Margaret Tait, a poet and filmmaker, who born in Scotland. At the age of 8, she was sent to Edinburgh to be educated. She studied medicine at Edinburgh University. Then she became a doctor at some point till she went to Rome to study filmmaking. Her scientific background shaped some of her art work, which doubts about reality and existence. It shows in some of her poems and films.
Litmus - Margaret Tait
I don’t know why is that acid turns blue litmus pink,
And don’t tell me you know
Because I’m sure you don’t
– ‘Because it’s acid.’ –
That’s no reason.
Acid is pink.
Nonsense.
With other reagents the pink’s on the other side.
Why pink?
Why blue?
Why change?
The short film Aerial combine different footages of rural city, nature, birds, the sky, rain drops, etc, alone with single piano sound and nature sounds. According to Tait, it ‘touches on elemental images. Air, water (and snow), earth, fire (and smoke), all come into it. For sound theres a drawn out musical sound, single piano notes and some neutral sounds.’ She stated that it is ‘just as a sort of song or even a kind of nursery rhyme‘. Four difference elements just intermingle and it didn’t have narrative and argument. It just shows the reality in a poetic way.
For me, I like use field recording as only material to compose and what is reality is the main argument in this field for long time. There is not reality in field recording as it transfers vibration into electronic and invert it back to vibration in the speaker later. In this process, it lost reality. The recording we listen it back is difference from what the recorder hear in the recording environment. The recorder can’t capture everything, thus it is the recorder chooses. People wouldn’t choose listen to the same things in the same environment. The other problem is other sensory. When we are, for example in the forest, sensation other than vision and hearing, for example temperature and humidity, would change our experience. Those sensory experience can also shape the way of listening.
Therefore, I am thinking is it possible to capture more elements while doing field recording, and by doing so, can field recoding practice can be more accurate and more close to the reality?