Andrew Knight-Hill presented a lecture on practice research and how he has used this methodology within his own practice. During the lecture, he questioned the division between thinking and doing, what is knowledge and what does it mean to understand something through action and practice. How does this change our perception on how to engage our judgement around accepting knowledge. Throughout my BA degree, I have learnt about practice-based research versus research-based practice. I spent most of the modules practising research-based practice, reading into the brief and gaining research to develop a concept. And although I have heard this methodology before, it is interesting to see how other practitioners use this method in their practice which also inspires me to try it out. Especially after listing to Juliana Cerqueira Leite lecture on how she interacts with the material, she lets her methodology lead her process.
Andrew spoke about art being the "idea" and how the idea and concept precedes the art, according to some people. If we follow this idea, there becomes a hierarchy in which novelty and innovative art are prized. "Genius" artist are held up as an example because of their different thinking, creating as well this pressure to create something "new" and "original". I think that this resonates with me because personally, I have been in the position where I have been so concerned that the concept or idea that I am pursuing is not "original" enough; however, this is something that I would like to challenge and overcome, really focusing on the process and method rather than the concept, letting the idea developed in the process instead of deciding at the start. During the lecture, Francisco Lopez's piece Untitled 233 was played as an introduction to his work and a musician, how he uses this methodology. Francisco Lopez is an experimental avant-garde sound artist who started working as an entomologist. To him, listening to the rainforest's soundscape was art but was something that he came across unintentionally. Lopez was initially in the rainforests of South America, working as an entomologist when he was struck by the sound world's power and effect, looking at bioacoustics - the study of the sounds of nature isolated from the 'background'. His work removes the isolate elements of the soundscape and in which the process of recording itself frames the 'sound matter'. His attention was ' focused' upon the sound environment as a whole.'' and on the 'inner world of sounds'. His work emerged from a process of discovery which was then edited and chosen to be presented in a concert setting, with the audience wearing blindfolds to make the sound more immersive.
The question of at what point is the work finished was raised, which brought an interesting thought. From Julianna's talk, she 'finishes' the work when her process is done; however, I'm still figuring out my own process, which then brings a question of when the process finished. Mateo has brought this up recently as well, and I feel that I question this as well within my work.
Figure 1: Francisco López: Live Sound Performance (Lopez, 2019)
References:
Images
Figure 1: Lopez, F., 2019. Francisco López: Live Sound Performance. [image] Available at: <https://agosto-foundation.org/francisco-lopez-live-sound-performance> [Accessed 26 October 2020].
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