world of installations and site specific theatre and I have learned that the location and the environment in which lighting is perceived has a strong effect on an audience or viewer. A source of light that is hidden and keeps the audience unaware of the cause of the source makes the material much more in focus, where as if the viewer/audience can see the light source then they are much more aware of what is in front of them and they can make several different judgements as to what they are watching. As far as what this can have for collaboration it kinda deals with the eye of the beholder, because we are limited to the position of the camera, the viewer is very limited as to what they can see and experience and that has a great impact of the perception of the performance.
Bill Fontana
According to Bill Fontana, the transfer of a sound to a different place alters the listing mode from the event to the continuous, because the sound is not linked to the original events anymore and can be experienced as a continuous flow with musical qualities. At the same time the sound gains sculptural qualities: The sound-event's causal connections and layerings of independent sounds are analogous to the objects of a collage-like sculpture, where certain objects relate to each other and others might not. The spaces themselves might seem artificial. Now stripped from their original sonic environment, the perception of those spaces can be more intense, in the sense that it is the space itself – without it's sound – that can be experienced.
I feel that the sound of the room as everything to do with the understanding and perception of the room. Our sense of sound is one of the most acute to memory and once that changes then our understanding of the space turns into a whole space, probably one that is unnatural. This unnatural feeling stems from the sense of a new, probably uncomfortable space/sound relationship.
Instruments with unexpected sounds
The same applies here: by the mismatch with our expectation, the sound and the instrument itself seem artificial, demanding attention and inviting to dive into the perception of the object and the sound – simultaneously and successive.
If an object that is well known or used often creates a different sound then the result can be shocking. If my alarm clock were to come up with a live rock concert sound then it would create an uneasy, very unnatural feeling. A person's imagination would have a lot to do with the person's response to this sound.
Sound Clips
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