Real and Imaginary Places: The Experience of Sound, Memory, and Space
Abstract
Real and Imaginary Places is an iterative sound work that uses environmental field recordings to create simulated, networked sonic landscapes. The sensory experience of sound contributes to memory, syntax, and sense of presence. The various ways sound is first heard and then felt is dependent on its perceived qualities. Fluctuating states of attention, focus, and distraction with pleasant and unpleasant sounds inform ways to shape, store, and recall memories of the environment. The understanding of sound is dependent on the acoustic qualities of a space in which it is heard, making place essential to sound experience. My process-focused creative practice recreates sound environments to acknowledge the influence of sound perception, experience, and memory on states of presence in space/place. The use of the virtual and physical in this work challenges preconceptions on the sensory experience of sound and notions of real, imaginary, past, and present sonic environments. The iterative nature of Real and Imaginary Places is designed to transform sound individually and collectively and responds directly to changes in geographies and landscapes. The present global shared experience of placement and the re-configurations of private and public spaces gives opportunity to explore new methods of engagement with the environment through sound experience.