Red Lake / Black Mine: Affective Bodies and Material Complicity in Sound Art Practice

This practice-research operates at the intersection of field recording, electroacoustic composition and sound art. It investigates how material—often considered inert—possesses agency, drawing the body of the artist to other affective bodies (sounds, objects, and actions) that exert influence on the creative process.

The key methods include exploring the potential sound of objects in the field and investigating the capacity of sound to influence other materials. For example, the sonic properties of field recordings (onsets, partials, noisiness, centroid, etc.) are used to process sounds, images, and text from the same sites.

The methodology is informed by the practice-research ideas of Nelson (2013) and Wesseling (2016), with a particular focus on iterative discovery and experience. The work emerged through cycles of making, reflecting, and remaking, often guided by the resistances and affordances of material. An interest in the recursive influence of material is inspired by Taussig (2011) and also Lange-Berndt’s description of materials as “wilful actors and agents within artistic processes” (2015: 18). Drawing from the new materialist ideas of Bennett (2010) and Massumi (2011), the research has significant implications for authorship; positioning material as a complicit agent, acting on the artist from the moment of encounter and shaping every phase of the work’s development.

The multidisciplinary thesis is informed by productive collisions with archaeology, anthropology, poetry, land art, and music computing, pushing the boundaries of sound practice and exploring sound in relation to other disciplines, media and sensory registers. The multimodal practice portfolio, comprising sound and video pieces and a printed book of text and images, contributes to a growing body of work dedicated to expanding field recording practice as well as a pluralistic set of concepts and methods that situate sound practice within a wider context.