Art-making and timbre
<p>This thesis explores the notion of timbre as it may apply not only to music or sound, but to art-making and to any objects in a post-medium artistic context. Timbre is a notion born to address the thinghood and precedence of sound as it became emancipated from tonal principles throughout m...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2024
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| _version_ | 1817932527408513024 |
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| author | Guillemet, C |
| author2 | Kiaer, I |
| author_facet | Kiaer, I Guillemet, C |
| author_sort | Guillemet, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis explores the notion of timbre as it may apply not only to music or sound, but to
art-making and to any objects in a post-medium artistic context. Timbre is a notion born to address the thinghood and precedence of sound as it became emancipated from tonal principles throughout music’s developments in the last 150 years. Elusive and opaque, timbre pertains at once to the physical attributes of a sound and to its perceptual reach. It presents a paradoxical blend of the material and the evocative, yet truly designates neither. Timbre thus offers an insightful if complex prism with which to investigate art-making practices concerned with objects, oscillating as it does between integrity and connotation, source and effect, sense and signifiership, relevance and resonance. Timbre inhabits the space between a thing and what it conveys, revealing an objecthood which challenges straightforward instrumental uses.</p>
<p>The project is articulated in three interdependent and mutually informing parts: one, a portfolio of works made in the studio between Oct 2018 and Dec 2023 and through which much of this research was conducted; two, a text bringing together ideas on improvisation, divergent uses of objects as found in slapstick or foley, and aggregated forms perceived as either arrangements or envelopes—offering speculations on the notion of timbre and its integral role in art-making with objects; three, an exhibition of a single recent work echoing some of the ideas found in both folio and text. The relation between these parts is non-hierarchical and is intended as a mutual reflection proposing consonant forms of investigation.</p>
<p>Taken as a whole, the thesis develops and exemplifies aspects of the notion of timbre by questioning the use of objects at their most volatile, and exploring the elasticity conferred to them when objects are also events. The project proposes to consider objects as if they were sounds, between letting their known attributes take an associative lead, and circumscribing them through the sum of their effects. In drawing attention to a timbrality of objects, this thesis also ventures the prospect that the underlying skill central to contemporary art-making practices is a highly attentive form of listening.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:39:20Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:581a5464-67c9-4b4a-bef4-3b3302c6a256 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:39:20Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:581a5464-67c9-4b4a-bef4-3b3302c6a2562024-12-05T09:33:02ZArt-making and timbreThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:581a5464-67c9-4b4a-bef4-3b3302c6a256Tone color (Music)ArtEnglishHyrax Deposit2024Guillemet, CKiaer, ITaylor, B<p>This thesis explores the notion of timbre as it may apply not only to music or sound, but to
art-making and to any objects in a post-medium artistic context. Timbre is a notion born to address the thinghood and precedence of sound as it became emancipated from tonal principles throughout music’s developments in the last 150 years. Elusive and opaque, timbre pertains at once to the physical attributes of a sound and to its perceptual reach. It presents a paradoxical blend of the material and the evocative, yet truly designates neither. Timbre thus offers an insightful if complex prism with which to investigate art-making practices concerned with objects, oscillating as it does between integrity and connotation, source and effect, sense and signifiership, relevance and resonance. Timbre inhabits the space between a thing and what it conveys, revealing an objecthood which challenges straightforward instrumental uses.</p> <p>The project is articulated in three interdependent and mutually informing parts: one, a portfolio of works made in the studio between Oct 2018 and Dec 2023 and through which much of this research was conducted; two, a text bringing together ideas on improvisation, divergent uses of objects as found in slapstick or foley, and aggregated forms perceived as either arrangements or envelopes—offering speculations on the notion of timbre and its integral role in art-making with objects; three, an exhibition of a single recent work echoing some of the ideas found in both folio and text. The relation between these parts is non-hierarchical and is intended as a mutual reflection proposing consonant forms of investigation.</p> <p>Taken as a whole, the thesis develops and exemplifies aspects of the notion of timbre by questioning the use of objects at their most volatile, and exploring the elasticity conferred to them when objects are also events. The project proposes to consider objects as if they were sounds, between letting their known attributes take an associative lead, and circumscribing them through the sum of their effects. In drawing attention to a timbrality of objects, this thesis also ventures the prospect that the underlying skill central to contemporary art-making practices is a highly attentive form of listening.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Tone color (Music) Art Guillemet, C Art-making and timbre |
| title | Art-making and timbre |
| title_full | Art-making and timbre |
| title_fullStr | Art-making and timbre |
| title_full_unstemmed | Art-making and timbre |
| title_short | Art-making and timbre |
| title_sort | art making and timbre |
| topic | Tone color (Music) Art |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT guillemetc artmakingandtimbre |