Polymorphous Pan is an entity dwelling at its own Dungeon and living of energy provided by mutagenic performance art and experimental music. These creations have been occurring in the basement of a squatted bookshop in North London the past seven years, as part of events Chronic Illness of Mysterious Origin (in 2017 renamed to Chronic Illness) curated by Neo Fung, who writes:
Inspired by rotten fetishism, various acts of body performance that engage with fungi on a visual and material level have been featured at Chronic Illness to explore the possibility of enacting alternative sexualities and non-normative lifestyles as key ecological processes within the present-day, decomposing civilisation (BockowskiP., Fungal Fetishism, 2022).
The sound piece explores a sonic fantasy of an abandoned mouldy industrial basement which sometimes comes alive whilst hosting gatherings of the strange and uncommon expressions of arts, individualities and creates a backdrop for emerging varieties of new identities and non-conforming ideas about life. These are in juxtaposition with what is commonly occurring above ground.
Polymorphous Pan is a collection of field recordings gathered in the actual basement during late October and November 2022 using various types of microphones like dynamic Shure SM58, pair of small diaphragm condenser Oktava MK-012-01 (often positioned at opposite sides of the space or the object to capture the stereo), condenser Tonor TC20, ZOOM XYH-6, Soma Ether and 13 piezo contact microphones. I have recorded the space itself during two overnight recording sessions using every type of microphone and only objects present in the basement or close to its entrance. The only other acoustic object used during recording which hasn’t originated in the basement was a pair of mallet drumsticks. For recording of the metal cage I used twelve contact microphones via aggregate of audio interfaces Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 and M-Audio M-Track Eight.
I have chosen particular samples based on various characteristics of the sound like texture, frequency range and amount of the natural echo of the basement. After I listened to the final selection of samples I edited and composed them in Ableton Live 10. To process the sound I have often used a resonator called Corpus and four different effects on Send/Return channels (short reverb, long reverb, ping pong delay and echo).
During the recording I have encountered several problems which led me to rethink the process and influenced my further creative choices. For example after the first overnight recording I realised that gains on ZOOM H6 recorder were set too high therefore a lot of hissing appeared. The second overnight recording had levels set much better but in terms of interesting events recorded not much happened in comparison to the first night. I have chosen the tapping water leak from the first rainy night, applied low pass filter and processed it with Corpus. This created the lead bass drone present during most of the piece.
My favourite part of the process was the application of Alvin Lucier’s technique for the room resonance extraction articulated by speech. I recorded Neo Fung reading the article about Polymorphous Pan in the Dungeon and re-recorded the speech thirty one times.
List of equipment used for recording and production:
Analog compressor Focusrite Compounder for drum group
DAW: Ableton Live 10
Bockowski, P. (2022), ‘Fungal Fetishism, rotten performance at the Dungeons of Polymorphous Pan’, CLOT Magazine, 8(September). Available at: https://www.clotmag.com/ (Accessed: 20 November 2022)
Entrance to the Dungeon of Polymorphous PanRecording the carpet which covers the entrance to the DungeonThe cage setupPlaying the cageSealed rusty door ready to get smashedSealed rusty door getting smashedArrangement of the tracks in Ableton Live projectApplication of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I am sitting in the room’ – extracting resonances of the Dungeon of Polymorphous Pan articulated by speech of Neo Fung
There is an immediate idea coming to my mind what the dichotomy of listening and hearing might be. One is happening constantly and nearly cannot be avoided another one is done my willing choice. It is impossible to switch off hearing in the same way like we can close our eyes in order to not see. Hearing is very automated therefore a lot of information coming from this particular sense is becoming somehow suppressed and non-conscious. Listening on the other hand is a conscious activity requiring our attention in the moment. Listening is harnessing the hearing together with mental focus in order to perceive particular sound or sounds.
Listening is dependent on hearing. We wouldn’t be able to listen without hearing but we do hear without listening a lot. There is few questions arising. What make us to listen? When and how hearing becomes listening. What elements of sound(s) and which situations make that transition from non-conscious hearing into conscious listening?
I have created a typology of listening based on the avenue of how hearing becomes listening considering the relation between object and subject – Listening could be For purpose of art or forpurpose of survival. In both situations the sound attracts our attention for some reason. The reason can be automatic (comes from outside – we hear something and are made to listen) but also a conscious as matter of choice (comes from inside – we decide to listen use the hearing consciously).
Here are some examples:
Artistic Automatic Listening – There is a sound piece, music or soundscape happening around us. We simply resonate with it for whatever reason therefore it draws our attention and we become conscious listeners.
Hearing the object ➔ Subject is listening
Artistic Conscious Listening – There is a sound piece, music or soundscape happening somewhere and we know about it from before, somebody told us about it or we may presume it happening based on other information. We decide to approach to listen to it with an intention which precedes hearing it.
Subject uses hearing ➔ listening to the object
Survival Automatic Listening – We are crossing the street and unfortunately pay less attention than we are supposed to. A car honks in order to attract our attention, very quickly, in mili-second transforms hearing into listening and stops us from being hit.
Hearing the object ➔ Subject is listening
Survival Conscious Listening – A group of humans decide to go hunting in order to obtain food. Conscious utilisation of silence whilst observing the prey is hearing transformed into conscious listening.
When I am thinking about three everyday sounds which contain qualities like rhythm, texture and pitch I don’t need to go very far at all. Those sounds can be found and identified simply in connection with my own physical body as in general human experience.
Rhythm – Breath
Very quiet and textured rhythmical sound with different pace depending on activity which
We are doing at the moment or our current mental state. We cannot avoid this sound since we need to breath. It is only a matter of finding the quiet moment and corner to hear this sound. Consciously or not we do find such moment and hear it clearly every day at least once anyway – before we fall asleep in bed.
Texture – Crunching and Chewing Food
Once I realised that sounds related to my mouth are the loudest ones to perceive if we consider that our surrounding environment is quiet. We not only hear what is coming out of our mouth but we perceive more textures of resonances through the mass of our body directly touching the inner ear especially when we are eating food or drinking water. It is like the jaw bone being a contact mic. Again – we need to eat every day therefore we do hear this every day.
Pitch – Voice
Sound of our voice is naturally changing the pitch all the time. Either when we are talking or even singing change of the pitch it’s constant unless we are willingily trying to impersonate a robot as a perfomance.
Sound Signal – sounds which are meant to be listened to, measured or stored.
Very explicit sound signal is for example beeping sound of card reader upon entering classes or gates upon entering the building.
Keynote sound – Sounds which are heard by a particular society continuously or frequently enough to form a background against which other sounds are perceived
Backround noise of the corridors or dishes with cutlery on canteen.
Soundmark – a community sound, which is unique or possesses qualitieswhich make it specially regarded or noticed by people in that community
Silent ambience of the library and the way to the library. Bridge right before entrance has high ceiling and it amplifies surrounding sounds with transition into hyper quiet environment of the library with occassional sound of turning pages.
Two pieces in particular drawn my attention during the visit of Tate Modern. Brain Forest Quipu by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña and 112L by Leonardo Drew.
Brain Forest Quipu has struck me straight away by its contradictions – massiveness and softness. At first I thought that this multi-media installation is dream-catchers. Two 27 meters long sculptures are hanging from the ceiling in Turbine Hall. The piece consists from fabric sculpture, sound, music, and video. It mourns the destruction of nature (rain forest and the loss of Indigenous history and culture (Anon, n.d.).
I have visited the piece several times in upcoming three days from our first visit. Physical presence of sculpture is quietly monumental like the rain forest itself. Sonic element gives to the piece the of dimension of change spanning over 8 hours. It has been conceived by Vicuña and directed by Colombian composer Ricardo Gallo and it brings together indigenous music from several regions, compositional silences, new pieces by Gallo, Vicuña, other artists and field recordings from nature.
I particularly indulged in listening to the sound and music from different distances from the piece within majestic Turbine Hall. The reverberation of the huge space brought to compositions the whole new perspective. The clarity of compositions was dissolving within long decaying echo of Turbine Hall and approaching closer to the core of the sculpture brought you to original sound of compositions but here it is – where the sound is coming from? It took me good few minutes to locate the source of the sound which was coming from many little speakers wrapped up in little cocoons blending with many other knots and fabrics.
What I didn’t enjoy about the piece was inherently necessary due to its placing and I myself was part of that – people visiting the gallery and their chatter within Turbine Hall were somehow disturbing the beauty of reverberation experienced whilst observing and listening to the sculpture from distance.
Another piece which I liked wasn’t probably a sound piece at its original intention however what intrigued me was its relation to the sound by the bias of my mindset of sound artist.
112L by Leonardo Drew is a sculpture made of wood. It made me thought how different may be interpretation of art pieces within fields or even across them based on our own history and interests.
Wooden sculpture immediately reminded me visual representation of sound waves (most likely white noise) in wavetable generator.
Anon, (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/cecilia-vicuña.
“In the form of unfelt activities, what could be called matrix ‘of advancing acts that have already arisen from previous situations’ (Langer 1967: 281), constitutes the mood of a feeling, and this mood shapes the kind of conceptual moves that can be made in an occasion of feeling, then this dimension of organic activity should be regarded as a structured and structuring ground that determines the kind of abstractions or abstractive tendencies that can take place within it without, however, determining the characteristics of these abstractions.”
This paragraph has been extracted from the essay Felt as thought (or, musical abstraction and semblance of affect) by eldritch Priest. The essay is part of wider collection which ‘…features new essays that bring together recent developments in sound studies and affect studies.’ (Thompson and Biddle 2013: 250).
Considering the name of the essay, the content of the paragraph may be suggesting the dichotomy and mutual relation between rational thinking and emotions induced by music or sound. Possibly we could extend this to experiencing any art form in general. “…form of unfelt activities, what could be called ‘matrix ‘of advancing acts that have already arisen from previous situations’ (Langer 1967: 281)… “ cited from S. Langer’s Mind: Essay on Human Feeling indicates a collection of experiences derived from ‘unfelt’, which could be considered from rational. This rational thinking may be somehow shaping (‘biasing’?) our momentary emotional experience (abstractions) whilst we are exposed to the art piece. This suggests that our emotional experience of art never exists fully independent out of certain preliminary structures of our own individual experience of life, history and mind.
Bibliography:
Priest, e. (2013) Felt as thought (or, musical abstraction and semblance of affect), in: Thompson, M. and Biddle, I. (eds.) Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 45-64.
