I am quite slow at working on larger-scale things, especially when the idea is to balance two of them simultaneously (this project and the Research project), and for me to keep on top of my own artistic/personal endeavours. We did have a lecture last year, though, that was from Rory, Ecka, and Milo, in which Rory spoke about work (work as in Job work, not art), what it means to work in relation to making music/art, and that the two are interconnected, getting me to acknowledge that creation does not stop when you are away from the instrument, it is a product of lived experience, it is continuous, and bleeds into every aspect of life and incorporating that approach into both work and art is hugely beneficial to keeping that balance in my life.

The classes being fortnightly will be something I’d have to adjust to. I don’t really like the idea at all, and I found it hard to focus on this project when the only class we have this week is for the research project. The main ideas at the moment, though, are to do things that get me out of my comfort zone and kind of breach into a broader demographic, break out of esoteric space, to do something that I’m proud of that would ideally help make my portfolio more professionally minded. I would love to be able to work with sound professionally, so a portfolio that necessitates that (but is still made from work that I’ve enjoyed making) would be ideal. From past projects, I have found that I hate working on installation work; I am not very visually minded and prefer to focus entirely on sonics and mood, so some extension of my recorded work would probably be the most likely thing I’m interested in.

Something I’ve observed in Sound Art, especially, is the work’s reliance on sound’s effect on other stimuli, rather than just being sound, which I find both irritating, but also particular to the music I like, quite exciting regarding how titles or imagery can completely alter the perception of the work, especially with a lot of esoteric work’s abstract emotional quality, other stimuli can ground the work within a situation or aesthetic that sound can’t convey, utilising more stimuli to create a more significant moment. I say this just to elaborate on Sound Art’s connection to Fine Art, which is something I don’t really find interest in making, but enjoy consuming, and also to pick at something unavoidable with released work, coming back to an idea last week of formalising my presentation for the work. A majority of what I can express with sound can be enhanced through the surrounding aesthetic, including emptiness (thinking particularly about Francisco Lopez’s Untitled series, where the work is completely separated from external stimuli, and that giving the work a more scientific, clinical feel).