Joel Stern N5335612 KK51 Masters of Arts (Research) Creative Industries Faculty Thesis: Tracing the influence of non-narrative film and expanded cinema sound on experimental music. Supervisor – Dr. Julian Knowles ORDER OF CONTENTS Keywords: Expanded Cinema, Film Sound, Experimental Music, Audiovisual, Synchronisation, Michael Snow, Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Film Performance, Field Recording, Montage, Abject Leader. Table of Contents: 1. Purpose, Scope, Significance and Evaluation of the work (pp. 1-5) 2. The Filmmaker/Composer: New forms of synchronisation in the films of Michael Snow, Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock. (pp. 6-26) 3. Abject Leader: what makes these fields Shiver? Refracted forms of synchronisation in the films performances of Abject Leader (pp. 27-33) 4. Objects, Masks, Props: Hearing, capturing, assembling, disseminating sounds shaped by the aesthetic, conceptual and material influence of experimental film. (pp. 34-38) Creative works for submission: 1. Abject Leader ‘What Makes These Fields Shiver?’ DVD. A folio of audiovisual screen works and performance documentation made in collaboration with filmmaker Sally Golding. 2. Joel Stern ‘Objects, Masks, Props’ CD. A set of eight sonic compositions made by Joel Stern. “The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.” Signature: Date: One Purpose, Scope, Significance and Evaluation of the work. The purpose of this study This study surveys and interrogates key conceptual frameworks and artistic practises that flow through the distinct but interconnected traditions of non- narrative film and experimental music, and examines how these are articulated in my own creative sound practise. The key task is to trace and unpack the translation / transmutation of ideas that cross between the two traditions, with particular emphasis on the influence of non-narrative film aesthetics and approaches to materials on the field of experimental music. The central concept concerns audiovisuality, the relation of sound to image; how this dynamic / dialectic is configured in the work of key film artists, who also compose music; filmmaker / composers, and how the concept might function in an audio only context. Further questions of the study are ‘how do practitioners of non-narrative film AND avant-garde or experimental music configure and strategize the relation between these two practises, and how do these audiovisual configurations articulate in their creative work? In reflecting analytically on my own practise, the study then asks, how do sound / image concepts from experimental film find articulation in experimental music? The study draws upon three dialogues with key filmmaker / composers, selected for their idiosyncratic artistic practises and their pronounced influence on my own creative work. The interviews, which function as case studies, seek to reflect on the practise of audiovisuality in key works, investigating how relationships between sound and image are conceptualised in practice; how combinations and configurations of sound and image function in the works. I’ve chosen the term filmmaker / composer as opposed to media artist / audiovisual artist consciously and strategically. I wish to begin from a point of foregrounding the distinction between aural and visual compositional practises in order to highlight strategies and approaches to recombination. The terms media artist / audiovisual artist speak strongly to an a priori conflation of sound and image as interchangeable media practises. The filmmaker / composers interviewed are Tony Conrad, Michael Snow and Phill Niblock. These three practitioners are strongly associated with 16mm film, an artistic medium that captures image independently from sound. The combination of the two elements thus always stems from strategic and conceptual positioning. A conscious ‘approach to audiovisuality’. This study draws from the analytical tools utilised by contemporary film studies for analysing sound-image relationships, in particular Michel Chion’s terminology for examining audiovisuality in narrative cinema, but speaks also to the need for expanded critical approaches to audiovisuality in the work of filmmaker / composers, and the soundscape / noise musicians whose work bears the influence of this tradition. The creative works examined in the study suggest a 1 need for extended forms of audiovisual analysis. A key interpretive concept and central node of this study is synchronicity. The study seeks to identify and describe innovative forms of synchronicity, appropriate to work in which abstraction, improvisation, indeterminacy, and experimentation impact on audiovisual relationships in unusual and unpredictable ways. A number of recent surveys, exhibitions, and studies of both historical and contemporary audiovisual work have focused on ‘visual music’, a hugely influential tradition encompassing painting, film, sculpture, installation and other forms, driven by visual artists striving to replicate in the image the formal, temporal and aesthetic characteristic of music. This study diverges from ‘visual music’ based investigations by foregrounding practices that problematise and critique the ‘synesthetic’ or sensory basis of synchronicity in ‘visual music.’ The synchronicities examined in this study are characterised by instability, ambiguity or disarrangement, obtuse structural / material strategies, temporal and spatial dissolutions, and phantom or imaginary correspondences. The works speak to sensory demarcation or disconnect rather than liquidity and conflation. The recombinant audiovisuality observed in the works may be ‘free associative’; a ‘free synchronisation’ that demands of the audio-spectator an active role as interpreter. As part of this research, I undertake critical reflection on my own practices as an expanded cinema practitioner, sound artist, and a curator / researcher of audiovisual performance. I examine how my own creative work embodies concepts of audiovisuality drawn from both experimental film and music. I undertake close textual analysis of my work as part of the film / sound collaborative duo Abject Leader (with Sally Golding), focussing on the blurring / slippage of ideas and materials central to the projection of images and sound. In this study I listen closely to my own suite of compositions, ‘Objects. Masks. Props.’ asking how the visual is rendered through these sonic works, how sound can resonate an implied visualisation? Images and visual scenarios are articulated as a manifestation of the aural, conjured into existence through sonic cues and details. A relation is formed between what we hear and our imagination of the visual context; both the physical spaces from which sounds are drawn, and the sequence of visual events implied by the sonic narrative. The analysis refers to the critical reception for the works, citing reviews that describe in detail the visual dimension inherent in the compositions, proposing a reading of the compositions as a form of ‘image-less experimental film’ The scope of the study The research comprises a folio of creative practice-based work with an exegetical component of approximately 15,000 words. 1. A series of dialogues with three filmmaker / composers, Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock and Michael Snow. Each has produced historically significant works in both fields of film and sound. The interviews interrogate the understanding of audiovisuality, the relation and nature of 2 correspondences between film and sound, and the forms of synchronisation employed with reference to key works by the artists. 2. Abject Leader ‘What Makes These Fields Shiver?’ DVD. A folio of audiovisual screen works and performance documentation made in collaboration with filmmaker Sally Golding. These works embody the key research questions by investigating, problematising and reflecting upon experimental forms of synchronicity. A methodology of reflective practice and textual analysis are employed in relation to the creative work. 3. Joel Stern ‘Objects, Masks, Props’ CD. A set of eight sonic compositions designed to conjure imaginary visual scenarios and spaces through the use of environmental sound, spatialisation, subliminal and direct narrative sound, and temporal manipulation. PA methodology of reflective practice and textual analysis are employed in relation to the creative work. How does the creative practice intersect with the analytical, textual and reflective research? In developing a research methodology I have taken care not to compromise aspects of my creative practice that might be characterised as inconsistent with, or unsuited to a process of methodical scrutiny. In specific ways my creative work is principally resistant to formal research methodologies. Artistic strategies including free improvisation, intuitive experimentation, indeterminacy and chance could be accurately described as anti-systematic. My works develop in a range of informal and formal spaces including recording studios, natural and urban environments and lounge-rooms. There is a central uncertainty in the combination of approaches and spaces vital to ongoing innovation in my practise. Whilst it is possible to unpack elements of the creative process using appropriate tools and methodologies, it is ‘the creative work’ produced through these processes that ultimately