Thursday 26th July 2012 – Deptford X Contemporary Arts Festival – London Sound Art.

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Jay

Y Secret Soundtrack - London Sound Art - Jay Harris ou may remember that when I planned my work of London sound art, Secret Soundtrack, Paul who runs Arch Materials suggested that I enter the project to be included in the Deptford X Contemporary Arts Festival. Needless to say, I entered and was lucky enough to be included!

The Festival is explained perfectly on the blog ‘Crosswhatfields?‘:

“Deptford’s annual contemporary visual arts festival kicks off this Friday to run concurrently with the Olympics until 12th August.

There is so much to go and see it’s too big a job for us to pick out what may be the highlights – so have a look at the website at www.deptfordx.org.

Apart from some big names invited by the lead curators Hew Locke & Indra Khanna, and work commissioned by Lewisham Council, there are over 50 fringe artists or projects popping up all over the place in shops and on the sides of buildings, in the streets and other more unusual places, plus gallery shows, open studios, events and performances.

There’s a free printed map to tell you where everything is, which you can pick up in various venues. To find out more about the actual work on show, download the brochure from the website or buy one for a quid at Creekside Cafe (on Creekside) and Arch Materials (in Resolution Way). The map can also be downloaded. Both are indispensible if you want to know what’s going on. There are also walking and cycling tours to help you navigate your way around and not miss the best stuff.

The curators’ theme for the festival centres on “the decorative”: “Surrender to the pleasure of the decorative. Revel in the excessive, embrace it and be dazzled…But… Layers of decoration contain levels of meaning, messages and codes – symbols of power, conspicuous consumption, signals of elitist knowledge, patterns of control and signs of social belonging…” All that glitters is not gold, perhaps?”

About Secret Soundtrack:

Secret Soundtrack is a work of sound where the recordings used are taken from the local environment and ordered in such a way as to create a performance. Mysterious, decorative posters will be located at Deli X cafe, the Deptford Lounge library and The Deptford Project Cafe. Each poster contains a QR Code and it is this that you scan with your QR Code reader on your smartphone. You then plug in your headphones and listen while exploring Deptford High Street, allowing the natural sound to compliment the recordings you are hearing to produce one immersive semi-live, semi-recorded performance.

So, what are you waiting for?? Download the festival guide here and the trail map here!

Thursday 31st May 2012 – Follow the Smart Trail along Deptford’s Secret Soundtrack – London Sound Art

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Jay

Local Sound Art to Showcase and Promote Deptford High Street.

‘Secret Soundtrack’ uses ‘3D sound’ recorded in Deptford Market, based on and around Deptford High Street, to create a theatrical atmosphere that people can experience as they wander around the market. Sound art, as a relatively undiscovered art form, seems like the perfect way to bring attention to one of south London’s lesser-known gems: Deptford High Street. I have created ‘Secret Soundtrack’, a work of sound art, which will be interactively-accessible on the High Street throughout June, in collaboration with local businesses/organisations.

To take part in ‘Secret Soundtrack’ you will need a smart phone equipped with a QR Code reader and a pair of earphones. ‘Secret Soundtrack’ can be accessed from 1st June to 30th June 2012 by scanning the QR code on one of the posters located at ‘The Deptford Project’ cafe, ‘Bearspace’ gallery, art supplies store ‘Arch Materials’, delicatessen cafe ‘Deli X’, and ‘Deptford Lounge’ library; all based on and around Deptford High Street and chosen as supporters of this neighbourhood and community arts.

Scanning the QR Code takes you to the ‘Secret Soundtrack’ website where you will be given instructions on what to do next. You will be encouraged to explore the market while listening to the audio streamed from the website, making sure not to drown out the live sounds. You can expect to hear sounds recorded from the market, reproduced in such a way as to become something new when played in conjunction with listening to the live sounds around you. It is this mixture, when experienced together, that gives you access to a secret audio world created from the local environment. The market takes place every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and a visit on one of these days is recommended to experience ‘Secret Soundtrack’s’ full effect.

I wish to see the local area prosper so that it may continue to inspire and grow. With the 2012 Olympics, Britain and London, in particular, are being celebrated this year and I strongly believe that Deptford High Street is a fine example of what it means to be British: Culturally diverse, traditional, forward thinking and quirky. These are some of the area’s special qualities that provided the inspiration for ‘Secret Soundtrack’, which I hope to see flourish; and I’m hoping this work will contribute. Inspiration has also come from ideas put forward by experimental musician John Cage in pieces like 4’ 33”. His notions on what an audio performance can contain have been central to the project

It is free to be a part of ‘Secret Soundtrack’ but your mobile network may charge you for streaming the audio necessary for the experience. I have also created a separate audio atmosphere for ‘The Deptford Project’ café which will be on display there from 1st – 8th June.

What are you waiting for? Go and put a Secret Soundtrack date in your diary!

Deptford Market takes place every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from around 7am until 4pm and is home to stalls that sell fresh fish, groceries, antiques, clothes and other collectibles.

Poster venue opening hours:
The Deptford Project -
(café – 121 Deptford High Street, Deptford, SE8 4NS)
Monday to Saturday: 9.00am – 5.30pm
Sunday: 10.00am – 4.00pm

Deli X -
(café/deli – 156 Deptford High Street, Deptford, SE8 3PQ)
Monday to Friday: 8am – 7pm
Saturday: 9am – 5pm
Sunday – Closed

Arch Materials -
(Art Supplies – 17 Resolution Way (off Deptford High Street), Deptford, SE8 4NT)
Monday – Saturday: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Sunday – Closed

Bear Space –
(art space – 152 Deptford High Street, Deptford, SE8 3PQ)
Wednesday – Saturday: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Sunday – Tuesday: Closed

Deptford Lounge –
(Library/public space – 9 Giffin Street, Deptford SE8 4RJ)
Monday – Friday: 7am – 10pm.
Saturday and Sunday: 7am – 7pm.

Take a look around my site for further works of sound art. You will also find soundscape works created for events, composing works and sound design. If you would like to commission a work of sound art contact me with your project’s requirements

If my work in soundscape for events, sound design for film, or composing interests you join my mailing list to find out more.

Thursday 9th February 2012 – The Amazing Binaural Audio

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Jay

Binaural recording is an idea quite new to me. @TOther_Simon introduced me to it at the end of last year, and ever since I have been having quite a few thoughts about it’s potential. I have been making some exploratory recordings which have come out very well but to get a well-put-together experience of binaural recording put some headphones on and watch the video below:

Fast Tube by Casper

How Does it Work?

As you will be able to hear, binaural recording is a way to get what may be called 3D sound. Conventional two channel recording (stereo sound) is the product of trying to get realistic sense of space into recordings by working from the fact we have two ears. Different signals go to both the right and left speakers to enable a more realistic sound, meaning sounds can be positioned within the 180 degree arc between the speakers. Using reverberation (echo), we are also able to position the sounds up close or further away. However, stereo recording does not account for the physical intricacies of our hearing. As you know, we are able to place sounds from all around us without looking and stereo recording only allows this to happen in front of us (if we are facing speakers), or inside our heads (if we are listening to headphones). Our brain uses the fact that there is a certain distance between the two ears, as well as information about the very shape of our ears to allow us to pinpoint where in the world a sound is coming from; you can hear sounds from behind you as well as in front of you. Binaural recording, takes account of these facts to trick your brain into thinking that what you are listening to is actually occurring in the three dimensional space around you. Of course, our ears are on the sides of our heads and not on our faces so to get the full effect from a binaural recording, it is best to use headphones. The effect is more realistic on headphones that have a clear emission of sound from across the audio spectrum but it seems to work pretty well even when using the cheapest headphones. Achieving this is very simple: use a dummy head with realistic ears containing microphones or use tiny microphones that resemble earphones and be the dummy head yourself!

Where Would You Use Binaural Recording?

So, this is all interesting and gimmicky, but how can binaural recording be used? Well, as you will see from the above video, the guy who made it is promoting a video game that uses binaural recording to make the game experience more immersive. With the rise of portable entertainment with iPhones and iPads etc, the rise in use of headphones could really facilitate more widespread use of binaural audio. This technique could mean more realistic simulations for different kinds of training, or maybe use in film to place the audience in the same space as the actors. This technique has also been used to record bands too, and was apparently used as far back as the 60’s. Some test recordings I made of me playing my acoustic guitar got a very rich and full sound without having to mess around with mic placement at all. For me though, the most fantastic thing about binaural recording is the possibility to take an audience somewhere that would be totally impossible to go to, like the video game example. You could mix the real and the imagined and blur the line between them to get closer to the ultimate escapism.

Please do put ten minutes aside to listen to the example of an audio composition located at the bottom of this web page. It’s nothing to do with my own work but you wont regret it… very cool. I’m raring to go do some experimenting now…

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to add such ideas to your own projects.