Dinah Hayward
Sonic Agency and the Voice
The overarching theme for my project is sonic agency and the voice; my work spans from the noisy, abrasive, political and disruptive, to the lyrical, quiet, and non verbal. I have been looking at multiple modes of vocal expression, represented in improvisational, digital, textual, and metaphorical forms. Throughout the project, I engaged with anthropological, ecological, indigineous, feminist, queer literature and sources, to examine what can be gained from listening to a polyphony of perspectives; voices that often get sidelined, suppressed, or erased altogether. I discovered that by listening to viewpoints rarely foregrounded or heard, and by tuning in to the sounds of our ecosystem more acutely, we are presented with a rich seam of untapped knowledge, and wisdom; inspirational sources which can inform, and infuse new understandings, creative works, and sensibilities. I find the disruptive possibilities of electro acoustic music and the underground sonic art scene, subversive and exciting; its capacity to resist redundant, polarising narratives, in an invitation to contemporarize and innovate upon existing approaches to sound making, and listening practices.
“Listening is marked by its capacity to install sensitivity for what goes unheard.” Emergent Forms of Resistance (LaBelle, 2018, p. 24)
My portfolio consists of six collages, representing disparate parts of my interdisciplinary practice, which primarily includes field recording, analogue synthesisers, film, acoustic guitar, poetry, and sound design. My compositions often shape shift, from poem to song to instrumental, and more recently has included my own films. So, although fixed media works are seemingly static, they only remain so until the next iteration, or mode of expression.
Lockdown, The Cyborg, and Encounter are three contrasting works that explore contemporary animations for my poetry, and draw from metaphors discovered, and created on this research project.
1) Lockdown is a socio-political commentary in response to recent events. I draw parallels to the congestion of the airways, mainstream and broadcast media, and environmental pollution. The narrative is accompanied by samples, field recordings, and sound design.
2) The Cyborg, is a science fiction piece, which examines hybrid identities that occur in the liminal space between humanoids and machines. This is expressed by a succession of echoes, delays, and multiple iterations of my heavily digitalised voice.
3) Encounter is an audio visual film based on poetic text. Here, I discuss the geographical, political, historical, and mythical landscapes we all inhabit, and how they shape our relationship to our inner and outer topographies.
In the following works, I am inquiring into what can be conveyed in an instrumental, wordless environment.The guitar compositions represent a more lyrical, melancholic, and sensitive voice, in aesthetic contrast to other parts of my practice and portfolio.
4) Disrupture; a combination of disruption and rupture, is an abrasive, noise inspired analogue synthesiser piece, accompanied by field recordings of trains, helicopters, bees, and vocal samples.
5) Night Owl is a classical guitar composition intersecting with nocturnal, elemental field recordings of fire and thunder etc
6) Indigo Skies is an acoustic guitar composition, accompanied by experimental, improvised vocals, with a combination of long and short reverbs.