Cities and Memory Autumn Project, (Coming in January, 2025)
https://citiesandmemory.com/
In this work, each participant in this group project was asked to work with a field recording in one of the cities located across the globe. As I lived near Detroit and grew up in Windsor, I was drawn to a field recording of the People Mover (a 13 station elevated transportation railway system in downtown Detroit). This railway was built by a Canadian company and open to the public in 1987.
The initial composition was created by Sound Artist and Musician Rebecca Goldberg.
In my submitted composition, I was drawn to the musical sounds used to indicate the stops along the line. I wanted to elevate these sounds as punctuations over the existing mechanical sounds of the tracks and breaking sounds of the train. I also wanted to emphasize the acceleration and deceleration in terms of movement.
https://citiesandmemory.com/
In this work, each participant in this group project was asked to work with a field recording in one of the cities located across the globe. As I lived near Detroit and grew up in Windsor, I was drawn to a field recording of the People Mover (a 13 station elevated transportation railway system in downtown Detroit). This railway was built by a Canadian company and open to the public in 1987.
The initial composition was created by Sound Artist and Musician Rebecca Goldberg.
In my submitted composition, I was drawn to the musical sounds used to indicate the stops along the line. I wanted to elevate these sounds as punctuations over the existing mechanical sounds of the tracks and breaking sounds of the train. I also wanted to emphasize the acceleration and deceleration in terms of movement.
| detroit_people_mover.mp3 |
C(h)ORD, Public Hearing Collective, October 19-20, 2024
New Adventures in Sound Art, 48 Hour Sound Challenge Workshop/Residency
South River, Ontario
16:9 digital video and Field Recording Sound work, 4:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4q2ysfhKo
C(h)ORD is a sound work that incorporates the history of South River as a town that grew from the logging industry. Using an on-site prepared piano, the artist collective Public Hearing formed by Gina Farrugia and Troy Ouellette combines prepared piano, field recordings of natural rhythms, and an on-site string instrument, uniquely created from natural materials sourced from the surrounding environment. In this work, Gina Farrugia used her ear/music training in the prepared piano elements, where sounds are altered to create percussive, muted, or distorted tones. Gina plays repetitive, minimalist patterns, where it becomes a melodic and percussive instrument, echoing nature's unpredictable and organic rhythms.
The stringed instrument was built using materials from the environment, such as a log for the body. Combining fishing line for the strings, produced unique, earthy tones. Played with a bass bow, the make-shift instrument generates eerie, droning harmonics and resonant textures that blend with the prepared piano. The string instrument is plucked or bowed, producing resonances that evoke the hum of insects or distant animal calls. These sounds combine with the field recordings that flow in and out of time within this video creation.
The performance is designed to blur the boundaries between the natural world and musical creation, inviting listeners to experience the rhythms of nature in a meditative, immersive soundscape.
New Adventures in Sound Art, 48 Hour Sound Challenge Workshop/Residency
South River, Ontario
16:9 digital video and Field Recording Sound work, 4:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4q2ysfhKo
C(h)ORD is a sound work that incorporates the history of South River as a town that grew from the logging industry. Using an on-site prepared piano, the artist collective Public Hearing formed by Gina Farrugia and Troy Ouellette combines prepared piano, field recordings of natural rhythms, and an on-site string instrument, uniquely created from natural materials sourced from the surrounding environment. In this work, Gina Farrugia used her ear/music training in the prepared piano elements, where sounds are altered to create percussive, muted, or distorted tones. Gina plays repetitive, minimalist patterns, where it becomes a melodic and percussive instrument, echoing nature's unpredictable and organic rhythms.
The stringed instrument was built using materials from the environment, such as a log for the body. Combining fishing line for the strings, produced unique, earthy tones. Played with a bass bow, the make-shift instrument generates eerie, droning harmonics and resonant textures that blend with the prepared piano. The string instrument is plucked or bowed, producing resonances that evoke the hum of insects or distant animal calls. These sounds combine with the field recordings that flow in and out of time within this video creation.
The performance is designed to blur the boundaries between the natural world and musical creation, inviting listeners to experience the rhythms of nature in a meditative, immersive soundscape.
Following the Loss of a Foiled Creation, 2024
16:9 digital video, :36
https://vimeo.com/1008559418
In this work, I chased around a drawing I created during a residency in Hyères, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France. The wind was from the coast, and I was constantly worried about how my drawing materials would fly into the air. After meditating for a spell, I created this video about futility. Surprisingly, the wind picked up while shooting and whisked the paper away beyond a fence.
Influences for this work include Jeff Wall's "A Sudden Gust of Wind" from 1993 (borrowed from Pieter Brueghel the Elder's: The Blind Leading the Blind,1568) and Marcel Broodthaers' work entitled La Pluie (The Rain) from 1969.
16:9 digital video, :36
https://vimeo.com/1008559418
In this work, I chased around a drawing I created during a residency in Hyères, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France. The wind was from the coast, and I was constantly worried about how my drawing materials would fly into the air. After meditating for a spell, I created this video about futility. Surprisingly, the wind picked up while shooting and whisked the paper away beyond a fence.
Influences for this work include Jeff Wall's "A Sudden Gust of Wind" from 1993 (borrowed from Pieter Brueghel the Elder's: The Blind Leading the Blind,1568) and Marcel Broodthaers' work entitled La Pluie (The Rain) from 1969.
E-Air
E-Air, 2024
16:9 digital video, 2:54
https://youtu.be/ylVuWF2fgKE
E-Air consists of a series of videos that reference place and time, foregrounding the sonic possibilities of each space in Hyères, France and St. Catharines, Canada. Each chosen site resonated differently as the surroundings changed within the video, yet one common theme remains via a tuning fork, which marks the space's sonic resonance. As an object of obsolescence in music, the tuning fork has taken on a contemporary function as a tool for healing through sound. It references the therapeutic nature of resort towns with littoral space as places of convalescence and respite. It also becomes a rudimentary instrument like a bell to transport the listener psychoacoustically from scene to scene. In each case, the video transitions from one site to another, creating the synergy needed to follow the video as it moves through various environments. Using the tuning fork throughout, there is an attempt to merge science, sound art and music into one composition.
The tuning fork was first developed to standardize pitch, and this work bridges concepts in music with the works of Canadian soundscape artists, who have explored the diverse aspects of acoustic space, acoustic ecology, and ambience. This connection is exemplified historically with the innovative work of Jules Antoine Lissajous, who, in 1858, developed the French national standard for musical pitch. Lissajous' innovative method of sound visualization, using a tuning fork with a small mirror, was instrumental in calibrating and creating a technique for precise tuning, further emphasizing the importance of the tuning fork (as a cultural object) that combined light and sound. See "Sound and Science." Sound and Science | Jules Antoine Lissajous. Accessed June 23, 2024. https://soundandscience.net/people/li....
16:9 digital video, 2:54
https://youtu.be/ylVuWF2fgKE
E-Air consists of a series of videos that reference place and time, foregrounding the sonic possibilities of each space in Hyères, France and St. Catharines, Canada. Each chosen site resonated differently as the surroundings changed within the video, yet one common theme remains via a tuning fork, which marks the space's sonic resonance. As an object of obsolescence in music, the tuning fork has taken on a contemporary function as a tool for healing through sound. It references the therapeutic nature of resort towns with littoral space as places of convalescence and respite. It also becomes a rudimentary instrument like a bell to transport the listener psychoacoustically from scene to scene. In each case, the video transitions from one site to another, creating the synergy needed to follow the video as it moves through various environments. Using the tuning fork throughout, there is an attempt to merge science, sound art and music into one composition.
The tuning fork was first developed to standardize pitch, and this work bridges concepts in music with the works of Canadian soundscape artists, who have explored the diverse aspects of acoustic space, acoustic ecology, and ambience. This connection is exemplified historically with the innovative work of Jules Antoine Lissajous, who, in 1858, developed the French national standard for musical pitch. Lissajous' innovative method of sound visualization, using a tuning fork with a small mirror, was instrumental in calibrating and creating a technique for precise tuning, further emphasizing the importance of the tuning fork (as a cultural object) that combined light and sound. See "Sound and Science." Sound and Science | Jules Antoine Lissajous. Accessed June 23, 2024. https://soundandscience.net/people/li....
Audio file only.
| troy_david_ouellette_e-air.mp3 |
The Kermitron keyboard instrument was developed by Troy David Ouellette and musician Gina Farrugia who attended the Dawn to Dusk New Adventures in Sound Art Workshop in May of 2024. The instrument uses field recording sounds of the Peeper frog (Pseudacris crucifer.) Some samples are pitched differently as the keyboard and electronics effect the recordings thereby allowing the listener to consider the various frequencies and modes of communication. The sfz file is a free download for anyone wishing to use these sounds in their DAW or within the standalone version of Sforzando. Once the files are downloaded you simply drop the sfz into Sforzando to load it into the plugin or stand-alone app.
Here is a video link to see the Kermitron in all it's glory. youtu.be/U4Wadn05_Fo
The link for the vst and program are located here. https://www.plogue.com/downloads.html#sforzando
Here is a video link to see the Kermitron in all it's glory. youtu.be/U4Wadn05_Fo
The link for the vst and program are located here. https://www.plogue.com/downloads.html#sforzando
| kermiton.zip |
Shell, 2023
16:9 digital video, 3:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETh5zM6f9yo&t=6s
The initial concept for "Shell" arose from my interest in how animals process aquatic acoustic environments and my fascination with minimal sound and deep listening. My first encounter with shells came from being at the beach when I held an empty shell to my ear to reflect on a distant, imagined ocean. In this work, I transplanted this as a ritual object, listening to the lake instead of calling out by positioning the same empty chamber of the spiral within the shell as I once did while hearing the same echo of my own body in the shell placed to my ear as a child. My grandparent's yearly travels to southern climes brought back this large conch shell they acquired in the Caribbean. During the 1950s, oil companies (began in earnest) to exploit ocean resources, and the urge to produce and consume oil resources was in full swing. With the merger of Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport of the UK, Shell Oil was born to take on the name in a greenwashing campaign that continues today by classifying natural gas extraction as renewable.In this recent workshop/retreat at NAISA, I was torn by my symbolic, historical and biological interests and the ever-present ecological concerns that often paralyze cultural producers. In biology, for instance, shells from this phylum make temporary homes for other sea organisms once the shells are discarded or the host organism dies. A historical reading of the shell as an instrument is at least 18,000 years old, with one found in the Pyrenees mountains with the markings of being played. With my interest in sonic inhabitance, I cast my breath through the shell chamber (a relatively good approximation of a Pythagorean harmonic series). I recombined it with a software plugin called "jellyfish" to have it sound otherworldly as if to conjure a processed sound in some futile attempt at communication.
16:9 digital video, 3:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETh5zM6f9yo&t=6s
The initial concept for "Shell" arose from my interest in how animals process aquatic acoustic environments and my fascination with minimal sound and deep listening. My first encounter with shells came from being at the beach when I held an empty shell to my ear to reflect on a distant, imagined ocean. In this work, I transplanted this as a ritual object, listening to the lake instead of calling out by positioning the same empty chamber of the spiral within the shell as I once did while hearing the same echo of my own body in the shell placed to my ear as a child. My grandparent's yearly travels to southern climes brought back this large conch shell they acquired in the Caribbean. During the 1950s, oil companies (began in earnest) to exploit ocean resources, and the urge to produce and consume oil resources was in full swing. With the merger of Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport of the UK, Shell Oil was born to take on the name in a greenwashing campaign that continues today by classifying natural gas extraction as renewable.In this recent workshop/retreat at NAISA, I was torn by my symbolic, historical and biological interests and the ever-present ecological concerns that often paralyze cultural producers. In biology, for instance, shells from this phylum make temporary homes for other sea organisms once the shells are discarded or the host organism dies. A historical reading of the shell as an instrument is at least 18,000 years old, with one found in the Pyrenees mountains with the markings of being played. With my interest in sonic inhabitance, I cast my breath through the shell chamber (a relatively good approximation of a Pythagorean harmonic series). I recombined it with a software plugin called "jellyfish" to have it sound otherworldly as if to conjure a processed sound in some futile attempt at communication.
The Toronto Walk Project, 2024
Explore the project here: https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/toronto-walk-project-i/page/28-october-2023
Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture @ Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture / Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts / Brock University
Drawings, Photography, Sound, Text, Video: Ami Xherro, Benjamin de Boer, Catherine Parayre, Declan Ouellette, Derek Knight, Geoff Farnsworth, Lissa Paul, Nicholas Hauck, Sarah Paul, Troy Ouellette
Video: Troy Ouellette
Walk coordinators: Nicholas Hauck and Catherine Parayre
Curator: Catherine Parayre
Copyrights: The Artists 2024
Explore the project here: https://exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/toronto-walk-project-i/page/28-october-2023
Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture @ Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture / Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts / Brock University
Drawings, Photography, Sound, Text, Video: Ami Xherro, Benjamin de Boer, Catherine Parayre, Declan Ouellette, Derek Knight, Geoff Farnsworth, Lissa Paul, Nicholas Hauck, Sarah Paul, Troy Ouellette
Video: Troy Ouellette
Walk coordinators: Nicholas Hauck and Catherine Parayre
Curator: Catherine Parayre
Copyrights: The Artists 2024
Nighttime views from the window projection/installation/exhibition entitled A Small and Quiet Winter Screen
Troy Ouellette and Mike Rollo | Thursday, December. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Risa Horowitz)
Breathing Patterns, 2022
16:9 (looped) silent digital video, 9 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJ417qFNBM
In this work, I reflect on isolation. During the pandemic's initial stages, some people became paralyzed to the point of being agoraphobic. This video shows a curtain opening into online shopping sites and displays. Then, the endless patterns of curtains and outdoor spaces open and are timed (in this work) with average breathing rhythms as the trauma of being detached from social engagement plays out. The colours and patterns of domestic space, I believe, helped alleviate some of the stress of being shut in, and online activities (for those with access) allowed the transmission of cultural activity to be seen or described to the outside virtual world as commiseration/condolence/sympathy and empathy.
This work is subtly influenced by Michael Snow's Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids), 2002 and the scene in David Lynch's Twin Peaks where Nadine Hurley (actor Wendy Robie) repetitively opens and closes curtains.
Troy Ouellette and Mike Rollo | Thursday, December. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Risa Horowitz)
Breathing Patterns, 2022
16:9 (looped) silent digital video, 9 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJ417qFNBM
In this work, I reflect on isolation. During the pandemic's initial stages, some people became paralyzed to the point of being agoraphobic. This video shows a curtain opening into online shopping sites and displays. Then, the endless patterns of curtains and outdoor spaces open and are timed (in this work) with average breathing rhythms as the trauma of being detached from social engagement plays out. The colours and patterns of domestic space, I believe, helped alleviate some of the stress of being shut in, and online activities (for those with access) allowed the transmission of cultural activity to be seen or described to the outside virtual world as commiseration/condolence/sympathy and empathy.
This work is subtly influenced by Michael Snow's Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids), 2002 and the scene in David Lynch's Twin Peaks where Nadine Hurley (actor Wendy Robie) repetitively opens and closes curtains.
Sound Art Innovation Lab, 2021-Ongoing
https://www.soundartinnovationlab.org/
S.A.I.L. continues my long-term interest in building art organizations as part of my artistic practice. Based in St. Catharines, Ontario, the Sound Art Innovation Lab focuses on experimentation. It is meant to assist sound artists, musicians, actors, producers and theatre and film directors who use sound within their workflows. The lab has computer workstations, microphones, audio booths, near-field monitors, turntables, mixers, tape decks, and keyboards to allow the artistic community to record and mix audio on computers running Logic Pro and Ableton. In addition, 3rd party plugin developers are an essential part of the equation for post-production software for our digital audio workstations. Finally, we are in the process of securing surround sound speakers. The organization features workshops in field recording, sound production, foley work, digital and analogue recording, and post-production. If you have any questions about joining the lab, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
https://www.soundartinnovationlab.org/
S.A.I.L. continues my long-term interest in building art organizations as part of my artistic practice. Based in St. Catharines, Ontario, the Sound Art Innovation Lab focuses on experimentation. It is meant to assist sound artists, musicians, actors, producers and theatre and film directors who use sound within their workflows. The lab has computer workstations, microphones, audio booths, near-field monitors, turntables, mixers, tape decks, and keyboards to allow the artistic community to record and mix audio on computers running Logic Pro and Ableton. In addition, 3rd party plugin developers are an essential part of the equation for post-production software for our digital audio workstations. Finally, we are in the process of securing surround sound speakers. The organization features workshops in field recording, sound production, foley work, digital and analogue recording, and post-production. If you have any questions about joining the lab, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
The Weakened State, 2022
In this work, I argue that many subdued transnational voices, crucial to maintaining peace during the pandemic, diminished within sociocultural contexts. In the wake of this, political elites, using the military-industrial complex's excesses, acted to expand their power. Larger states mobilized campaigns of devastation and propaganda to create state-sanctioned violence amidst uncertain futures. Ironically, the weakened state is not the one that has lost territory; instead, it is the state that, through the suppression of dissent, cannot recognize that its population has lost its voice. As a result, it will remain a shadow of its aspirations.
Ultimately, what is presented here is a tyranny of numbers where bodiless whispers reporting civilian casualties fail to account for the actual cost of intergenerational loss. Yet, at the same time, the creative act is generative and hopeful, countering a troubled era.
In this work, I argue that many subdued transnational voices, crucial to maintaining peace during the pandemic, diminished within sociocultural contexts. In the wake of this, political elites, using the military-industrial complex's excesses, acted to expand their power. Larger states mobilized campaigns of devastation and propaganda to create state-sanctioned violence amidst uncertain futures. Ironically, the weakened state is not the one that has lost territory; instead, it is the state that, through the suppression of dissent, cannot recognize that its population has lost its voice. As a result, it will remain a shadow of its aspirations.
Ultimately, what is presented here is a tyranny of numbers where bodiless whispers reporting civilian casualties fail to account for the actual cost of intergenerational loss. Yet, at the same time, the creative act is generative and hopeful, countering a troubled era.
| a_weakened_state.mp3 |
Modes of Life, Ongoing
In this work, I used a microscope camera and mic to analyze the tiny organisms and materials that inhabit a small sampling of the local forest. The presentation of the work will consist of some pre-fabricated parabolic speakers and will be broadcast through the use of a CRTC-approved radio transmitter. This will exemplify the space within audible perception that often goes unnoticed, bringing into focus the generative aspects of creation. This project combines my interests in sound recording, digital and analogue capture and foregrounds the temporal and ephemeral conditions of actants, interactions and assemblage theory.
In this work, I used a microscope camera and mic to analyze the tiny organisms and materials that inhabit a small sampling of the local forest. The presentation of the work will consist of some pre-fabricated parabolic speakers and will be broadcast through the use of a CRTC-approved radio transmitter. This will exemplify the space within audible perception that often goes unnoticed, bringing into focus the generative aspects of creation. This project combines my interests in sound recording, digital and analogue capture and foregrounds the temporal and ephemeral conditions of actants, interactions and assemblage theory.
Mixed Polarity, Entangled Fields, A Matter of Degrees, 2023
In these works, I combine diagrams of magnetic fields, overlapping microphone polarities, polar charts and bubble imagery that alludes to fragility. The magnetic field diagrams express how design makes invisible forms visible. This work is a departure from my work involving atmospheric field recordings deriving inspiration from the experimental orchestral compositions of John Cage and his use of Czech Astronomer Anton Becvar's Atlas Eclipticalis.
In these works, I combine diagrams of magnetic fields, overlapping microphone polarities, polar charts and bubble imagery that alludes to fragility. The magnetic field diagrams express how design makes invisible forms visible. This work is a departure from my work involving atmospheric field recordings deriving inspiration from the experimental orchestral compositions of John Cage and his use of Czech Astronomer Anton Becvar's Atlas Eclipticalis.
