To continue my idea of sounds as a trigger for memory and nostalgia, I decided to search through my camera roll for certain sounds that resonated with me as significant triggers for core memories during my childhood and growing up. During this, I found a video I took, of an artwork at the 2019 Biennale exhibition in Venice. This artwork, entitled ‘Data-Verse 1’ by the Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda, was an entirely digital work which was compiled using a multitude of digital data from institutions such as NASA, CERN, and The Human Genome Project. The large-scale screen which projects this complied digital artwork is extremely effective in immersing the audience within an aural and visual sea of digital data, which underpins the totality of our understanding of our universe. The soundscape of this piece greatly inspired me to open up the potential for my next steps in this project. Ikeda places heavy emphasis on the use of white noise, static sounds and digitally created noises, resembling a computer scanning a database for a particular file or piece of information. Personally, the soundscape of this piece reminded me of electronic signals and technology which records sound waves, from which I began to brainstorm the idea of creating an audio file which traces the ‘evolution’ of the brain, in terms of retaining memory. The digital sounds of Ikeda’s piece act as electronic signals which are sent to the brain, whilst the soundscapes of the city which I noted during my soundwalk, act to trigger memories through these electronic signals. Therefore, I am keen to explore the potential of combining these contrasting soundscapes; one of a technological and digital nature, whilst the other of a much more natural and emotional nature, to attempt to create a soundtrack of the brain as it develops the ability to retain memory and trigger nostalgia.

Below is a link to a short clip of Ikeda’s work at the Biennale exhibition of 2019.

‘Data-Verse 1’, 2019.

 

Cevdet Erek

Shore Scene Soundtrack

This piece by Cevdet Erek is an interactive soundscape artwork, in which viewers are encouraged to recreate sounds of waves and the ocean, by rubbing their hands over a piece of carpet. This piece, emphasised to me the power of sound as an influencer for memory and the ability of sounds to create an image in one’s imagination. The mechanical nature of hands creating this sound in Erek’s work combined with the realistic and emotionally triggering sounds of the ocean produced, also contributed to my progression of ideas towards my final outcome: a soundscape featuring the combination of mechanical and technological sounds with natural sounds and those which trigger memory.

 

Cevdet Erek, ‘Shore Scene Soundtrack,’ 2012.