Category: Contemporary Issues in Sound Art

The ideal way to listen the piece is listen the whole record because the change of the rice cooker magnetic field differ in different stage of cooking, and also the hissing of the frying sounds change gradually. Cooking is performative, where we usually focus on the out come, the food. The sound of cooking is underrated and people are being draw into other sense, smell and visual. This piece is try to draw listener awareness of the daily sounds, along with the inaudible frequece that daily appliances makes. To connect to the essay, the contemporary urban lifestyle often dissociate us to the primal things of living, due to the convenience of technology and society. As a result, it weaken our awareness of the surrounding and separate human to nature.

Then I listen back to the whole recording. The problem I found is chopping part. The contact mic didn’t record much other than the handle noise of the knife. Therefore, I decided to record the chopping part again, but this time, my girlfriend Vigin said want to try to do the cooking.

In this way, I can focus on the record, although I really enjoy the cooking. This time, I clip the contact mic on the back of the blade, which can capture any vibration of the blade and the texture of the food can be heard as well. I also used Earsight to record the cutting because now I have a free hand to do so.

Finally, I have to cut the piece down to 10 minute, which I pick an abstract of every part:
1. rice cooking
2. start cooking rice (Ether on)
3. chopping (which used the re-take that Vigin did)
4. cooking on wok
5. plating

I did do much manipulate, other than little equalising and mixing, and cut it all down since the whole recording is 40 min long. I also did little panning for the hydrophone, which try to create the sense of space where the sink is in the left.

I firstly setup the stereo pair and the Soma Ether, then put the hydrophone in the sink. The Geofón are next to the chopping board and I clip the contact mic back of the knife.

The dish I am cooking is tomato pork belly. Firstly is washing the rice, and when the rice cooker on, I turn on the Ether, which sounds like I am improvising with my rice cooker, as the electromagnetic field change in different stage of cooking. Then, I suddenly heard a deep droney noise which confused me; when I pull the headphone to a side, It was the freezer on the table vibrating. I usually not aware of the freezer while cooking, but the Geofón amplified the low frequent of the table’s vibrations. After the chopping, I change the Geofón head to a magnet and stick it on the side of the stove. The sounds of the cast iron wok resonate the whole stove top and creating a steel pan like sound which is contrasting the stir frying and electromagnetic rice cooker.

I borrowed Sound device MixPre-10 to record the whole cooking performance. When I was choosing the equipment in orb page, I suddenly got the idea that I can use Electromagnetic mic (Soma Ether) to record the rice cooker and I need at least 35 minutes to finish cooking which is the similar time for me to prepare and cook the dishes. And I borrow a hydrophone for recording the washing sounds in the sink, a contact mic for chopping and going to use my Immersive Soundscapes Earsight Standard to record the whole space of the kitchen. And Finally I have a chance to try out Geofón for the first time.

Additionally, I found there are few sound piece that used cooking sounds. For example, Lee Patterson has the piece called Egg Fry #2, which is the recoding of him preparing his food, a fry egg. His approach to this piece also very performative, without much manipulation electronically. I may do the similar approach, as the equipment I use are already can make distinct sounds quality .

While I am in wild camping trip, cooking is one of the most excited part for the day. It is not just because I can have another chance to challenge my fire making skills, nor I would have a warm meal soon (although those time I usually starving), it is because the sound of cooking are so satisfying. The ‘bark’ sound of the firewoods, the bowling water bubbling sound, and the pan frying hissing echo in the night of the forest.

Then I started to think how about I can make everyday cooking as a sound performance. Cooking sounds are the sonic experience that everyone has, but when cooking, how many of them would really listen to it in this visucentric society. I am planning to use contact mic to record chopping sounds and hydrophone on the sink to record washing sound. The piece is gonna half hour-ish, which depends what meal I am going to cook. After Salomé lecture in week 22, about sonic knowledge, I started to think the sound of food making can shows the cooking quality. Hence, I am calling the piece: sonic recipe.