Courtney Horner
What is Soundpainting?
Soundpainting is a sign-based conducting language that can be used for music, dance, theater, and visual art (though this project focuses solely on music). It is built off of three categories: Who, What, and How to create pieces that incorporate improvisatory work, more defined work, and collaboration. Through soundpainting, musicians form a different kind of connection with their instruments, fellow musicians, and conductor than they typically do when playing tunes composed with sheet music.
About my Project
I chose sound painting as my medium of choice because of the three categories that the language is split into: Who (signs such as point to point, cells/groups, strings play, etc.), What (signs such as melody, minimalism, pointillism, vamp, etc.) and How (volume, density, legato fader, extended technique, etc.). My goal through my project is to create a fourth category: Where (using existing signs such as landscape, background, scene, feel and new signs such as soundscape, biophony, anthrophony, etc.).
My project is a 1-hour class with a soundpainting jam included where I include the category of ‘Where’ into the language. I have created 6 signs and have matched and paired them with preexisting signs in a way attempted to make both musicians and audience build a sense of place in their local environment through sound and be able to think more critically about the soundscapes around them in the future.
Signs Taught
- Landscape (left arm bent at elbow and parallel to ground, right arm perpendicular with palm facing audience and swaying briefly)
- Scene/Window (thumb and pointer finger of both hands come together to create a rectangle)
- Imagine (three thought bubbles coming from head)
- Soundscape (hands cupped behind ears, circle forward until in line with corners of eyes)
- Echo (palm facing out, briefly closes and moves to right, open palm again **similar sign to ‘play can’t play’)
- Biophony (sign for ‘animal’ – pointer fingers coming from head like horns)
- Anthrophony (hands make heart over left side of chest)
- Geophony (Left hand extended with fingertips facing out, right hand slides from elbow to fingertips with open palm mimicking a river)
**To learn more about each of these terms, their definitions, and why I chose to include them, view the performance videos or read the script linked below**
Videos of Signs
Link to Performance and Script
Performance link:
Part 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JqBQka5oCrCL39aWoO-X-DAQIzZYdbWE/view?usp=sharing
Part 2 (jam): https://drive.googlehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1M__tKdL3o5KiTOp-w5aY3DkNSCSzhlRu/view?usp=share_link
Script link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hWsfYDiLp5c7DqMCMmjoKO1iyITXo9BX8GUz8b3Tq1g/edit?usp=sharing
Landscapes in Lesson/Jam
I had musicians imagine and relate to three landscapes/soundscapes throughout the process. The first was using the sign scene/window and referred to the Oberlin soundscape. The other signs were shown as Landscape 1 & Landscape 2, which I allowed the audience to choose the locations of.
For this lesson/playing, the audience chose the landscapes:
1 – An Ice Desert/Icy Tundra
2 – A Tropical Rainforest
These three soundscapes are all vastly different from each other, which gave us nice contrast in the music.
Findings
After I completed my lesson, I asked 2 questions to the musicians and 2 questions to the audience.
Questions for Musicians
- When relating to the soundscape here, what did you listen for?
- What sonic choices did you make to convey the difference between biophony, anthrophony, and geophony?
Questions for Audience:
- How did watching me teach the signs/ knowing them affect your experience?
- How much did this performance make you think about your soundscapes? In what way?
Responses
Based on the responses from both musicians and audience members, I learned that it was difficult to relate to the soundscape directly around us, as it was very quiet. Some of the musicians said that what they did to show the Oberlin soundscape was imagine it on a different day/time and tried to express that, instead. While South Bowl was pretty empty of people when we were playing, musicians said they thought about a day a few weeks ago when there were a lot of people outside, spending time in the nice weather. Sonic choices to convey biophony/anthrophony/geophony included stepping feet on the ground, imitating bird calls, and using slow/undulating melodies to convey geophony.
In terms of audience reactions, the audience generally liked watching me teach the signs first because when we had our larger jam at the end, audience members said they typically looked at me first so they could visualize where we were and then would listen to the musicians create the soundscape of the area. This being said, a question that arose was, “If the audience did not know what the landscapes were, would they be able to guess them just by hearing?”
Sources
Bryan C. Pijanowski, Luis J. Villanueva-Rivera, Sarah L. Dumyahn, Almo Farina, Bernie L. Krause, Brian M. Napoletano, Stuart H. Gage and Nadia Pieretti. 2011. “Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape.” BioScience 61(3): 203-216.
Feld, Steve. 2015. “Acoustemology” Keywords in Sound Duke Univ. Press, ed. David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny. 12-21
“Listening to Wild Soundscapes” Talk of the Nation, NPR, April 22, 2011 (22.23)
Millà, A. Soundpainting Sign Language: Possibilities and Connections with Tactileology. Philosophies 2021, 6, 69. https:// doi.org/10.3390/philosophies6030069
Noriega, Margarita. 2015. “Mexico City-born artist Amanda Gutiérrez uses sound to address gentrification Urban Poverty Has A Sound–And It’s Loud” What gentrification in Oakland, California sounds like.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1994 (1977). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
Thomson, Walter. 2023. “Soundpainting” Soundpainting. http://www.soundpainting.com/soundpainting/
