BA Sound Arts Year 3

I thought it would be useful to explain perhaps a few artists that I enjoy their work and their website as influences to my own website, as well as how it’s set up and displayed.

Sofie Birch

I have been listening to Sofie’s radio show for a long time. And through that, I began listening to her work. She creates ambient / collage recordings and sound pieces that use field recordings as a sonic postcards. I find her work, releases and the labels she works with to be of interest to me. She is an artist that I hope to be, I find music and the industry surrounding it to be obsessed with the outcome and in more fine art scenes it seems that the artists are appreciated a bit more, and they can be more free with their work. I create ambient types of music with field recordings and her work is a huge inspiration as well as how she releases work, through Bandcamp and indie labels that release similar works. I do understand the more niche you go the less money perhaps you make, and it’s difficult to get to a point where u make money and survive off your work. She also runs a NTS radio show, I run a radio show currently on LOOSE FM where I go through Brazilian music from my culture. I would like to get on NTS Radio eventually.

Sofie’s website is simple, playful and creative. Something I took inspiration from, for my website.

The title of her name is super playful, and the photos are artistic and creative. Something I decided to do for my website/portfolio/showreel for the submission. She also has on the left-hand side her releases, installation works, video, animation etc. About and contact.

I did similar and used hot glue to the best of my abilities. I did lack a few of the options here such as installation works, animation etc. But I think over time I’ll add these onto my website as they grow and flourish.

Jez Riley French

I really enjoy Jez’s work, his writing and his Ted talks have inspired me to look at the microscopic and really listen and find interesting ways and devices, for example contact mics to expose these sounds. His field recording techniques and equipment that he makes are something I’ve wanted to get involved with myself, I have created LOM Priezor clones, and through Rory the sound technician at UAL I’ve learned to create contact mics. I’ve sold a few of these, including the LOM Priezor mic and it could be a potential thing to do as a side hustle like how Jez does.

His website is again super simple but aesthetically pleasing. Something I tried to do myself. I do feel my website will need a redesign after the submission as it will evolve with me. Right now as I’m balancing my new job as a studio assistant and finishing university this was the best I could do.

I really like the simple white background, the photo and the links to his further work. I have read and seen that there is a workshop he runs with other sound artists called murmuration where artists and others who pay go on trips together to field record and learn from the artists who are hosting it. Looks like something I’m really interested in doing once I can save some money. Anyway, i thought about doing it like this for my website, keeping it very simple but i felt that it perhaps didn’t suite my personally and my outlook on being creative.

My academic work throughout my degree has been following on from previous essays I wrote. Ending in my dissertation being a developed thought process from throughout the years, Angus Carlyle supervised me for my dissertation and helped pushed me to get an A. I do feel like I am interested in sound-based academic research, Acoustic ecology, soundscape ecology, deep listening, field recordings and other aspects that interest me so much. Peter Wrights’s book critiqued soundscape and field recordings which further drew my interest within it.

As I wrote in my appraisal I do feel like a potential option is to come back and pursue a MA in a few years after being an artist again and having time to dedicate myself to my artistic endeavours. I do believe I could do it, perhaps maybe even in the long term future! Once I reach my 30s.

I have seen another MA for environmental and architectural acoustic at Southbank University which seemed interesting but I’m not interested in commercial uses of sound such as architecture.

https://www.lsbu.ac.uk/study/course-finder/environmental-architectural-acoustics-msc

They have an anechoic champer and this course seems more scientific. This could be another option to pursue, to follow within the more conservationist, scientific study of sound and potentially get a job outside monitoring levels of noise pollution?

Either way, it’s good to see more options and see where I could go eventually. When I feel like the time is right.

After emailing Dawn and understanding what I had to include within my CV for the submission, I felt like I’ll keep the older one I just made the draft one as I do think it is a good CV. On the hand in I have to make a one-page CV and include performances and releases, alongside awards. Here is the updated CV, I will also ask Dawn for feedback.

Let’s see if I can make version 4 after this 3.0 update.

I spent a few hours writing this appraisal. I found it really interesting to look at my future from a 3rd person point of view. Writing about what I could do and how it would benefit me. It feels beneficial to identify these key areas and opportunities which I think will help me.

As I can’t attend the next two sessions I will email Dawn just to see if this is all okay. I am close to getting a 1st class degree and it is really important for me to keep pushing and try my best.

Since being on the course one of the main things I’ve found myself enjoying is being a sound recordist, I’ve worked on over 10+ student films as a sound recordist/boom operator. I like being outside and working on sets means when I finish and go home my work is done. I also have worked commercially with a company called Big Fridge Productions, they have hired me for many advert and short film jobs which I have been credited on.

The course has allowed me to follow my interest, in different microphones and recorders and learn about the process of field recording and the theoretical side to it as well. Writers like Peter Wright, Cusack, and books such as In the Field, and Sound Arts now. Jez Riley French. Have all guided me towards this mindset of field recording.

If spent around £1000 I could start doing this freelance on weekends perhaps and see if it could become a full-time job role, if I don’t like doing post-production that is, my current job is that. I think this could be another future professional career, which would allow me to travel and work freelance and perhaps join an agency? I know about websites such as Mandy, and I also have connections with others who do sound recordist jobs freelance. This would also allow me to choose when to work and take jobs when I need rather than working 9-6pm like I have been.

The closer I get to graduation the more I feel grateful I have a graduate scheme job and will go straight into work but I do need to be vigilant that this is just the first opportunity and I should not be afraid to break the comfort of a salary and really follow my passions.

I had a 1hr Zoom call with Gordan Hempton, who create one square inch of silence. and he told me around my age is when people make the biggest changes in their lives, I am 25 and towards the end of my twenties we start to really figure out who we are and make some decisions which are important. I want to make sure I value experience and happiness over financial gain. As long as I can eat, have a roof over my head and be creative I’m all good.

After making the first homepage I filled out the complete website and added a few more sections.

I finished the About page, the CV page, the Music page which had all my music projects, and my sound works page which has no musical audio projects.

Then I also have my social media on the left-hand side and I figured out how to create an email draft link to my email for the contact button.

https://dereckdac.hotglue.me/

Anyway if you click the link you would see my full website.

I find it strange as I’m not sure how present myself, more as a professional, as an artist or both? A rapper/musician or a sound artist/sound designer?

This was the best I could do as it took me hours, maybe even 4 to get all the links working and edit it all. It was very tedious and difficult, but I’m proud of it and I think it’s a good portfolio to showcase my work if anyone ever asks. I will be using this in my submission.

KMRU or his real name Joseph Kamaru is a sound artist and Ambient/music producer. He has received critical acclaim online, even collaborating with Ableton and Adam Audio in adverts and short documentaries about his work.

He mainly uses field recordings and manipulates them into lush ambient music. He is currently doing a master’s in sound arts in Berlin, originally coming from where he was born and raised in Kenya.

We had him as a visiting practitioner in our second year of studies and at the time I was listening and using his work as inspiration for my own projects, which ended up being similar to Peter Cusack and his work with sounds from dangerous places. I found his lecturer (KMRU) really interesting as he also spoke what Angus said about field notes sometimes instead of recording and using that as a way of field recording.

His career is being a touring musician, underground signed to indie labels, releasing records/vinyl and collaborating with other artists. I would love to do this as well, the real thing is that it is difficult, you have to be lucky and hardworking.

What also appeals to me about his career is that he has built something where he is known for being creative, rather than defined by one genre or ability. His artist name KMRU could be anything. I want to do that, my current “branding” is mainly hip hop and rap music but I have such a wide pallet of taste and work. I would really enjoy a career where I can release constant interesting pieces of work, and not be held back but what I think I should do or what people know me for.

So this is another potential development pathway, to be an artist, making records, ambient/other music and also studying at the same time, see what happens as you go along with it?

I’ve been lucky enough to have had Angus as my supervisor for my dissertation and furthermore preceding this I was really into his books. I felt his writing and work with Cathy Lane really interested me, specifically with field recordings and the interviews they conduct. I found myself for the first time really interested in soundscape ecology and research within it.

Angus had a lecture where he described his career and his early work with Zines, which he said began around 1988-1989, some of the projects were:

Explaining house music, HOUSE 2HOUSE, A Guy Called Gerald, the distance between time and space between ages, and world music,

He developed his writing through this practice, After that period of zine production, the use of constraints is something he imposes on his writing, limiting his work. Automatic translation engines and transcription software, google earth, limits on word length and limits on the number of words. 

Field Notes,

He finds field notes as a way of representing the environment he hears, he worked on a project with Simon James, translated by KYRIN Chen 2022, He has a stack of field notes, small black books, with silver Gaffa tapes, he also generates notes on his phone, he sues to remember what is happening. 

Field Notes as Voice (the Horror) He vocalises them, he took them too far he says, he started speaking his notes in the spaces that influenced them. The redevelopment of Stratford is an example.

Field notes as themselves, he believes that they can exist of themselves, such as the work for Fieldwork for Future Ecologies, Radical Practice of art. Field notes as the specific piece of their own things,

field notes against Sonic exceptionalism are something Angus kept saying.

As well as this lecture Angus is a professor within Crisap. Something I found out about during my research in my second year and also all the other PhD students that study there. It took me a while to understand what the appeal of academia is and it did eventually click for me, I really dedicated myself to my studies within my second year and found this passion of being a hermit, in a sense, I cut everything else out for a few months and became obsessed with reading, writing and researching for my work. Really was a blissful time. Someone like Angus or his role is a potential opportunity for me.

To travel, bring your knowledge and expertise to projects and come from an artistic sound arts perspective is important, academics within arts and humanities are dedicating their lives to thinking and asking questions, to me that is what I see it as. A group of humans all working together to discover more bout existence and our very way of being and interacting within this physical plane.

The reality of being a professor seems tough, even a lecturer or researcher within higher education. The funding from the government is decreasing, you are working project to project, expected to work overtime and not be paid for it. It really is difficult, similar to the previous article where artists are expected to do what they love, academia is also similar. This is a potential path for me, I do find myself wanting to take time out of university when I graduate to gain some financial stability. But eventually I would like to do an MA, the list I complied from the exercise has helped me massively in figuring out where I could go. Angus also recommend Europe for me when I asked. That is one option.

Something I’ve felt in recent years I want to do is eventually take a risk. Get a business loan and invest in a recording studio within central London. I have thought about how I will focus on more underground artists and offer free studio sessions when the studio is not being used. Try to integrate myself within the community and make the studio almost non-profit. Enough to pay my bills and keep the studio running. I’m interested in offering artists the opportunity to record with an engineer and at a high-quality studio that is not their bedroom.

The great thing that could happen is starting a record label, offering free recording/mixing/mastering with putting out unsigned artists and promoting music for those who cannot access facilities.

I already have access to Audio Active a Brighton-based charity that uses music as a way of connecting with young people and offering facilities for those who have no access to them. They helped me when I was younger and it was fundamental towards my development.

I have thought that there are potentially two ways to do this. Either get a two-bed flat/house on rent and convert one room entirely into a recording studio. The thing with this is that noise is an issue, and not being able to be loud 24/7 and also it being residential means the business could not be taken seriously. Rent is also very expensive in London and perhaps a commercial property would be better.

I’ve looked on a few websites, Miloco also being a great studio hire company to be part of as they also manage recording engineers and put them with artists signed to labels for work. On average it seems in the outskirts of London Manor House, West London, and Croydon studios are around 400pm for a room that I would need. More towards central which would be best is around 800pm which is a lot to take a risk in my opinion. I wonder if I could build clients with my current work, as the other day I recorded a client who sang and played guitar and we really got on. I also do freelance sound engineering work and plenty of artists ask if I can engineer music in a studio context as well. Can I bring these all into one space? Perhaps still do live sound in the evenings to help pay the bills?

Again this is just an option that I could do once I have saved some money after a few years of working with Pitch & Sync. I could also use the space for corporate work when creative work is not coming in, voice-overs for adverts and other pieces of work, and sound design/mixing?

I have thought about this. It’s important to share that you’ve finished university and are ready for work. Social media is really important and perhaps that is one way of doing it. At first glance, my initial reaction to this question would be. Update my LinkedIn. As this is an important part of networking nowadays, primarily since I now work in a company and all my colleagues have LinkedIn I can add my work there and see more opportunities if I decide to leave in the future.

As an artist, I believe in sharing my work and applying for other works through Instagram and emailing zines, small labels and radio stations etc. In attempts to get my work shared and wider public viewing.

So to consider how? I think I’ll do both. Through my Bandcamp/social media as a musical artist. My more professional portfolio work will be shared through my work website or LinkedIn or hotglue.

Follow-up tasks are to polish up my LinkedIn. And continue to update my Hotglue website and add my work on there.