Final Two Weeks at Porthmeor Studios.

Casting Sound Waves

Continuing with casting, I have been exploring the idea of casting sound waves.

With the help of Film and Sound student Joe, I have gathered sound recordings of the waves in different locations on Porthmeor beach, with the intention to both use the audio to draw/sculpt in response to and also to look at the actual sound waves of the audio files.

Using Da Vinci Resolve I was able to zoom in on the sound waves to see the individual lines of the sound waves. I listened through all of the recordings whilst watching the sound waves flickering and fluctuating with the different frequencies of the sounds of the sea waves.

I wanted to somehow translate these digital images of the sound waves somehow into a physical form, and then into something three dimensional and sculptural. If I had unlimited resources I would somehow program some kind of drill or laser cutter to respond to the sound waves’ movement, making the sound waves cut or mark a material almost directly.

Without such resources available I created some slightly more human pieces, exploring the idea of sound waves making a mark on a material. I imprinted a small rock into some found clay from Falmouth, removed the rock

The exhibition:

Again, the limited materials and time available for our one-day exhibition made putting it together rather unique and interesting, wanting to make the most of the days leading up to the show for making soup, rather than moving furniture etc.

As a group we chose to only display names of the artist and the works as opposed to having large informative wall texts, due to the exhibition only being for one day. The five artists would be present in the space to answer any questions that viewers had about the works, combating the issue of no wall texts.

I chose to display a selection of sculptures almost like artifacts on a white table, with some abstract

drawings inspired by landscape and my casts on the wall above them. I also included a sound aspect,

almost a ‘sound sculpture’, made by editing sound to move around a space, in this case through

headphones, which I think helped to tie together the physical works on the wall and table and

almost give context to them, being works done in response to sound mostly.

Overall this month has given me time to further explore sound, whilst responding to a new local

environment, before going into my third year of my degree. It has been a valuable time of

experimentation and also of professional practice.