City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Bailie, J. E. C. (2017). Transcribing Reality: how the nature of audio and visual media have affected culture, perception, and the role of the artist.. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City, University of London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/20257/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Transcribing Reality: how the nature of audio and visual media have affected culture, perception, and the role of the artist. by Joanna Elisa Corinna Bailie Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy City, University of London School of Arts and Social Sciences Date submitted: 24/05/2017 VOLUME 1 1 CONTENTS VOLUME 1 Title page 1 Contents 2 List of figures 5 List of examples 8 Acknowledgements 10 Declaration 11 Abstract 12 1. Introduction, the index and the overly-wide sample 1.1 General Introduction 14 1.2 The main issues: discrete v continuous, loss, intermedia, the human factor 15 1.3 Methodology — connection-making is key 18 1.4 The allure of the index 26 1.5 Overly-long photographic samples and extended presents 29 1.6 Bragaglia and Sugimoto 33 1.7 Is there a musical response to the long-exposure photograph? 38 1.8 Conclusion to Chapter 1 40 2. Freezing time to observe the transient/slowing down time to discover the discrete 2.1 Introduction 42 2.2 Freezing sound and image 43 2.3 Exposure time and fakery 45 2.4 Discovering the transient 47 2.5 The moment: before, after and during 54 2.6 The analogue, real-time freeze 57 2.7 The place you can see and hear 61 2.8 Getting from freezing to slow-motion via film 65 2.9 Intermedia 68 2.10 Slow-motion sound and reflecting the possibilities of the age 70 2.11 Revealing 73 2.12 The roads not taken 76 2 2.13 Culture and slowness/ the role of memory 78 2.14 D.I.Y. artworks and a different kind of creative spectator 80 2.15 Conclusion to Chapter 2 83 3. Sampling media: gaps, nostalgia and memory 3.1 Introduction 86 3.2 Some important developments 87 3.3 The extent of our own participation in audio and visual technologies 90 3.4 The problem with stringing samples together 95 3.5 What is lost in digital audio 96 3.6 What is gained 103 3.7 John Smith — Leading Light 105 3.8 The importance of remembering how it works: the flicker film 109 3.9 The importance of remembering what it is like when it does not work: glitch music 111 3.10 Little Dog for Roger and going beyond remembering how it works 115 3.11 Human memory and recorded media 122 3.12 The Grand Tour 124 3.13 Conclusion to Chapter 3 132 4. Sound and image together: film synchronization, music made visible and visualizing to make music. 4.1 Introduction 135 4.2 Comparing the senses 136 4.3 Synesthesia: making connections and metaphor 141 4.4 Synchronization 145 4.5 My own works and synchronization 153 4.6 Motion Painting No.1 (1947) 155 4.7 Making music visible/imagining music through the visual 160 4.8 The frequency domain 165 4.9 Grids are bad 167 4.10 Pixels, resolution and adaptation 170 4.11 Peter Ablinger — Quadraturen IIIh and Quadraturen V 174 4.12 To be beside the seaside 182 3 4.13 Conclusion to Chapter 4 192 5. Conclusion 5.1 Closing the gap 195 5.2 The role of the artist 196 5.3 Participation, losses and gains 199 5.4 Audio-visual 201 5.5 Media/reality/ourselves 202 Appendices 1 Artificial Environments Nos.9a-d (from fast to slow) (2012) 205 2The place you can see and hear (2012 —) 208 3 Slow Motion Sound (1967) 243 4 9 Beet Stretch (2004) 244 5 Trains (2013-14) 245 6 The Grand Tour (2013-15) 249 7 The Queen of the South (1972) 258 8 To be beside the seaside (2014-15) 259 Bibliography 263 4 LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 1 Fig. 1.1 Nicéphore Niépce — View from the window at Le Gras (1826 or 1827) 30 Fig. 1.2 Louis Daguerre — Boulevard du Temple (1838) 31 Fig. 1.3 Anton Giulio Bragaglia — Change of position (1911) 35 Fig. 1.4 Hiroshi Sugimoto — Union City drive-in, Union City (1993) 36 Fig. 1.5 Hiroshi Sugimoto — Movie Theater, Canton Palace, Ohio (1979) 36 Chapter 2 Fig. 2.1 Eadweard Muybridge — Galloping Horse (1878) 49 Fig. 2.2 Harold E. Edgerton — Death of a Light Bulb (1936) 50 Fig. 2.3 Harold E. Edgerton — shot from Tumbler-snapper atomic tests, Nevada (1952) 50 Fig. 2.4 Olafur Eliasson — still from Model for a Timeless Garden (2011) 57 Fig. 2.5 Joanna Bailie — Performance Space #1/Rue Darimon (Brussels, September 2012) 63 Fig. 2.6 Joanna Bailie — Donegall Street (Belfast, April 2013) 64 Fig. 2.7 Joanna Bailie — Northampton Square (London, June 2013) 64 Fig. 2.8 Joanna Bailie — Rue Royale/Rue Traversière (Brussels, June 2013) Photo: Sophie Degroote 65 Fig. 2.9 Douglas Gordon — still from 24 Hour Psycho (1993) 72 Chapter 3 Fig. 3.1 Jean Comandon — still from La Croissance des végétaux (1929) 103 Fig. 3.2 John Smith — still from Leading Light (1975) 108 Fig. 3.3 A wounded CD 114 Fig. 3.4 Malcolm Le Grice — still from Little Dog for Roger (1967) 117 Fig. 3.5 Joanna Bailie — still from The Grand Tour (2013/14) 131 Fig. 3.6 Joanna Bailie — still from the first “Johann Mouse” sequence of The Grand Tour (2013/14) 131 5 Chapter 4 Fig. 4.1 Image showing contrast sensitivity gratings 139 Fig. 4.2 Contrast sensitivity function (corresponding to Fig. 4.1) 139 Fig. 4.3 The equal loudness curve 140 Fig. 4.4 A scene from “The Duelling Cavalier” 147 Fig. 4.5 A still from Oskar Fischinger’s Motion Painting No.1 156 Fig. 4.6 Chladni patterns 164 Fig. 4.7 Pixelated versions of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Klimt’s The Kiss and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon created by Alexis Poles 172 Fig. 4.8 Willem Claeszoon Heda — Still life with oysters, a rummer, a lemon and a silver bowl (1634) 176 Fig. 4.9 The mode/filter from Quadraturen V 179 Fig. 4.10 The making of a hybrid sonority as shown in Audiosculpt 190 Fig. 4.11 A sonogram of the electronic realization of Slow sliding reveal in Audiosculpt 191 Fig. 4.12 Jack Vanarsky — La Baigneuse de Rembrandt se mirant à la Source d'Ingres (1997) 191 Appendix 2 Fig. 2a.1 Performance Space #1/Rue Darimon set-up 210 Fig. 2a.2 The MaxMSP freezing patch 211 Fig. 2a.3 The cue list function 211 Fig. 2a.4 Performance Space #1/Rue Darimon at around midday using an alternative view of the outside scene 212 Fig. 2a.5 With viewer at 6pm. Upper view 212 Fig. 2a.6 Detail of Performance Space #1 213 Fig. 2a.7 Detail of Rue Darimon 213 Fig. 2a.8 Cars on the ceiling 214 Fig. 2a.9 Clouds on the floor 214 Fig. 2a.10 PS2 gallery window 218 Fig. 2a.11 The ‘real’ Donegall Street 218 Fig. 2a.12 Darkening the room 219 Fig. 2a.13 Behind the installation — the back projection 219 Fig. 2a.14 Left side of screen and wall projection 220 6 Fig. 2a.15 Right side of screen and wall projection 220 Fig. 2a.16 The façade of the estate agents 221 Fig. 2a.17 A car ‘un-parking’ over a period of eight seconds 221 Fig. 2a.18 A stationary group of people moves off 222 Fig. 2a.19 The gable on the floor 222 Fig. 2a.20 Northampton Square, the first view 226 Fig. 2a.21 The second view 226 Fig. 2a.22 The bandstand covered in white-black-white plastic 227 Fig. 2a.23 Inside the bandstand, the first view 227 Fig. 2a.24 Inside the bandstand, second view 228 Fig. 2a.25 Both screens 228 Fig. 2a.26 Exterior view of the former newsagents 231 Fig. 2a.27 The Botanique building on Rue Royale 231 Fig. 2a.28 The junction between Rue Royale and Rue Traversière 232 Fig. 2a.29 The interior of the former newsagents 232 Fig. 2a.30 View of the Botanique building in the installation 233 Fig. 2a.31 View of the junction from the installation 233 Fig. 2a.32 Ghostly cars 234 Fig. 2a.33 A visitor in the installation 234 Fig. 2a.34 low tide at the Medway Estuary 236 Fig. 2a.35 A close-up of Sun Pier 237 Fig. 2a.36 High tide 237 Fig. 2a.37 The full length of the installation from focused (right) to slightly blurry (left) 238 Fig.