Andrea Parkins: “Sonic Spaces for the Stray”: (Dif)Fusing Dis-location in Sound Installation and Performance

Field of study: Artistic Research

Andrea Parkins' artistic research focuses on an ongoing series of improvisational/compositional experiments, moving between a dedicated workspace and sound production studios where Parkins will work with acousticians, engineers, and programmers. The aim is to develop gestural/embodied approaches for applying interactive electronics within sound performance and fixed-media composition – mining tensions between failure and fluency; and diffusion strategies that highlight correspondences between embodiment, sound and space – emphasising tensions between absence and presence.

Foundational research includes studying methods and applications for investigating spatialization and psychoacoustics employed by artists, including Maryanne Amacher. Parkins will also study concepts/methods developed by artists such as George E. Lewis, focusing on the interaction between algorithmically-based technology tools and physical gestures in musical improvisation. This research also engages with JKristeva'seva’s psychoanalytically-based writing on abjection and the sublime, grounding her studio-based research in theoretical inquiry that engages with subjectivity and embodiment. Supplementary research will address psychoacoustics, aural architecture, and spatialization theory and technologies.

The outcome of the project will be twofold: a body of sound installations and performances demonstrating an interactive approach to addressing relationships between the body, materiality, sound, space and situation; and a set of reflective writings that articulates the poetics and affective aspects of this multi-layered inquiry. The completed project will offer new knowledge production in the field of artistic research and transmission of interdisciplinary knowledge to creative practitioners.

Documentation

Title: “Sonic Spaces for the Stray”: (Dif)Fusing Dis-location in Sound Installation and Performance

Listen to, read and watch Parkins' documentation on Research Catalogue, with text, drawings, images, audio files and video.