Proposal

 When I was invited to create an artistic project with a group of pupils who had nothing to do with arts or music, I though we could share the following experiences together:

• Modifying our senses in order to “feel” sounds and images from different strata than usual.

• Carrying out a learning and reflection process through the concepts of sound, music and aesthetics.

• Creating a sound installation to include visual, sound and temporary elements.

• Finally, making a performance in which the pupils and I become actors and subjects of the feelings experienced during this project.

This work of art can produce sound accidentally or deliberately (caused by me and by the pupils) when subsequently exhibited to the public. The final result, as well as the whole process, should be artistic, functional, interactive and cathartic.

Josep-Maria Balanyà

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Sculptural and interactive sound installation (250 x 250 x 230 cm) and performance

So-roll, metal, anima [Noise, metal, soul] is a sound sculpture formed by a cuboid-shaped piece of iron (2.5 metres high by 2.3 metres wide) which contains visual and sound elements that were collected over the course of the residence. Most of the parts are made from a variety of metals in different shapes and qualities. All the pieces hang from nylon thread: the wind can move them (if the installation is placed outside), and people inside the cube can move them, whether deliberately or accidentally; at first, those presenting the performance strike the pieces, after which it is the turn of the audience.

For eight intense months, from September 2010 to April 2011, the project was developed in four different stages. The first part of the residence was devoted to meditating on the concepts of sound, music and aesthetics. The pupils modified the sensitivity of their senses, perceiving the environment through different strata from those they were used to and learning to produce sounds and make music using non-musical objects.

The next stage centred on research and production of artistic sound objects, which involved salvaging used and discarded everyday and/or industrial materials. The focus here was on recycling objects that had been removed from their original purpose, "dead" objects that were given new life thanks to an artistic and sound function.

Next, the sound installation was created. An iron sheet was inserted into the base of the cube, inside the profiles, 10 mm above the floor. Below this sheet, contact microphones were used to amplify the sound made by people moving over it on when they entered the cube.

Finally, on 15 April 2011, a performance was presented. From the first, the piece performed followed a variable course generated by interaction in real time between the direction of Josep-Maria Balanyà and the pupils participating in the residence to create a unique, living sound.

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Interactive sound installation

Un proceso de aprendizaje y reflexión a través de los conceptos de sonido, música y estética.

Modificar la sensibilidad de nuestros sentidos. Percibir el entorno sonoro desde estados diferentes de los habituales. Aprender a producir sonidos, a hacer música con objetos no musicales. Este paisaje sonoro es un recorrido por diferentes momentos del proceso de creación del proyecto: la llegada al instituto, el recibimiento de los alumnos, sus sonidos favoritos, los ensayos, las visitas a lugares en los que se hizo la búsqueda de objetos sonoros, los comentarios de los participantes sobre sus impresiones, sus preferencias musicales y sonoras...