..embers..

I read recently a dissertation from Paul O'Brien, a student that finished the BA Sound Arts course last year. I got to say that apart for being a well organized and thoughtful thesis, it was particularly pleasant to read and, without wanting to sound too lame or sentimental..well..here we go..yes..TOUCHING. Reading this brought me to his website Hearing Beckett, where I found more information on his work. What really got to me was how all his work through the course of his last year at school results so homogeneous and..here we go again..'clean'. 

'Solution Of Continuity' was his Final Major Project for his degree.

 It is an installation that does not use any sound..only dust as he argues. It kind of relates with certain thoughts on my dissertation, in particular the recorded voice of someone dead. And the value that piece of tape or vinyl or data on a hard disk can gain with time -commercial value or spiritual or sentimental or..who knows.. 

I know it doesn't make sense to you reader now but I'll try to make it more clear as soon is clearer to me but yeah! sound installations with no sounds! need to do some research on that! I leave you with some words from Mr O'Brien himself. I'm sure it'll make more sense.

"Solution of continuity is a silent sculptural work inspired by Beckett’s stage play, ‘That Time’. ‘Solution of continuity’ is a medical term defined as, ‘A division of bones or of soft parts that are normally continuous’. Beckett harnesses the term in his stage directions for the play to describe the constant flow of words from three ‘moments of the same voice’, proceeding ‘without solution of continuity’. This idea is turned on its head in the piece wherein the two ‘normally continuous’ spools are literally separated, thus there is ‘not a sound’, ‘nothing only dust’."

BA3 Show 2010 - Paul O'Brien - Solution of Continuity from Sound Arts & Design @ LCC on Vimeo.

Publish Post

..for the record..about him..

U turns took him to the 18th Century. He'll stay there for a while 'cause he just wasn't made for this times. He will take breaks too by sleeping for a thousand years seeking alternatives to prescription drugs that taste and smell too much like non-smokers' deaths. He also promises to stop smashing whatever he finds on his path and start gigging again instead. So yeah! stop sucking Satan's cock and book me! But don't ask me how many people I'm gonna bring or I'll make you kill yourself. Teleporting's so much fun..

Bunker's Bonkers..

I’m doing some research on WWII London’s bunkers for a sound installation.. it was pretty handy for this purpose visiting an exhibition set in a bunker not far from Café Oto in Dalston. Could be cool having access to the building and play some war sounds in the space itself and then to re-record them. I’ll probably need some LOUD speakers to play back sounds of sirens and spitfires and V2 rockets, and small radios or beaten up devices to reproduce Radio London dispatches and some background 40’s music. Winston Churchill’s voice is a must..

I’m drifting away from the idea of having it as a 8-channels piece, and moving towards something more visual which should utilize lots of sub-bass and infrasounds.. it also have to be a claustrophobic small and dark space.. basically the public should feel like BEING in a bunker for real. Need to get in contact with the imperial war museum and other related entities to see if I can get some funds or support of some kind..oh yeah!! I definitely need to get one of those metal portable sirens! If you live in the London fields area and you hear an alert for an air-blitz don’t panic. That’s probably me..signing off.