In the third of our 'Selected' series we interview sound artist David Strang.

Tell us a bit about your artwork, and what you are currently working on.

My artwork changes rapidly from project to project. I am currently working on a scientific data sonification piece across a network of 56 speakers. The project is a collaborative work led by artist Deborah Robinson alongside scientists Simon Rundle and Oliver Tills. The sound is driven from microscopic filming of two hearts that exist in the early stages of development within sea snails and by analyzing the video data I am creating sound and image. I enjoy to work collaboratively as it allows me to learn new things and enter into new ground that would not happen if it weren’t for creating artwork. I particularly enjoy feeling completely out of my depth in an area that I know nothing about and regularly seek that out across sciences and architecture. My area of practice allows for these cross-disciplinary works to take place – it is surprising how many people want to hear their data sonified. I also feel that working this way helps me avoid repeating myself or getting stuck in a comfortable place.

What is your artistic background?

I have worked across various artistic practices but I guess that my main focus is on sound and interactivity. I entered into art practice over the last 10 years coming from a technical background that mostly focused on music/sound. I really began as a video or moving image artist and that then led on to include interactive elements – firstly, recognizing human presence to control aspects of moving image and sound. I create work that exists in various forms – installation, web, a/v screenings but most recently I have become increasingly interested in the workshop format and not just for beginners but as a way to make work. Creating a piece of work with a group of people over only a few days/weeks is really inspiring. The transfer of knowledge between people from different disciplines is very exciting and it is great to learn new stuff and make at the same time.

What is your working process, how do you get from idea to finished artwork?

As I often work collaboratively, this changes depending on who I’m working with and also what field we are working in. Firstly, there is a little meeting about nothing at which a little seed gets planted about something and then, across networks of interested people that slowly develops into an idea. Working with scientific data alongside scientists is hugely different to working with another group of artists – generally a lot more meetings with scientific data. Either way I spend a lot of time at the computer simply trying to get things to work to start with. I do look forward to getting the work into the space (I work quite a bit on site-specific installations) and then tuning everything to the space. It is most likely to be a very simple thing to start me off and then that runs and runs until I believe there is a project worth fully developing. In the case of my work Tiny Moments I started simply by trying to find a way to steadily drip water without using much apparatus and I ended up suspending ice from a ceiling. I also wanted to use light with this so I tried putting the light bulb inside the ice and it worked perfectly for what I wanted.

Who or what has been the biggest influence on you?

Many different artists have been a huge influence on me but I think that what has influenced my work and me the most has been the movement in Open Source Software and Hardware. Discovering tools such as Pd and Max/MSP were a huge thing for me. They introduced a way of working closely with the computer without having to have studied computer science and create work across many disciplines. I use these tools to work as a sound artist, with video/visuals, scientific data, architecture, networks and work with real-time interaction. The fact that you are part of a huge community and there is always support available is so valuable when developing a project. Open Source Hardware has got me into areas of working that I would never have thought I would be able to go as I have limited electronics knowledge. Working with Arduino or Make Controller has been a great learning experience that would be great in schools to teach beginners electronics.

What’s next for you?

What I should really do is sort out my website next. It is suffering from a fair bit of neglect and I have been meaning to tidy it up and build a new and easily maintainable site for a while now but it keeps getting pushed back. Having said that now should hopefully mean I will actually get on with it. I have also been putting off starting a PHD due to working on projects and hope to get going with that this year – sonic territories. One aspect I have recently started to enjoy is performing live and have now done a few noise/electromagnetic performances and hope that this can build up. Other than that I am continuing various projects and hope to be involved in more workshop activities.

http://www.artselector.com/users/david-strang
http://www.davidstrang.co.uk/

Image: TV Hertz.

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