Oden: Artist Talk | Bath House Galleries, Sovereign Design House, Hepworth Park, University of Huddersfield Queensgate Campus
Nov 29, 2023 (UTC+0)ENDED
Huddersfield
Oden, an immersive audio-visual installation, is a captivating exploration of landscape that combines multi-screen video projection and binaural audio. Created through the collaborative efforts of composer/sound artist Simon Connor and filmmaker Andrew Brooks, this remarkable project delves into the mesmerizing beauty of Odin's Gully, situated in the evocative Peak District. Spanning from 2016 to 2020, Connor and Brooks meticulously collected footage and field recordings from this unique location, employing spatial audio techniques to enhance the immersive experience. The culmination of their work is a stunning audio-visual installation featuring large screen projections and spatial audio delivered through headphones. Visitors have the opportunity to embark on their own personal journey through the landscape, allowing them to fully immerse themselves at their own pace. The sound and music of Oden form a vital part of Connor's ongoing research doctorate at the University of Huddersfield, blending field recordings, sound design, and music. These sonic elements harmoniously merge to create a cohesive environment that appears to emerge naturally. Notably, Oden also includes musical performances by members of the BBC Philharmonic and University of Salford music department staff, skillfully woven among the field recordings. The visual aesthetic of Oden shares similarities with landscape film and slow cinema, capturing the essence and intricate details of nature, akin to a moving photograph. By utilizing headtracked binaural audio, Oden provides an enhanced level of realism for an enriched and contemplative multimodal perception of place. For more details on Oden and its creators, please visit Simon Connor's website. Simon Connor, a composer and sound artist located in Manchester, UK, is also a music technology lecturer at the University of Salford and is on track to complete his practice-based PhD at the University of Huddersfield in CeReNeM. His work explores the boundaries between sound design and composition, blending field recordings, found sound, and traditional instrumentation. Connor's research investigates new compositional strategies for conceptualizing landscape through the integration of moving image, environmental sound, and music, with a focus on dynamic binaural technology. Andrew Brooks, a photographer, artist, and filmmaker, uses digital technologies to offer a unique perspective on the natural and urban landscapes. Inspired by Romantic era paintings, Brooks crafts large-scale works that derive from smaller details and studies of various locations, resulting in imagined or reimagined scenes that evoke a profound sense of place. This inventive approach deeply resonates with audiences and their interaction with his work.