We can start with Felix Blume’s bio. Which is.
Félix Blume (France, 1984) is a sound artist and sound engineer. He currently works and lives between Mexico, Brazil and France.
He uses sound as a basic material in sound pieces, videos, actions and installations. His process is often collaborative, working with communities and using public space as the context within which he explores and presents his works. His practice involves an extended understanding of listening, as a way to encourage the awareness of the imperceptible and as an act of encounter with others. His work incorporates the sounds of different beings and species, from the buzzing of a bee, the steps of a turtle or the chirp of a cricket, as well as human dialogues both with natural and urban contexts. He is interested in myths and their contemporary interpretation, in what voices can tell beyond words.
His sound pieces have been broadcasted in radios from all over the world. He has been awarded with the “soundscape” prize (2018) for his video-piece Curupira, creature of the woods and the “Pierre Schaeffer” prize (2015) for his work Los Gritos de México at the Phonurgia Nova Awards. His film Luces del Desierto was awarded with First Prize of International Short Films at L’Alternativa 28 (2021) and Grand Prize Video Art at Côté Court (2021).
He has participated in international festivals and exhibitions as Thailand Biennale (Th), Tsonami Arte Sonoro Chile (Cl), CTM Berlin (De), Berlinale Forum Expanded Exhibition (De), Rotterdam IFF (Nl), LOOP Barcelona (Es), Belluard Festival (Ch), Sonic Acts (Nl), Lisboa Soa (Pt) and Donau Festival (At). His work has been presented in venues as Museo Reina Sofía (Es), Centre Pompidou (Fr), Domaine de Kerguéhennec (Fr), Fonoteca Nacional Mexico (Mx), Ex Teresa Mexico (Mx), CCCB Barcelona (Es), Musée Réattu (Fr), among others.
Works by the artist are held in the collections of Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Fr), Universidad Autónoma de México (Mx), Klankenbos (Be) and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (Mx), among others.
Initial Thoughts:
I’m curious about his use of sound as “basic material” and what that means to him. I’ve been thinking about sound as a material also recently and considering how I can use this to my advantage within my work and with my research project. Another part that interests me is the topic of listening and he claims his practice is “an extended understanding of listening” which he considers is a way of encouraging others to be aware of their surroundings. I’m also curious about his location which is between Brazil and other places, being Brazilian this is something that perked my ears up. As well as his use of field recording. I’m hopeful something within this seminar will give me inspiration towards my portfolio project. But first I’ll do some research and thoughts about some of his work.
Suspiros:
Suspiros is a sound installation and performance organised by Felix. He was interested in communication through sound and a deeper listening practice as well as the ecology of the lagoon. Felix ran workshops with children in Zapotalito. Workshops on listening and other aspects of sound, they also created ocarinas with the children for them to reply back to the lagoon. Felix placed a group of ocarinas within the lagoon, this allowed for a call and response from the children to the lagoon. I think this sort of installation and work really helps us connect with nature on a more spiritual level and physical level. Listening to the sounds of our environment makes us feel more connected.
Rumors from the sea, Thailand Biennale
Rumors from the sea is a sound installation in Thailand. Felix uses bamboo sticks usually associated with seawalls to stop sea levels from rising and putting villages underwater. Felix used these bamboo sticks to turn them into flutes and to create a singing ocean. As if the ocean was a monster communicating about climate change with every wave that created noise within the bamboo flutes. Felix also ran another workshop with local children and schools to create a short video where the students created their own bamboo flutes and sang back at the installation. Creating another similar conversation of call and response to the earlier piece. I think the usage of materials associated with something negative like rising sea levels and then using it as the main material for an art installation that is sonifying the ocean is clever. I also enjoy the thought of getting local people from the area to get involved in the performances. This can add another layer of meaning towards the piece. Almost as if Felix is the translator that helped enable the people to see their issues in another format.
Post Lecture Reflection
Felix starts by saying he’s a sound engineer for film something I’m also interested in, he was working and living in Brussels and Belgium. He was recording direct sounds with the camera and all the other sounds such as wild tracks and ambience. He was able to record for his own sound library as well as for film while on the job.
He started sharing sounds on a free sound platform. It is a sharing platform because in a way it was important for him to share sounds and not be the only one. He enjoys listening to sounds and using the platform to discover other sounds. This reminds me of Locus Sonus except that it’s not live. The idea of sharing things with people who are far away is something he finds fascinating.
Working as a sound engineer and sound recordist lets him go to many countries if he wasn’t there for work. This is also something I am really keen on doing, to travel and work and listen to different environments that are difficult to go ordinarily is a dream of mine. Before he started working he wasn’t really travelling and this act of sharing was what got him hooked.
After a while of sharing sounds, he thought that sharing alone wasn’t good enough and that he should share the sonic experience of the place he was at as well as the sounds.
He shares with us a sound of Patagonia a short excerpt. He explains what we can learn and understand from the field recording he’s taken. The farmer, the sheep the location. 4000 sheep are trying to communicate. He thought the communication between voice and animals together interests him. The idea of not needing to understand the world is a theme that he enjoys. He explains how he wants to process and mix and edit the recordings to enhance his sounds, and use the sounds in a small sound piece.
He did a few radio sound art projects, and in 2014 he thought about whether he could create his own projects. He recorded a project and audio of the city of Mexico. The audio of the piece is Mexican sellers on the streets and markets and he spent time with them and convinced the sellers to allow him to record them. He also recorded some protests from the Mexican people. The piece was used in an installation and other collaborative works. They asked him to present his work in installation and radio.
Parallel to this work, he was south of Chile recording himself running in a desert recording a can walking. He’s made 35 more short videos now. In most of the videos, there is a distance between the sound and the video. The video is zoomed away but the sound is concentrated towards what the mic is recording. The point of view and point of listening is the same usually and in his work, he attempts to change this. I think this idea of separating the audio proximity from what the visuals are presenting is an interesting dynamic between what we are usually used to. I had a similar idea in my second year for my installation work to create a piece of audio that is a large juxtaposition to the visuals, for example, a beautifully captured scenery but horrible traffic noises and vice versa and seeing the outcome.
Another short video he made was a one-shot which was a young man whipping a bullwhip, the other of a young man running throw a mine in Bolivia, following a shot in Istanbul turkey. The contact mic on a tortoise was another shot. A walking tortoise with a contact mic placed. Another short video of someone walking in the salt flats, with the focus on the feet but the shot is a wide angle.
He did a project around the environment and flooding in Indonesia. He discovered that people use bamboo to obstruct waves from creating floods in their area. He made a flute sound with the bamboo, create a hole with a flute and once u lift it out of the bucket it moves the air and plays the flute.
He then created a wall of flute bamboo sticks around a pier in Indonesia. He tuned the multiple flutes and made sure they were harmonious amongst the pier. He wanted to sonify the relationship between the use of bamboo as a way of protecting their land and giving it a voice. The sound was very different depending on the size of the waves and the tide.
His idea is to listen to the sound installation within the platform the bamboo and the wave. The combined sounds are not just what the flutes are playing but the sounds of what is going wrong. When you are listening you are listening more to the soundscape than just the flutes playing.
Another project he did was in the amazon rainforest. He took his gear to the amazon rainforest, and he decided to go to a small city and ask if he could stay at a small village and record as he wanted to go on a field recording trip. He met a few people and found a village that wanted tourists there, so he was the first tourist to visit. He arrived there and took his microphone, they asked him what tourists wanted to see and do in the village and they took him into the forest multiple times. He asked what he could record and what was important for them, he wanted their opinion of what sounds are important to the villagers. So they spent hours in the forest taking care of him and observing him and the way he was listening and working. Eventually, this led him to begin interviewing the local villagers and finding out about a mysterious amazonian monster. He then created a short video with interviews and sounds around it.
I found Felix’s seminar to be of my interest. Field recordings, listening, environmental issues. I’ve been currently reading environmental sound art book and I find the connection between meditative listening, field recording and environmental sound arts to be almost in unison. For my portfolio work, I’m doing something completely separate but perhaps in the second part of the hand-in when I have to submit two pieces of work. I can create something alongside these ideas.