In this essay, the artist addresses her own creative work, Question-Scapes, which was presented as a sound installation at Wesleyan University on April 10, 2022. As she gathered her sound material by asking questions of participating collaborators, the majority of the sound content was created from recordings of the spoken voice. The practice of creating new audio compilations from isolated recordings was established by Pierre Schaeffer in his writings on musique concrète. The artist not only compares her own work to other works of musique concrète, but she considers the various ethical boundaries involved in extracting a recording from its sound creator, time, and place. Through the lens of other artists, Mayer theorizes upon the different approaches and effects of using recordings of the spoken voice as musical content. While artist and activist Bob Ostertag goes out \"into the field\" to collect his sound material, this essay distinguishes the varying implications of composer Frankie Mann's personal, wandering, and every-day attitude towards collecting sound material for composition. While both of these approaches allow for indeterminacy, Mann's personal and entropic approach proves to be the most influential on Mayer's work. The second half of the paper considers Mayer's creative approach and process in greater detail. Starting with how the prompts were made, Mayer clarifies that they were in response to a reading she happened to come across. Likewise, many of the aesthetic decisions that Mayer made in regards to the art is in the prompt and response form. She highlights how her audience members, and collaborators, are invited to contribute to the artistic experience throughout the piece, as she aims to promote a connective aesthetic. Finally, she uses Michel Chions' \"Three Modes of Listening\" to narrate how she practiced reduced listening when editing, and then later promoted a similar type of listening from her audience members. The resultant effect is that the semantic material of the audio content becomes decentralized in the work, whilst the musical attributes (contained in conversation and life) are emphasized.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Connective aesthetic","Frankie Mann","Field recording"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 28114