My relationship to sound is meditative.  As a composer and sound artist, my aim is to be present and focus on each individual note, pitch, and texture, while maintaining awareness of the sound’s overall effect --- from reverberations to timbres to emotions.
This process of being one with the sound while also observing it, is the practice of non-duality, a concept I try to  incorporate in my daily life.  

My impetus behind creating or composing sounds is self-expression and story-telling.  I wish to communicate subtle feelings and emotions that cannot be conveyed by speech or intellect.  Whether it is through field recordings, found sounds, rhythms or melodies, I enjoy creating sonic paintings that are open to the interpretation of the listener.  I am fascinated by how one sound, or melodic phrase, can evoke different emotions, memories, and imagery to different people.  

My sounds and compositions are avant-garde, and are influenced by electronic music, Taoism, and my Afro-Caribbean roots. My work is also inspired by nature’s structures and textures; from fractured rock formations, to the sounds of streams and various bird calls.

 

In addition to nature, my work explores themes of spirituality,

Afro-futurism, and self-exploration. I seek to express emotional experiences in their most raw form, culminating a mixture of sounds from synthesizers, field recordings, improv, sound design, and the language of classical music.  

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Project Proposal 

 

Taking into account the theme of the show: individualism within a collective framework, I would like to create soundscapes from sounds found at the exhibition.  

 

During the first 10 minutes of the exhibition, I would like to find sounds, record them, and then manipulate and loop them on my computer.  Then, 20 minutes later, while those sounds are looping, I would like to find more sounds and add them to the first set of sounds.  And then continue this process, over and over.  

 

The effect I'm going for is to (1) take individual sounds (or sounds from individual people) and turn them into a chorus of sounds, or (2) take individuals sounds and make them dependent upon other individual sounds.  The idea is to be cognizant of the individual source of the sound, yet understand the need for the multiplicity (or community) of sounds.

 

Going beyond the medium of sound, I would love to work with a movement artist, to experiment as to how these intangible sounds and energy can produce tangible results through movement.  The movement artist could convey this in a 15-20 minute performance. 

 

www.shannonseamusic.com