artist research: David Prior

Reasearching british sound artists, came across soundfjord website with links to liminal website: official website of collaboration between David Prior (Sound artist and composer) his partner Frances Crow (architect and designer).
I came across mention of a project completed during a residency for  binaural media 
called 'Of this parish'

a film explaining a live soundart recording made on a residency for binaural in Portugal.
the concept was of delineating in a real time recording, the geographical boundaries of a parish. 
Where bells tolling ceased to be heard at a parish boundary, meant you were within the adjacent parish.

At the time I was researching ideas and symbolism for a sound piece for a project for Theaster Gates's Sanctum November 2015.

Already had ideas around
->timeline
->repeated stories of the parishioners
->the church was dedicated to weavers of Bristol, repetitive mechanic sounds...
->using more repetitive elements of sounds to create meditative pattern and series of noises

 
I'd started with an idea of referencing the historical timeline of the Temple church where the final sound piece would be played.


The film produced for liminal was more about using 

using sound as a means to articulate space

rather than time, but I was really struck and taken by the calm thoughtful, simple concept. 
 'The film is both a sonic portrait'
Coincidentally, the film then showed at the Arnolfini, I was able to go and hear David Prior speak about the ideas and logistics of the recording and video editing.
The actual recording in live time that was done of the church bells wasn't included in the film which I was disappointed about.
But I came away excited and energised by hearing about contemporary artists work that I felt touched on some of the themes/content I'm enjoying exploring on the course:
How and what media to use to communicate an idea and feeling

How does this relate to my work?
Interesting the comments on liminal website that the preparation
for the project.

Unlike gathering field-recordings for future use in an edited work, these recordings are made in a single take. Like Aleksandr Sokurov’s film Russian Ark (2002), or indeed our work Another Poisonous Sunset (1998) or Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet (2001), Of This Parish is dependant upon real time rendering of space. For this reason, a significant portion of the residency was devoted to devising and preparing these simultaneous walks. Each walk was undertaken by two recordists providing equipment backup and ensuring that the primary recordist is not disturbed by the need to communicate, map-read or negotiate other practicalities.

 Ideas first, preparation, then controlled but spontaneous process that results in finished piece.

For final Sanctum piece, the sound recording, was edited live during the performance. Thus, the timeline and concept remained unchanged, but controlling and altering which elements allowed spontaneous editing during the performance eg altering volume or what sounds took 'centrestage' aurally.

from Liminal website,link below my italics

Of this parish Review

the talk given by David Prior was articulate, succinct and unpretentious. He spoke warmly and with interest about the themes in the work, the voiceover script and subsequent projects.
The film, was beautifully and simply edited but with a few additional effects eg children appearing/disappearing.
I will be interested to keep an eye on further projects by Liminal and I've also been looking into the binaural media links and other projects.





Links:
http://www.soundfjord.org/listeningpost.htm 
http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/film-screening-of-this-parish
http://www.liminal.org.uk/contact/
http://binauralmedia.org/news/en/about
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/28/sound-art-radio-4
http://www.quietmark.com/