Event Blog 1: Acoustical Visions

My head upon arriving to the presentation.

I had the pleasure of attending Bill Fontana’s talk on Acoustical Visions. It was on campus in the Broad art center, a building I’ve been to several times throughout college to support my friends’ works over the years. This particular afternoon, the room hosted Bill Fontana, a sound sculptures pioneer. He was always fascinated by sound and began to take special notice in the act of listening. It was this attentiveness that allowed him to develop the idea that sound is a physical medium that can change and redefine relationships to spaces. Just like clay is the medium for a sculptor, sound is Fontana’s medium.

Fontana focused on bringing landscapes, things that would otherwise be purely visual media, to life by giving them an element of auralization. One example he gave was his work with foghorns in the Bay. He collected sound samples from different foghorns throughout the region and relayed their audio to a single location. By doing this he reduced the real space between the noises, adding a time structure to his art. Another example was his work with the desert, which he said sounded very similar to the ocean. He thought that it was interesting that the ocean once existed over this desert, stating that perhaps he is hearing the ghost of the ocean. 

What he spent a lot of his talk on was his work with the iconic 25 de Abril Bridge in Lisbon. The final piece, entitled “Shadow Soundings” was a compilation of video footage and audio samples from different locations all over the bridge. He said he explored the geometry of structure of the bridge to try and gather different sounds to create an overall immersive and enervating experience for the viewer. 

"Shadow Soundings"

His art, however, would not be possible without the technological innovations of film and seismic accelerometers. He opened the talk with a “sound sample” taken from a sculpture from the UCLA’s sculpture garden. However, sculptures don’t make sound, so he gathered this “sound” by placing a seismic accelerometer on the surface of the sculpture, allowing him to record the sculpture’s microvibrations as a result of the ambient sound present in the sculpture garden that morning. He continued to use this method of sound collection, essentially delivering to his audiences what sculptures and structures “hear” themselves. I thought this was a brilliant use for something typically used to just measure the vibrations of Earth to detect earthquakes. Fontana utilizes accelerometers to bring earth and man-made structures to life. This collaboration between technology and art is exactly the type of connection we strive to discover in this course.

A typical accelerometer that Fontana might use when collecting audio samples.

Extra: Fontana's Favorite Sounds is a link with a video containing some of Fontana's favorite sounds that I found fascinating.

References:

Ahmed, Afshan. “Bill Fontana on Making the Sand Sing.” The National, The National, 17 Mar. 2014, www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/bill-fontana-on-making-the-sand-sing-1.309447.

Furtado, Will. “Bill Fontana: Making Music From Lisbon's Most Famous Bridge.” Sleek Mag, 8 Nov. 2017, www.sleek-mag.com/2017/11/07/bill-fontana-shadow-soundings-bridge-art/.

Gadanho, Pedro. “BILL FONTANA. SHADOW SOUNDINGS.” MAAT, www.maat.pt/en/exhibitions/bill-fontana-shadow-soundings.

“High Sensitivity Accelerometers.” High Sensitivity Accelerometers, www.mmf.de/seismic_accelerometers.htm.

Whiting, Sam. “Artist Bill Fontana Is of Sound Mind.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Aug. 2017, www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/Artist-Bill-Fontana-is-of-sound-mind-11818413.php.