Soundtrack composed for Kim Pieter’s work ‘Halo’ [24 mins, projection].
Exhibited at the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, Aotearoa, 2010.
The audio was made in direct response while watching Kim’s film, one take with no editing, oscillator, looping and voice. Spread analogue tones were generated, incorporating pitch splitting of the original tone; overlapping and producing harmonics as they interfere with each other – the break in the frames of the film, treating each frame as its own image seperated, instead of in smooth series. The birds float in the frame, you forget their direction, you forget they are flying – the audio was not to interfere with this effect, to stay minimal but to uplift and strengthen kim’s chosen frames and almost to keep the birds bouyant, celebratory, constant and unwavering. Recording a sountrack in one take, as an untampered, unmediated response means it is all present, the decisions, the experiments and the cohesive moments when sound and image come together.
excerpt :
“Kim Pieters is an Abstract painter. She has for many years also produced photographs, improvisational film and music, from her Dunedin studios. Her audiovisual films initially developed as an intuitive merging of her interest in the moving photographic image and abstract sound and remain within that domain.
The films generally place a discrete sound image and an autonomous visual image beside each other. Sometimes a third term is introduced. (eg text as in ‘Stray’). The usual cinematic action/reaction relationship is absent between the terms. This does not mean that a relationship does not exist but its qualities are particular and are not predetermined. This creates a base that can be put into play (sensually or intellectually or both) by anyone that may give attention.
Pieters orchestrates the project editing her visual contribution to invited participants independent sound or word images, as the case maybe. The pace has a tendency to be very slow and the resulting effect is contemplative, often very beautiful.
SHE SAID THE FILM OFFERED A CLEARING TO WHOMEVER PAID ATTENTION. SHE SAID YOU NEED NOT PAY ATTENTION. CLEARINGS WERE NOT FOR EVERYBODY. SHE SAID. SHE SAID IF YOU WERE BORED THEN CERTAINLY YOU WERE NOT PAYING ANY ATTENTION AND WERE NO WHERE NEAR NO CLEARING. HE SAID IT WAS NOT A FILM IT WAS AN AUDIOVISUAL
