Work With Objects

Photo Credit Geraldine Montgomerie

In the same way that sensors can be worn anywhere on the body, they can also be placed in or on objects. We have played with putting sensors in stones (see Inside Yellow Sound), blankets (see Sonic Blankets), daily objects as well as theatre props and costumes. Objects can serve as an additional mediator between the moving body and the sound and, as such, can be used in several ways. One can work with objects in terms of the movement possibilities they afford; a ball, for example can be thrown and tossed, whereas a chair can be pushed, climbed, and turned upside down. Objects are often loaded with cultural associations and/or rich personal histories and may evoke for the mover or an audience member a series of associations. 

The possible mappings of relationships between sounds and objects are endless and combinations offer a rich territory for exploration: sounds can position the object within a particular environment or activity, which might be aligned with or entirely contradict cultural expectations of the object. Similarly, the kind of movement that triggers the sound may or may not fit with the environment suggested by the sound and the everyday use of the object. For example, second year students of the Theatre and Performance BA at the University of Leeds explored the various sounds that can work with a bottle of vodka. Sea sounds brought attention to the liquid that the bottle can hold and brought into mind stories of messages in bottles tossed in the sea by stranded sailors. When the same bottle was coupled with sounds of techno music and loud chatter a very different atmosphere was created. Now, the associations were of nights out and club culture.

A helpful way to classify the relationship between sound and object, and accordingly structure activities, can be drawn from the semiotic categories: iconic, indexical and symbolic.

• An iconic relationship is when the sound produced out of the movement matches the real or imaginary sound we would expect the object to make. The sound of a toy car could be the sound of a car engine. The sound of a stuffed tiger may be a roar and so forth.
• An indexical relationship is when the sound produced points towards a wider environment or event which fits the object. Interactions with the same toy car could produce sounds associated with a busy road, traffic, honking etc. Here the sound is not exactly the same with the sound that this kind of object would produce in real life, but is closely associated with the wider environment within which this object is often placed.
• A symbolic relationship between the object and the sound  is dependent on cultural references and/or personal experience. Interaction with the heart cushion featured in the picture that opens this section may produce the sound of a lullaby, soft whispers, or children laughter. These sounds cannot be produced by the use of the object in and of itself, but when they are generated through the movement interaction, they can tally, enhance or underline the affective qualities and cultural contexts that are evoked by the material characteristics of the object (shape, size, texture, weight).