“‘Endless‘: feature film & cinematic performances. The threshold between reality and hallucination: a convulsive beauty & uncanniness of metamorphosis.”
My roles: spatial sound capture / re-recording mixer (Ambisonics)
This is a binaural installation I presented at the Exploseum museum* in Bydgoszcz (Poland), using spatial audio to bring to life sounds of a possible past.
Voices, machinery, movement etc. are added to this now empty room which used to be part of a German Nazi explosives-making complex.
Here’s a reproduction of the installation, but as a 360 / VR video with Ambisonics audio.
* A a unique example of industrial architecture on a global scale, practically unchanged since World War II. The facilities adapted for tourist purposes are part of one of the largest armaments factories, in the past intended for military tasks of the Third Reich.
Workshop description “In this workshop we will focus on multi-microphone setups for music production, using single Ambisonics microphone arrays. Ambisonics microphones are often used to record full spherical sound fields for different purposes, including virtual reality. But an especially interesting use of their spatial audio technology is the possibility to create beamformings (aka, virtual microphones) after the recording has already been done. To comment on this, this workshop will address Ambisonics recording, directionality/polar patterns, virtual microphone setup, and mixing. All this will be illustrated by practical audio/in-DAW examples of spatial recordings done in studio of several musical instruments. By the end of this workshop, you will understand the process from start to finish, being able to successfully use Ambisonics microphones as additional tools for music production. “
We walk together (2020) is thought as a field-recording score that asks would-be performers to think sonically about a place, to produce sound within that place, but also to reflect on the changes caused by the pandemic both at an environmental and subjective level. This collaborative endeavor is a continuation of my exploratory work in novel ways of curating sound artwork outside institutional frameworks. The resulting work, using a visual reference, is a multi-layered and multi-linguistic ‘sequence shot’: an audio piece that straddles the line between fiction, documentary and musical composition.
The sonic essay is a collaboration between a series of artists located in different parts of the globe: Rui Chaves (Loulé, Portugal, 25/06/2020), Eduardo Patrício (Koziegłowy, Poland, 17/06/2020), Laura Romero (Valencia, Spain, 06/06/2020), Lilian Nakao Nakahodo (Curitiba, Brazil, 05/07/2020), Luz da Camara (Evoramonte, Portugal, 19/06/2020).
This is the result of my practice based research at Queen’s University Belfast (more specifically, at SARC), supervised by Dr. Pedro Rebelo and Dr. Paul Stapleton (2nd supervisor).
Here, you can find the full portfolio commentary in PDF, related posts and video documentation for each piece.
Abstract
Through a creative portfolio and an analytical and critical commentary, this research investigates the use of spatial references in the composition of semi-open environmental sound works. The portfolio explores a number of strategies to make use of spatial references as formal compositional components to enable more intuitive performance/reading experiences. The pieces present a number of electronically mediated scenarios in varied formats; concert, installation and mobile application. Counting on the intuitive way one tries to constantly identify surrounding spaces, each piece uses physical (performance/presentation spaces) and representational devices (illustrations, maps, video projections, spatialised sound etc.) to articulate and delimitate semi-open artistic experiences. Such ambiguous scenarios are enabled by both the unpredictability of elements of each work and the dependence on the subjective interpretations of the agents involved in the process. The creative processes presented here in a descriptive, analytical and critical manner attempt to make an artistic contribution and provide documental material for future reflection about related practices.
A Blue Bridge is a soundwalk based audio-visual piece for 16 channels. The piece presents readings of a particular urban space in the city of Belfast through an interactive performance that recreates a soundwalk, juxtaposing and superimposing layers of sound, light and memories. It proposes a semi-open concert situation, conducted by a performer that leads the audience through a reconstructed soundwalk composed of fragments of several recordings of the same route, crossing a footbridge over the river Lagan (Belfast-UK).
A custom Max MSP patch manages 1 video file and 16 audio channels divided in two layers: 8 fixed (“real” sounds layer) and 8 manipulated and processed in real time (“imagination” layer). The fixed layer contains several stereo recordings of the walks done in different times of the day, edited to create a number of sub-layers. This approach allowed me to assemble a number of complex sonic environments that resemble the original ones, but expanding them from stereo to an 8-channel surround scenario.
During the performance, these 8 channels are played back synchronously with the video. In terms of content, this first layer presents manly background, ambient sounds, without too many distinct sonic events being heard.
The second audio layer (“imagination”) contains heavily edited recordings, presenting mostly foreground sounds that can be manipulated and brought to the foreground by moving around a wirelesses control sphere (sending OSC messages to Max MSP).
In the following performance excerpts, recorded in the Sonic Lab at Queen’s University, the 16 channels were mapped onto 32 channels with speakers in 3 levels: bellow, above and at the audience level.
Paper published on Semiosis (transdisciplinary journal of semiotics), addressing a particular design approach for digital instruments for live electronic improvisation.
It’s based on my master’s research at UFPR, Brazil.
Sienkiewicz Pipes is an environmental sound based immersive installation. The piece was inspired by a field recording made on Sienkiewicz Street in the city of Poznan, Poland, in mid-2012.
Sound and light pulses are controlled by the user in a small room equipped with a quadraphonic sound system.
Eduardo Patricio 