From Site-specific to Site-responsive: Sound art performances as participatory milieu. Issue 1 (7th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hayes, Lauren
• Is Part Of: Organised sound. Volume 22:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2017-03-07
• Subjects: Music -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 780.285
• DOI: 10.1017/S1355771816000364
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1355-7718

Abstract

Abstract : This article concerns context-based live electronic music, specifically performances which occur in response to a particular location or space. I outline a set of practices which can be more accurately described as site- responsive, rather than site- specific . I develop a methodological framework for site-responsive live electronic music in three stages. First, I discuss the ambiguity of the term site-specific by drawing on its origins within the visual arts and providing examples of how it has been used within sound art. I then suggest that site-responsive performance might be a more helpful way of describing this type of activity. I argue that it affords an opportunity for music to mediate the social, drawing on Small's idea of music as sets of third-order relationships, and Bourriaud's relational aesthetics. Third, I suggest that with the current renewed trend for performances occurring outside of cultural institutions, it is important to be mindful of the identity of a particular site, and those who have a cultural connection to it. I make reference to a series of works within my own creative practice which have explored these ideas.