DAVID FYANS
MA, BA (hons, First Class)
Entropic Recall
Concept:
A collected series of three, self contained audio works focussing on a specific medium as a metaphor for human memory. Audio tape can be considered analogous to the way our memory works. We capture events which pass the record head of the present, rearranging input data into a series of impulses which are then stored for recall.
A visual representation of this collection exists as a series of three, 100x150mm photographic prints of the spectrograms of the audio.
As with tape as a format, the storage media is prone to degradation over time and ultimately, the machinery used to recall also breaks down and starts to malfunction.
This series explores this concept through audio sculpture, process led practice and personal interpretation.
Outline of Works:
The Persistence of Decay
(2h18’16”)
A process led piece using the same audio recorded onto two cassettes, one of which was submersed in hot, soapy water, the other immersed in water and then frozen. The resulting treatments were then recaptured and layered and the final audio slowed down by around 20% to magnify the inconsistencies and allow the textures to unfold under their own volition.
Unfolding Inwards
(38’54”)
An extended audio sculpture, this piece was constructed within an imagined space, from the perspective of a fictional broken tape machine. Using modular synthesis, the sound is composed from combinations of simple generators, processing and mixing and seeks to build an interpretation of the anomalous and organic textural qualities that arise within the combination of aging mechanisms and degrading media, in effect trying to capture the ghost in the machine
The Cocytus River Boat Song
(3’22”)
A personal work, inspired by the decline of my grandmother following a stroke. This takes a version of her favourite song from The Scottish Archive (the archive itself being a form of collective memory) and used layered audio processing to illustrate that, while song and music are intrinsic parts of self identity, eventually our memory fails and though the structure (in this case the length and arrangement of the original song) may endure, the content becomes subverted and only partially recognisable.