(guest lecture)
Tom Fisher, working under the name Action Pyramid. His practice involved composition to facilitate a reconsideration of our surroundings, examining the relationship between ourselves and the nonhuman, and our part in the wider ecologies of landscapes. During the lecture, he shared a lot of field recording that he did. It amplified the tiny or unheard sound in the nature. For example, Hover flies and yellow water lily. Firstly, how the water lily and hover flies sounds are fascinating. I didn’t know how water lily or aquatic plants made ‘weird’ sounds (it almost like alien or old school sci-fi synth), but yet, we are just kind used to the stereotypical nature sounds such as birdsongs, wind, moving leafs, or certain insect.
He pointed out that in the visual dominant world, a lot of the sound of different species are often missed in scientific studies. It stills has a lot of sound are undiscovered. He also part of a bioacoustics study where he record a pond and it shows the sonic cycle of it. Aquatic plants dominate under daytime, and insects for the night.
Since he also work in scientific research, a lot of people asked him (which I also kept thinking that during his shareing) about realism in field recording. For him, field recording can’t be 100% realistic. Therefore, his work always fictional and he called ‘realistic’ illusion. He stated that he is creating a space which more closer to natural environment, hence, he like to use quadraphonic or other spatial setup in this composition. His goal is direct audience to a certain sounds, an unheard nature.