AURA SATZ

AURA SATZ: SOUND SEAM

SOUND SEAM

SOUND SEAM IS A FILM FEATURING ABSTRACT IMAGERY OF CLOSE-UPS OF GRAMOPHONE GROOVES, GIVING VOICE TO THE IDEA THAT EVERY SURFACE, IN PARTICULAR PARTS OF OUR ANATOMY, IS POTENTIALLY INSCRIBED WITH AN UNHEARD SOUND OR ECHOES OF VOICES FROM THE PAST. THE SOUNDTRACK'S MUSICAL COMPOSITION IS INTERLACED WITH LAYERS OF VOICE-OVERS NARRATING A TALE OF MOURNING WHICH DRAWS ON RAINER MARIA RILKE'S TEXT 'PRIMAL SOUND', WHERE HE REFLECTS ON THE POSSIBILITY OF PLAYING THE CORONAL SUTURE OF A SKULL WITH A PHONOGRAPH NEEDLE. THE FILM USES MICROSCOPIC PHOTOGRAPHY, SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY, AND SOUNDS OF OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS TO UNCOVER HAUNTING AURAL BONESCAPES. THE FILM'S SOUND-TRACK IS COMPOSED BY MUSICIAN AND PHONOGRAPH/GRAMOPHONE SPECIALIST ALEKS KOLKOWSKI.

DURING 2009-2010 AURA WAS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT UCL'S EAR INSTITUTE, WHERE SHE UNDERTOOK RESEARCH INTO HEARING ANATOMY AND SHOT MOST OF THE MICROSCOPIC FOOTAGE, INCLUDING A GOLDEN COCHLEA, AN EAR DRUM AND INNER EAR HAIR CELLS. THE HORN SEQUENCES OF THE FILM WERE SHOT AT THE MUSEUM FOR MUSIC AUTOMATONS IN SEEWEN, SWITZERLAND, DURING THEIR TEMPORARY EXHIBITION 'WHEN SOUND STILL CAME FROM THE HORN'. ALL CLOSE-UPS OF ACETATE DISC AND WAX CYLINDER SOUND GROOVES ARE FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ALEKS KOLKOWSKI.

Written, directed, filmed and edited by Aura Satz
Music and sound recordings onto wax cylinder and acetate discs made by Aleks Kolkowski
Voiceovers by Aleks Kolkowski and Aura Satz
Otoacoustic emission recordings provided by Prof. David Kemp and recorded onto wax cylinder.

Aura would like to thank all staff at the Ear institute, in particular David McAlpine, David Kemp, Andy Forge, Dan Jagger, Ruth Taylor, Jonathan Ashmore, Torsten Marquardt, Kate Lay, Neil Roberts and Bradford Backus. Special thanks also to Christoph E. Hanggi at the Museum for Music Automatons.
Aura would also like to thank Shira Hess, David Edelsztein and of course Leila for their patience and support throughout.

Sound Seam exhibitions:

Solo exhibition Sound Seam
Wellcome Collection
9th December 2010 - 16th January 2011
Open Tue, Wed, Fri, Saturday 10am-6pm; Thurs 10am-10pm; Sunday 11am-6pm

A small publication with contributions from cultural historian Steven Connor and novelist Tom McCarthy will be available during the exhibition.

Wellcome Collection
215 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
Tel: 020 7611 8888
www.wellcomecollection.org

 

Sound Seam exhibition premiere at AV FESTIVAL 10:
Aura Satz in collaboration with Aleks Kolkowski
5 - 14 March 2010

SOUND SEAM PREMIERED AT THE AV FESTIVAL IN NEWCASTLE IN MARCH 2010 AS A COMPLEX FILMIC SOUND INSTALLATION IN COLLABORATION WITH ALEKS KOLKOWSKI, FEATURING 20 ORIGINAL PHONOGRAPH AND GRAMOPHONE HORNS, A NUMBER OF HEARING TRUMPETS, AND AN 8FT AUXETOPHONE HORN ON LOAN FROM THE DISCOVERY MUSEUM IN NEWCASTLE.

THE FILM, FILM INSTALLATION, AND PUBLICATION WERE FUNDED BY THE WELLCOME TRUST.

FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW AND INTERVIEW CHECKOUT ANIMATE PROJECTS WEBSITE FOR THE MOVING IMAGE ENGINE DOCUMENTATION OF THE INSTALLATION AT THE AV FESTIVAL CAN BE SEEN ON THE WIRE WEBSITE

 

AV FESTIVAL 10: Energy presents the world premiere of Sound Seam, an atmospheric film installation by artist Aura Satz in collaboration with musician Aleks Kolkowski.

The installation explores sound inscription, encryption, decoding and the material quality of memory. It draws on the German poet Rilke's 1919 text Primal Sound in which he proposes that the groove-like line of a skull (the coronal suture) could be played with a gramophone needle. The mesmeric film uses microscopic close-ups of gramophone grooves, wax and acetate shavings, phonograph cylinder recording and erasing technology, as well as footage of the anatomy of the ear, where inner ear hair cells have been animated to look like a sound groove, and a gold-plated cochlea spirals like a shellac disc. The musical soundtrack is derived from the analysis of sounds made by playing a gramophone needle across a skull and from otoacoustic sounds emitted by the ear. Every one of the hundred-odd recordings used has been individually cut onto a wax cylinder or disc record, some even over-written so as to create unexpected surface noises, scratches, glitches, loops and echoes. You are invited to listen to a magnificent array of original phonograph, gramophone horns and ear trumpets and piece together the various strands of this intriguing 'forensic love story' voice-over which draws on Rilke's text.

Guided Exhibition Tour of Great North Museum: Hancock and Hatton Gallery, Saturday 6 March, 2.30-3.30pm. Tour starts with Sound Seam.

INTERVIEW ON THE OPENING NIGHT AT THE AV FESTIVAL

Exhibition produced by AV Festival 10 in partnership with Great North Museum: Hancock. Funded by The Wellcome Trust and produced during an Artist Residency at the Ear Institute, UCL, London. Sound design produced with support from the AHRC.

www.avfestival.co.uk

Production Stills:

 

'Sound Seam' screened as part of a selection of artist's films curated by the Wellcome Collection
Artprojx Cinema at the SVA Theatre, New York
in association with The Armory Show & VOLTA NY
MARCH 1-6 2011

Screenings of artists' films & videos

SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd Street between 8th & 9th Avenues
New York
www.svatheatre.com
www.artprojx.com

 

Radio interview on 'Sound Seam' by Tim Dee as part of the programme '78 Revolutions'
BBC Radio4 5th May 2011 11:30-12:00

www.bbc.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010t6pb

 

'Sound Seam' screened at Pop-up Cinema at Christie’s South Kensington
with screenings of films by Aura Satz. Part of Supersonix Symposium, Exhibition Road, London
21-23 June 2012
Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd: 11am to 6pm; and Saturday 23rd 11am to 1pm

Plus
23rd June 2.45-4.45pm: A screening of an additional selection of films curated by Aura Satz, including films by Manon de Boer, Jayne Parker and Luke Fowler
http://www.exhibitionroad.com/7416/pop-up-cinema-at-christies-south-kensington-aura-satz