Sound Art

Cork is home to a vibrant sound art scene and this was very well represented at this year's Art Trail Festival.  The opening party featured some sound pieces, already discussed below and on Sunday 15th, A Sonology of Cork Sound Art took place at the Savoy.  This was a ticketed event and a CD of the artists performing, along with several others was available to buy both that night at the Savoy and during the festival from the ArtTrail office at Jeffers on St Patrick's Quay.  This CD functions a little like the Open Studios programme, where artists working in this medium, either purely or as part of their broader practice, had the opportunity to present the public with some of their work.  Danny McCarthy of The Quiet Club and a member of the ArtTrail Board, has been working in sound for many years and put this CD together.  Many of these artists see sound as a language, an alternative means of expression.  Juza Wonkumad is featured on the CD, but is also showing work at 10 St Patrick's Quay (formerly Jeffers building).  This work consists of constructed instrument-like sculptures, which either make sound independently or interact with the viewer to create sound.  For Juza, these instruments are important ways of communicating and provide an alternative to verbal language.  English is not Juza's first language and this is a means of breaking down the language barrier.

The CD acts as a survey of sound compilation, and while all these artists are either based or working in Cork and exploring sound in its own right, there is a wide variety of sound featured:  different pieces emphasise composition or improvisation; some are instrument-based, or electronic; some relate to vocal performance, breaking down the sounds of languages, the structure of sound or the structure of words, for example the Kurt Schwitters piece from the Opening Night; some investigate sound equipment itself and look to interfere in existing structures.  Kevin Tuohy is interested in the shapes of sound, how sound is formed, and sees sound as a physical, moving thing, physical, invisible waves made by shaping the mouth differently or by using different pitches.  What these artists have in common however, is an impulse to take sound apart, to explore the language of sound and sound in space, an impulse to develop an understanding of this language, develop a personal language and then find ways to communicate this personal language, to make it visible or audible.  Other sound events included La Societe des Amis du Crime at Red Abbey last Wednesday, who fed sounds they had taken from the city back in to the city with electronics, exploring how the city vibrates.