S o f t   a n d   L o u d Soft and Loud was a surround sound installation comprised of eight matched loudspeakers arranged in a circle, encircled by thick black fabric mounted on steel poles and stretched from floor to ceiling. Carpet tiles covered the floor of the installation, while sombre lighting was used to convey a muted, cinematic-like atmosphere. Stools were positioned in the middle of the installation although no single direction was privileged by their arrangement. The surround sound design was comprised of field recordings made in Japan of specific sonic environments that inform the daily lives of most Japanese. These included such familiar sites as a temple, market, subway, forest and suburb. In this instance recordings made in Sekiguchi and Atsugi, which are towns located an hour southwest of Tokyo, were used as source material for the depiction of a suburb. Despite some environments having a particular set of sound signifiers that indicate a specific location such as a jingle, dialect or animal species, each provided a basic model of representation for similar locations spread throughout Japan. The objective of the field recordings was to capture as much detail as possible within each site in order to investigate the behaviour of singular events and their relationships to other sounds occupying the Japanese soundscape. Of particular interest was the cohesion with which artificially generated sounds were incorporated within the generally subdued natural acoustic environment.
		From the sweet call of electronic birds to the metallic blast of the neighbourhood pachinko parlour, from the melodiously mesmerising pedestrian crossing to the mournful pre-recorded call of the chestnut salesman, sound is an active agent on call 24 hours a day. However intriguing the artificial is, the strangely muted quality of Japan was also a source of fascination. Conversations are carefully guarded, often whispered, as cars silently glided by. A massive city like Tokyo can be thunderously noisy, however it has a calmness to it that can be quite unsettling. The blurred distinctions between 'artificial/natural' and 'noise/silence' drew my interest when constructing this work. The immersive installation format is crucial in determining how Soft and Loud is heard as it enables the sound design to be experienced in its most optimal form by creating and controlling the acoustic and atmospheric conditions in which it is presented. Once the listening conditions are established, spatialisation becomes an essential device in placing the listener deep inside the work, shaping acoustic events to simulate the natural behaviour of sound in space. This frees the listener to discover sonic relationships that are most meaningful to them within the complex set of interactions occurring in the omnidirectional sound field. Soft and Loud also uses artifice to manipulate perception in order to draw attention to specific events shaping the dramatic form of the work. Therefore the rendering and manipulation of real and imagined space becomes a strategic compositional device that modulates between a natural and constructed acoustic reality to service the dramatic mechanisms underscoring the work.