Dallas Simpson, Location Performance Sound Artist
artistic statement:
Since childhood I have
been exploring both country and urban environments. These experiences have been
recorded visually through photography and aurally through sound recording. Over
the last five years I have been exploring these environments both through listening
and interactive performance using in some instances only found objects, or in
other cases by carrying objects or placing them within the environment that
I am exploring. These experiences, sometimes of a purely observational nature,
sometimes driven by pre-conceived narratives, are recorded binaurally by sampling
the sound from inside my ears.
When using headphones the listener is effectively hearing through my
ears and has effectively access to my three dimensional perception (the
artists perspective) of the location and my interaction with it. Through
these shared relationships I am attempting to invite the listener into a new
realm of aural sensory discovery which they may wish to explore for
themselves in their everyday experiences.
True conservation starts from the heart through developing an emotional
relationship through our senses with our environment. The utility of the
practise of my art is, therefore, an attempt to invigorate the intensity of
our relationship with our environment spiritually, emotionally, socially,
musically, historically and in many other ways.
Contact Dallas Simpson.
Sound Excerpts
Adoration of Willow
This is an extract from a recent work featuring a walk with sound
improvisation using only found materials on the flood plain of the River
Trent near the village of Kneeton, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. This
section of the river is only accessible on foot. At this location a line of
old willow trees marks the former edge of the main water course before the
river was diverted and deepened to its present position about 70 yards away.
The old willows here suffer regular drought during dry weather when the
residual trough, which used to be the old bed of the river, dries out - on
this occasion it is filled with the recent rains. The form of the willows
reflects their condition. They are slowly dying, agonisingly bent and
tortured in appearance. This is an improvisation intended to evoke the
irregular rhythm of drought and water and the agonising dryness experienced
by these old guardians of the river bank. Please note that the trees were
not damaged during the course of the improvisation. The snapping sounds were
made by using fallen twigs which had been stripped from the trees presumably
by wind, deeper sounds by handling larger fallen dead branches.
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