tracing mobility: cartography and migration in ... - Trampoline

Taking Soundings, 2008
Three colour prints, sound, headphones
The title, Taking Soundings (2008), refers to
the technique of determining the depth of
water beneath a boat using lead and line,
an essential method for coastal navigation
especially in shallow waters. As a project,
Taking Soundings is a research piece exploring
sound, the landscape and new technologies.
These elements are intertwined together to
create ‘coastlines’ of sound. Such ‘coastlines’
develop in various forms of performance,
installation and writing, in which they all
center around the use of navigation
technology and sound generation.
Produced from satellite data collected by
of travels at sea and along coastlines, the
work is “taking soundings” of position and
movement. In the exhibition there will be
three colour prints generated during such
a performance and combined with a sound
work generated from the electronic sonifica-
tions of the data and other navigational
techniques including lighthouse signaling
and environmental field recordings. The
images are the result of re-drawing those
traces during a performance. And, as each
part of the line is digitally drawn the data is
transformed simultaneously into electronic
sounds. The score is thus being recreated,
redrawn, and therefore reinterpreted in the
moment the sound comes into existence.
As static prints they become a record
of a personal map, the memory of a shared
performance, and encourage new interpreta-
tions by the audience and viewer. The images
traverse the border between a musical score
and a navigational map, between line and
sound, and between an event and a record-
ing, playing out compositional mobility and
its audibility.
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Taking Soundings, 2008