Aminata (2011) - George Mercer

This piece, titled "Aminata" is a three and a half minute evolutionary themed sound-scape model which exhibits post-apocalyptic subject matter, through the manipulation of a dissatisfactory contemporary popular music production. The process of recycling material from this production, to some extent, seemed comparable to the process of recycling of electronic and materials in modern culture.
This inspired the development of animate characters formed from the "scrapped" materials that this production offered. The creation of new artistic material out of derelict elements in contemporary art culture has remained in my conscious awareness, as the development of this process draws links to modern artistic and philosophical values, where society feels the need to explore the intrinsic value of subject materials.
One of my first experiences with this process was in the teachings of Irish composer "Siobháin Cleary" who conveyed this when she spoke of the need to "look inside every note" and to "explore the internal and timbrel values of sound".
This has influenced the creation of my piece whereby I sought internal-timbrel sound qualities out of a specific set of audio tracks containing electric guitars, drum tracks and also vocal tracks that would later lead to the provision for an industrially inspired sound-scape project.
Aminata's evolutionary theme can be witnessed when observing the pieces character formation through the progression of the piece, in which the characters are born into a post-apocalyptic environment in which they will develop and mature over time, allowing the listener to engage with the characters growth and diversity of expression.
It is the rapid technological developments with this era, and a certain element of social "technophobia" that the listener can also relate to within this piece, whereby human relationships with modern technology can be strained through lack of understanding and familiarity with this rapid evolution. This piece does not represent this form of conflict but instead, seeks to attain a communicable vocabulary that represents the multi-facets of relationships both between humans and technology, and humans themselves.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• electro-acoustic
• ireland
• laois
• denis smalley
• contemporary
• portarlington
• dundalk
• dkit
• boy lights fire
• sten hanson
• experimental
• apocalyptic
• hilary mullaney
• industrial
• sound art
• futuristic
• glitch
• ryoji ikeda
• new music
• cmc
• roger doyle
• susumo yokota
• somadrone
• trevor wishart