Angles, Time, Perspectives

Angles, Time, Perspectives is a multilayered soundscape of travel over time and distance, a choral created from seemingly disconnected sound sources at my travel destinations, and a sonic portrait of how the angles of tomorrow, today, and yesterday collide to provide interesting perspectives. Combines field recordings from Lisbon, Portugal, air traffic control transmissions from around the world, and sample voice transmissions from the Apollo 8 moon landing.

Exhibitions

Light Moves Festival of Screendance
Juried exhibition, international
Limerick City Gallery of Art
Limerick, Ireland
3-6 November 2016

Electronic Literature Organization international media arts festival
Juried exhibition, international
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC, Canada
10-12 June 2016

Centre for Art and Architecture Affairs
Juried exhibition, international
Guimarães, Portugal
12 December 2015-13 February 2016
Curated by Rui Almeida

Guimarães Noc Noc Art Festival
Juried exhibition, international
Convento de Santo António dos Capuchos Auditorium
Guimarães, Portugal
3-4 October 2015
Curated by Rui Almeida

Background

I created and submitted Angles, Time, Perspectives in response to an international open call for submissions to Tomorrow, today will be yesterday: Angles and distance, time and perspectives, a collection of sound, video, and photographic art compiled and curated by Rui Almeida. Almeida selected Angles, Time, Perspectives as one of twenty four components of his project. It has since been selected for other exhibitions.

Context

Almedia's curatorial statement explains the context for Tomorrow, today will be yesterday: Angles and distance, time and perspectives,
Proposing the title of this project as an inspiration for a free interpretation, I invited sound artists from all over the world to create a sound piece and video/photos for a public presentation where sound would be followed by the exhibition of those images. Images that will be displayed randomly so that they will not match the sound pieces of the same author. Instead of an obvious connecting exercise between imagery and sound, I was interested in exploring and experiencing the way in which the sounds strongly shape visuals and vice-versa, even without an apparent connection, except the connection with the title. A collection of seemingly decontextualised images that could become a suggestion of different perspectives within the length of time of each sound piece.

Each of the twenty-four artists, selected by Almeida, provided sound works addressing the collection's theme, and three photographs or videos illustrating their sound work. The images were projected as the sound works were played, each in looping format, continuously. Images and sounds, although out of sync with one another, created an ever changing sound and visual experience of angles and distance, time and perspectives.

Included Artists

Alfredo Costa Monteiro (Portugal/Spain), Darius Ciuta (Lithuania), Elisabetta Senesi (Italy), Fernando Ribeiro (Portugal), Iride Project - Massimo Davi & Monica Miuccio (Italy/Ireland), John F. Barber (US), Juan Carlos Vasquez (Columbia/Finland), Lin Culbertson (US), Loren Chasse (US), Luigi Morleo (Italy), Luís Antero (Portugal), Manuel Rocha Iturbide (Macedonia), Mathieu Ruhlmann (Canada), MUfi.re (Portugal), Nuno Miranda Ribeiro (Portugal), Osvaldo Cibils (Uruguay/Italy), Paul Collins (Canada/France), Philip Mantione (US), Slavek Kwi (Czech Republic/Ireland), sonosFera (Portugal), Steve Roden (US), Takamitsu Ohta (Japan), Una Lee (South Korea/Ireland).

Metadata

Object: Audio
Format: mp3
Bit Rate: 356kbs
Duration: 5:00
Created: 2015
Creator: John F. Barber

Artist Statement

Airline travel provides fast and efficient relocation despite time and distance. The angles of travel, the route of our journeys, provide new perspectives. One can travel today into tomorrow where today will be yesterday, and return to yesterday where tomorrow will be today.

Traveling to Lisbon involved four airline flights through four countries: from Vancouver, Washington, my home, to Seattle, to Iceland, to London, and finally to Lisbon. Each part of the journey was guided by air traffic controllers providing directions for takeoff and landing as well as travel angles (the route) between points of the journey.

Most of these rapid but nuanced narratives between air traffic controllers and pilots are unheard (unknown) by travelers. And most travelers do not think of their individual journeys as happening simultaneously with so many others. To represent both these insights I recorded voice data streams from Athens, Brussels, Chicago, Kuwait City, Moscow, Sao Paulo, and Singapore airport approach control centers and presented them simultaneously in my composition.

Once in Lisbon, there were multiple sounds, each elaborating some time frame of this beautiful city, rich in history and culture. I wanted to weave these sounds, along with those of travel, into a multi-layered composition representing both my perspective as a visitor and the theme of this festival.

This work, Angles, Time, Perspectives, begins with sounds of the clock atop the Arco da Rua Augusta, a triumphal arch leading out of Lisbon's Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square) to the Rua Augusta, a beautifully paved pedestrian street. Next are heard sounds at the ferry docks along the Tagus River. Then, like a backstory, begin recorded voice transmissions of air traffic controllers around the world representing my travels and those of others to arrive in Lisbon and ear witness the combination of time and perspective. The notion of distance and serendipitous connection sparked a playful sample of the Apollo 8 moon landing heard in the middle of this work.

During all these travels, with their attendant angles, time, and perspectives, the Arco da Rua Augusta clock ticks regularly, marking periods of time with its chime, each one witnessing today, tomorrow, yesterday.

In the end, this sound composition is at once a soundscape of travel over time and distance, a choral created from seemingly disconnected sound sources at my travel destination, and a sonic portrait of how the angles of tomorrow, today, and yesterday collide to provide interesting perspectives.