ellen moffat

Interlude is a 4-channel sound installation that uses field recordings from SW Ontario to construct an evolving composition, modified in real-time by software and by the dynamic relations of sound and space. As a site, the foyer connects the street and the gallery: events in the street bleed into the entryway; sound from the installation expands into the adjacent gallery and throughout the building. The listener hears the mix of live and recorded sound of inside and outside as the fluctuation of sound in time and space. In 20/50 Anniversary Exhibition, PAVED ARTS, Saskatoon.

Speakers, organic matter, and signal cable cover the gallery floor evoking our techno-organic natureculture. An evolving soundscape of field recordings from land, air, and water in SW Ontario mixes sense and nonsense of human and nonhuman sound – bugs and birds, motors, wind, thunder, and waves – processed to distort their identity. The sonic becomings present an uncertain ecology of fluctuating forces and affect. The listener is immersed in a sonic space that is familiar and unfamiliar, located and dislocating. Sound intermingles with the moving images of Eeva Siivonen’s video in a sensorial environment of ambiguous presence and absence. In Written on the Earth, McIntosh Gallery, London, ON.

Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s 1914 literary text, Tender Buttons, which performs everyday objects to shift the stability of form and meaning, my approach is sonic: signal is transferred to everyday materials and objects to produce kinetic-sonic actions and interactions with recurrence. A multi-channel sound installation unfolds as an evolving composition of spatialized sound using a serial algorithm for signal generation, pick-up mics for amplification, and delay as output. Transforming the same into difference guides the listener through the space of the gallery. Solo Exhibition, Remai Modern, Saskatoon.

<Listen 1> Installation

<Listen 2> Performance Improvisation with Jeff Morton

In Conversation: https://remaimodern.org/field/read/a-little-piece-of-string-ellen-moffat-in-conversation-with-troy-gronsdahl

This work included a Web commission by the Remai Modern in 2017. (See PERFORMANCE: Material Signals)

Physical interfaces, materials, objects, surface exciters, and frequency modulation produce audible and physical vibration. In a stand where it did shake, objects positioned on the vibrating interfaces create small,  percussive, localized sound in reaction to the signal. The work is an installation and performance. In performance, I work with the dynamics and rhythms of the component elements and their kinetic actions, sound and silence. Group Exhibition, Latitude 53, Edmonton, 2018

 a stand where it did shake, 2018

A Pen. A Sponge.: Low frequency signal transferred to physical interfaces via vibrotactile transducers results in a kinetic sonic performance. Cycles of frequency modulation trigger material sonic actions as recurring composition of acoustic-electronic sound. A stylus circumnavigates  around the interior perimeter of a glass bowl as spectral sonic writing. A sponge moves in the speaker cone to create sonic texture. Touring Exhibition (Chatham, Toronto, London, Hamilton, Guelph) organized by Vibration Fusion Lab, 2017-2020

A Pen. A Sponge., 2017

<Video> https://vimeo.com/21854633

Study in FM: Variation: Base frequencies relate to states of mind and body and the Earth’s electro-magnetic field. Kinetic and sonic actions of materials add a layer of analog sound. The empirical combines with experimental play in an endless loop of recurring signal. Group Exhibition, Gordon Snelgrove Gallery, Saskatoon, 2017

                                                                         Study in FM: Variation, 2017

                                                             <Video> https://vimeo.com/210866309

PickUpPutDown is an interaction in and with architectural space and experimental sound making using surfaces of the gallery as ad hoc soundboards. Participants engage with objects and materials (instrument wires and resonant materials attached directly onto the walls) through interaction, improvisation and intuitive exploration. Sound is amplified with contacts mics, processed through software with delay and output to multiple speakers as distributed sound.  Performance at opening reception with Jeff Morton and David Grosse. Solo Exhibition, PAVED Arts, Saskatoon, 2011

VIDEO: Performed Installation 03’43

<LISTEN> PickUpPutDown 02’04

Installation Details: objects and materials for sound making

A situated, interactive installation in a 160′ long corridor using constructed and found elements. Two physical soundboards positioned at opposite ends of the corridor are equipped with objects and materials for live soundmaking. Participants improvise with materials and the interfaces through ludic play, negotiating co-creation and communication over distance. Sound is distributed to four speakers along the corridor with variable delays to stretch sound spatially as recursive sound. The project was completed during a residency at NSCAD U, in the Port Loggia campus, Halifax.

<LISTEN> LinesTonesSpaces 01’29

Sound/Track is a foot-controlled interface that uses local and imported organic matter, sensors and extremely low frequencies ranging from 7.8 Hz to 60 Hz. Impact of participants’ footsteps on the floor-level sound board triggers switches that release sonic frequencies as primary sound which activates matter in four speaker cones as a second layer of sound. Together, preset and chance sound events propose an experimental compositional process. Group Exhibition, Gordon Snelgrove Gallery, Saskatoon.

Speaker cones contain: dried flowers and berries; leaves (birch, basil, oregano, tea); water and Palestinian olive oil; seeds (peppercorn, coriander, hemp).

<LISTEN>  Sound/Track 2’09

Basement Suite started in my domestic space. The living room floor became a soundboard for experimental sound making and the crawl space a recording studio and listening chamber. Participants performed the floor using extended techniques for sound generation with objects (furniture, pill bottle, boots, shoes, sponge, tuning forks, glockenspiel), animal and body parts (dog, knuckles, heels) and actions (walking, dancing, moving furniture, sweeping, knocking). Captured by contact microphones, I edited the recordings into an 8-channel psycho-acoustic composition for in-house and a gallery installation. 2-person exhibition, Open Space, Victoria, curated by Ted Hiebert & David Cechetto, http://www.tedhiebert.net/site/eidola.php

Physical elements of the gallery installation link to architectural and acoustic aspects of the domestic space. Suspended wooden platforms suggest a fragmented floating floor; speakers and a light fixture reference the house installation. The composition layers somatic rhythms, percussive beats and sustained phrases into an open narrative of spatialized sound.

<LISTEN> BasementSuite  01’14

The Phoneme Project is an extended investigation into polyphonic composition using phonemes as note events and multi-channel spatialized sound in installation and performance. Phonemes (the granular units of spoken language) are extracted from professional recordings of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The series includes sound installation, interactivity and performance.

My process uses an iterative approach, focusing on composition generation, structure, physical interfaces, technology and/or interaction. The compositions suggest language as it is becoming or deteriorating, teasing with meaning, sense and sensibility. My references include sound, visual, linguistic, psychological and cartographic disciplines: aerial photography, cognitive (dys)functionality, linguistic gestalt and musical instruments.

vBox (2008)

BLOW combines fragmented vocal recordings, projection and audio equipment. Two voices – one male, one female – are deconstructed into semantic and grammatical units in a polyphonic composition that is output to twelve tracks  as spatialized sound. Breath, utterance, syllables and phrases propose a cut-up sound poem of sentience and rationality using high/low technology and aesthetics. The text explores sense and sensuality of the individual, the collective and utopic social movements. A cartographic-text map fusing concrete poetry and the nervous system of the human body as a techno-organic graphic is projected on one wall. Catalogue with Audio CD; essay by Betsy Warland. Collection of the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

<LISTEN>  BLOW  1’00