MA Fine Art
Stefan Adamek
The main focus of my current practice is to produce an installation, with which the viewer can interact with on various levels. Through listening, watching, moving and producing sound, the viewer will be making the work exist and function within the space.
The work at first seems to have a very random, incoherent and sparse appearance and produces a similar experience for the viewer, but this for me is the main driving force of the body of work. The work as a whole explores the idea of randomness and the concept of how random something can appear to be and really is. Each of the components in the installation attempts to tackle this theory in a different way through how each part functions individually and with the others as a whole. One thing that I have come to find is that no matter how random something seems more often than not there is a set of parameters behind it that have been created that determine this ‘random’ outcome. Each part within the installation functions and exists because it has its own set of parameters that have been determined by me which in turn results in the outcome, be it visual or audio, that you can experience see today.
The level of detail within the parameters or process set for each of the pieces of work varies. Two pieces have very simple set and the other half have a more complex worked through process about them. Setting myself these varying parameters to work with for each piece has enabled me to see how each piece can function in accordance to the level of detail provided in the process needed. The two pieces with a simple process that allows them to function are both sensor based. One converts movement into and audio outcome and the other turns audio into a visual outcome. For these two pieces the only part that I have determined is the positioning of the work within the space, which has also been done in a way that makes the viewer begin to question what is going on and how it is happening. The outcome is solely determined by the audience within and around the space activating the respective sensors that in turn will create a seemingly random sequence of sound and light.
The video piece has more of a background to it than the previous two mentioned. What you see in the video is a result of me using iTunes to play a much earlier piece of work. The earlier piece was based around random selection. The piece consisted of 38 tracks all 1second in length. By playing this piece through iTunes and having the shuffle and repeat functions activated a visual for the audio had been inadvertently created. The grey bar you see in the video corresponds to the way iTunes indicates to the user which track is playing. Given the short nature of the each track and the settings applied to the program when playing the bar jumped around on the screen constantly indicating which track was playing. I proceeded to create images of the bar in the every position over the course of one cycle and them edited them and compiled them together to produce what seems like a random and visually ambiguous video.
The final piece of the installation is the plinth. The process of this is in what you can hear not what you can see and is the one with the most set of rules and parameters for each stage of the coming together of the piece. The sound playing from inside is a composition I myself have composed using the rolling of dice. First of all by rolling 2 dice simultaneously I determined the number of notes and silences for the treble and bass. For the composition I used 1second as my unit for time, so each note is a second long and the time of the silences I measured in seconds also. The next stage of the process was to go back over the basic score I had created and to use another die which would determine the pitch of each note in accordance to a 6 note scale derived from C Major for both the treble and bass. Further more I then asked my father to interpret and play the composition on his accordion. The idea of this piece was to have something that had really been worked through from beginning to end with each stage having a factor with more than one outcome, be it interpretation or chance.
Throughout the year I have been looking at work by artists such as John Cage and more contemporary artists like Haroon Mirza who both in there own way deal with sound and process within there work in an installation format. Both artists have produced installation works that at first glance can seem very ambiguous and disjointed (Cage’s installation entitled Essay and Mirza’s Adhan) to the viewer but upon a closer enquiry they both have an strong underlying connection while at the same time referencing other art forms. This is something that I have tried to incorporate into my own work and practice. With the output of the work being quite chaotic I have decided to contrast this with a very minimal look to the work which it turn will also aid the ambiguity of the work and lead the viewer on to question what really is going on within the space, in an opposite way to Mirza’s work were you can see all the working of each piece.
These photographs you are about to see are of the installation I produced for which the above statement belongs.
This next series of images show a piece work that I had to install into the ceiling structure of the studio in which my work was being shown. The piece itself is a motion sensor which when triggered produces a sound from a speaker attached to the unit.
The images above show the sensor and the speaker which is attached to the sensor via 10m of speaker wire.
The images above show the sensor piece installed in position.
