Soundtracking the stage
Logbook week two
17th of July – 23rd of July
Overview
Practicing the Technique of the foley artist

– Walking / jackets / stairs / surrounding
– Playing with distance
– Playing with speed and rhythm
– Practice of listening!!!
– Reduction

Ideas that arrive from that
– Moving the steps into space
– Playing with the dynamic/ volume/ dramatic aspect of the sound and movement
– Creating one body /one surrounding together 《 with or without body of reference

《Which elements are in the background?

– Echoing
– Moment of being in synch (imagining and planning the same action)

Approaches to soundmaking- shift to focus less on the body as an operator or foley artist, but emphasizing physicality:

– join in on one or more soundlayers
– answer response question
– follow an internal image
– “acting” creating situations
– playing with the movement – sound possibilities – creating different tension
>> separating soundsource bodypart from rest bodyparts
– moving without making sound

We worked on embedding our practice more in the actual space we are in and let narrations grow from what is there (For example, starting from an intention of testing the different resonances in the space, playing with different distances, points of listening). We shifted the focus on developing inner logics instead of creating movement/sound for something outside of us. Instead we worked with the resonance of the activities and sounds in the body, which narratives and imaginations arise from there. How can we have an ongoing dialogue between the sound and ourselves allowing intelligence and multiplicity in the body? We developed solo material that we set in dialogue with each other. Dissecting layers of material we explored the various effects of one specific element and different ways of synchronizing and relating to each other. Throughout the week we aimed for a simplification to be able to understand better what we are working with, where is the attention and to create a common vocabulary.

Day by Day

Wednesday 17th
We start to practice more detailed with Dieter as we wish to learn from his physicality and precision – he proposes different kinds of walking: from close to far, stairs up, stairs down, straight, leaving. We listen to each other’s step and learn to differentiate the walks. Through that practice we sound together one imagined invisible body everyone is doing a different part of the body.

Thursday 18th
We start with the detailed practice and expand it to a, concrete together imagined, scene, that we sound and play. From there we get more playful and free: We add the sound to Jenny’s movement, adding different kinds of sounds to body movement, steps, cloth etc., we start to mix it up, making sound for another soundmaker, creating a rhythm all together, creating an atmosphere through the sound.
In a playful way there arise multiply meanings and ambiguity in situations.
There is the wish to become more concrete in the sounds and physicalities that we do and to find a very specific practice, so we do a response-exercise – responding and developing the ideas of another person.

Friday 19th
Continuing the practice of thursday, to combine a specific physicality with a specific
(abstract) sound: we examine the sound of scratching the floor in a very specific position: which images comes to the listener? How can we develop the quality of sound and movement by making little shifts?
As another relation between us we start to play with each other, ending up in an ice-mountain, where we listen to the sound of the space adding very tiny sounds, our principles are: hiding the sound, listening to the space inside/outside and to the others, giving space to sounds, connect with movements to someone else sound, being one big body, laughing appeared as sound and movement.

Monday 22nd
We want to continue to go deep into the knowledge and research of one sound/object/ related to physicality, we experiment with straw/ pipe in glass of water, it does not seem to be so interesting as it gives especially the Aquarium image but not so much space to other images or physical explorations.
We go back again to the sounding and Laughing in the mountain (everybody on top of each other), the resonation of the laughing travels through the other bodies and it seems like one big body.
With that experience we go in a solo exploration, watching each other: with different kinds of attitude, focusing on the dialogue between movement and sound – giving a movement another sound, hiding the source of the sound, moving in silence, pausing/stillness/timing/using the face/ acting or just as a physical movement.

Tuesday 23rd
We continue with the solo material, exploring everybody together at the same time, listening to each others sounds and movements, and using them as information for own material.
We look at some videos as we want to get even more specific in our language and material, we want to find moments and principles that we can repeat.