MICHELLE NGUYEN
SIGNAL Arts' Screen X Sound Commission 2020
Over 12 weeks 4 sound artists and 4 screen artists made a solo work each and were then paired up to make a collaborative audio-visual work for presentation online.
NETWURM is a piece about the transmutation of data, and the variability of networking and playback hardware. Interruptions, stuttering, and the wide range of speaker quality highlights the materiality of sound as information mediated through technology, prone to degradation and glitch. In a creative context, these artefacts of materiality take control away from human intent and reflect a collaborative relationship between the laptop, Internet, and myself. Sounds scrounged from VoIP technology, DAW artefacts, and laptop machinery morph into shapes and new patterns, while the piece itself is made to transform on different speaker types, from smartphones to hi-fi sound systems. This piece is an experiment in creative technological collaboration and playback performance.
ARTIFICIAL IMPRESSION is a piece exploring nostalgia and emotional expression in an abstract form through the use of dated screen and sound technologies. Assembled during a period of abrupt change and social separation, the piece juxtaposes evocative analogue textures of bygone eras against harsh digital glitch. The method of Databending with Audacity applied to digitized Super 8 footage, and Ableton algorithms and interface pushed to form ruptures in audio samples and field recordings, generates expressive and organic malfunction. ARTIFICIAL IMPRESSION draws focus to the process of recollecting and reconstructing memories by using the glitch as a point of rupture and rebirth.