The initial idea of exploring the relationship between light/image and noise and visualising noise came from my research into harsh noise music for my research project. Reading a lot of theories about noise music particularly by Paul Hegarty on the Japanese scene led me to think how I could apply them in a visual context. I think a main theme that is tackled in a lot of sound art is trying to level the field in the predominantly visual culture we live in or apply the same level of importance to sound. I aim to do that not just with sound or music but with noise.
Noise exists as an opposition, a confrontation – a negativity is intrinsic to it which leads Hegarty to the conclusion that noise music fails as it can never truly be pure noise and music. This juxtaposition and in betweenness is something I am aiming to capture in my installation.
We then had a guest lecture from Victoria Shen aka Evicshen where she described part of her practice as being influenced by and explained noise music in relation to the abstract expressionist fine art movement. Elements such as the relinquishing of mastery, the unskilled artist and improvising instead of composing are all present in both AbEx painting and noise music techniques. She also thinks of noise as true random and likens it to chaos theory. However it is the idea of scale that I particularly took forward.
Many abstract paintings are on a large scale compared to other paintings and the human scale in general. However the total figurelessness of what is depicted begs the question: is this a magnification of the infinitesimal cellular level or a reduction of the colossal universe. And harsh noise can be thought of as the same an amplification or quietening? This distortion and uncertainty is something I wanted to explore with photography.