Noise as Performance: Hladiny
SHLUK’s main intention for Hladiny was to record sounds with which to perform. Through the process of assembling these recordings, we wondered if the poetics of noise as a genre are different from noise as a byproduct of society or nature. Artistically speaking, noise has a transgressive power that includes aspects of immersion and disruption. There is a social prejudice, however, when it comes to the loudness of noise music in comparison to other musical genres, even though any musical genre can be played very loud and thereby become invasive.
The idea to perform in the Barrandov swimming pool emerged through collaboration with Vladimir Turner. The space has a history of artistic interventions. Because we are a group keen on site-specific interventions, it seemed a logical space for our recordings. In a manner of speaking, we returned the sounds to their original habitat, that is, to the vicinity in which they were recorded.
There were a few technical decisions that directly affected the aesthetic result, for instance, the different ways each of us used our software. Consequently, our first rehearsals consisted mostly of us sharing our findings and processes, as we were all using the same collection of sounds. After a while, we agreed on a loose structure that would give us some guidelines and a sense of direction based solely on the kind of experience we wanted to provide. There was to be a loose arc composed of different segments, mostly based on the nature of the sounds (raw or processed, for example) and the density with which we would play them. Other than that, we were free to play as we pleased.
Another important technical decision that directly affected the aesthetic result was the loudspeaker arrangement. For two reasons, we decided on a multichannel arrangement that would completely occupy the space. First of all, we could not guarantee that everyone attending would fit or would want to be inside of the swimming pool. Naturally, we wanted to ensure that the experience was sonically rich at any position. Second, and more importantly, the sound definition on-site needed to do justice to the spectral complexity of the recordings. For that purpose, we performed inside the swimming pool with a Full-Range, 3-way Large Scale Stereo System next to us and three stage monitors located on the top edge of the swimming pool (Figure 12). The three of us would share the stereo system equally, but each of the stage monitors would be positioned in relation to our position “on stage.” Our idea was to fill the space from its main angles and on both floor levels. Next to the pool, to our top left, there was enough space for as many people as inside the swimming pool.
According to the feedback we received from the audience, the sound’s density regardless of audience position (although, of course, diverging in different ways) was the best aspect of the performance.
We wanted to blend in with the space as much as possible, often playing with the thin line between what was played back and what was happening live on-site. The event was a celebration of the poetically audible, an ode to noise.[5] We thought of it as a communal softcore-rave and child-friendly party, an “ecological horror”[6] which connected us and the audience to the environment through deep listening. The event was a practice of deep listening via the noise that composes the same environment in which it was being played, but beyond our human scale. We propose to call this a practice of listening via “Deep Recording.”
