Shirin Neshat is a multi versatile Iranian artist and filmmaker. Her artistic works cover the fields of photography, video and sound installations, and film. However, she is mostly known and highly regarded for her video work. More importantly, I want to investigate the purpose behind the implementation of sound in her video installations and its importance. Specifically Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999), and Soliloquy (1999). As she’s stated repeatedly, sound is always a very important part of her videos. In some instances of her videos, the sound aspect has a deeper and more conceptual value than the visual itself, meaning that perfecting this part of her video pieces is of huge significance for her.
To acquire a deeper and more intimate understanding of Shirin Neshat's mind, let's take a quick look at her start as an artist. Neshat comes from the religious town of Qazvin in north-western Iran and is the fourth of five children from wealthy parents. Her father was an important influence as a teenager. She has stated about her father in an interview with The Guardian, “He fantasized about the west, romanticized the west, and slowly rejected all of his own values; both my parents did. What happened, I think, was that their identity slowly dissolved, they exchanged it for comfort. It served their class” (Mackenzie). She was highly encouraged by her father to be an individual and take risks, and he sent her, as well as her brothers and sisters, to college to obtain their higher
education. Neshat left Iran to study art in Los Angeles at about the same time the Iranian Revolution occurred. In 1990, she returned to Iran. “I didn't return until 1990. so as you can imagine the culture had undergone a drastic transformation. 1, like ma...
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...ifferent visual concepts and musical composers, recently Phillip Glass. There is one thing for certain, music still becomes a primary component of her work. Take for example the words of Paola Ferreiro speaking about Neshat's recent work Zarin (2005), “There is practically no dialogue in the video. With the omission of voice, dramatic acting and soundtrack become the communication devices for the narrative. The lack of dialogue gives the viewer interpretative freedom, especially if they are ignorant of the original inspirational text.” (Ferrairo) I will undoubtedly keep Turbulent, Rapture, and Soliloquy close to my heart, as they are her most powerful works of art due to the fact that the sounds drive the entire emotional interpretation of the pieces. However, it is just as intriguing analyzing how Shirin Neshat
takes these initial characteristics and evolves them.
In this essay I am going to explore the unique collaboration between director and composer and how much a long-term collaborative process between the two can influence the establishment of the former as an author. An author, in this case, stands for an authority actively shaping the film’s story and message but at the same can be understood as an author of music, I will try to consider both factors. In this process I want to begin with filmmaker’s general relationship to music, then while answering the main question I will give examples of the European collaboration of Theo Angelopoulos and Eleni Karaindrou, focusing on their approach of using music in new ways, as well as examples from the more known collaborations between Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann and David Cronenberg’s collaboration with Howard Shore. Furthermore, I am going to include conclusions from my personal experience I have had with my friend and director Nuno Miguel Wong. Concurrently this Essay is not an analysis of the music in the films of the above-mentioned collaborations, but rather focuses on their distinct working relationship and how it might have affected their musical approach and productivity.
11. Kim-Cohen, S. 2009. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art
The human ability to perceive sound is often taken for granted and is erroneously considered, by most, to be secondary in importance to sight. It is true that our primary understanding of the world develops through sight, but sound is responsible for our ability to communicate with one another through both concrete and abstract means, as well as for defining the nuances that shape our surroundings. Without sound, humans would be alienated in their own uncertainty; unable to express the fears and aspirations which are common to our condition. Sound has the unique ability to transcend boundaries, cultures, and ideologies through speech, music, and the noises which we distinguish categorically through memory and experience. It is this transcendental quality of sound which Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck chose as a central theme in the film “The Lives of Others”. The film expresses beautifully the effect that music and language have upon our ability to feel empathy and compassion. The use of sound in the film explores the human potential for change and transformation from our basest instincts toward nobler causes.
Intro: In Steven Connor’s ‘Ears Have Walls: On Hearing Art’ (2005), Connor presents us with the idea that sound art has either gone outside or has the capacity to bring the outside inside. Sound work makes us aware of the continuing emphasis upon division and partition that continues to exist even in the most radically revisable or polymorphous gallery space, because sound spreads and leaks, like odour. Unlike music, Sound Art usually does not require silence for its proper presentation.
The book, as described in its' title is a “Memoir in Books” chronicling Azar Nafisi experiences while teaching in the Islamic Republic of Iran during the revolution occurring from 1978 to 1981 and her life there until leaving for America in 1997. Much of the book focuses on Nafisi as a professor at the University of Tehran, and after her expulsion from there, the Allameh Tabatabaii University. The main focus of the text is the formation of a book club with young female students that she had instructed at the universities from 1995 until 1997. The young women meet week...
After listening to all four movements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, I have suddenly been awakened to the tremendous influence that the Classical Form of music has had on modern day works, especially in the area of the film industry which it is used to create drama, tension, and joy. History owes a debt of gratitude to composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, who build upon the legacy of pioneers such as Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to create his own unique blend of symphonic compositions which will be revered throughout generations because of their continued appeal to the
For this essay I will be looking at the work of Hans Zimmer to discuss how music in film engages the viewer and evokes emotion and pulls the viewer toward the film. Hans Zimmer is a German born music composer. Hans Zimmer’s love of music stems from his childhood when he learned how to play various instruments. Before Zimmer began composing music for films he was in a well-known band. The band was called The Buggles whom were famous for their song Video Killed the Radio Star. After the Buggles Zimmer played in other bands but never had another hit. As Zimmer has progressed as a film composer so has his list of nominations and awards. Zimmer has won 4 Grammy Awards and 2 Golden Globes and many more for his outstanding film scores. The reason I chose to write this essay on Zimmer was that his genres and music score are extremely versatile ranging from animations to comedy to dark thrillers. This is important to highlight as it shows Zimmer can create almost any atmosphere with his music whether it be sad or creating tension that all cause us to engage with the film. Zimmer's use of themes and introduction of different instruments allowed him to create these wonderful engaging film score. In this essay I will look at three films by Hans Zimmer these are The Holiday Rush and Rain Man.
Firoozeh Dumas does a great job documenting her experiences as an Iranian in America both before and after the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis. Throughout each chapter we learning something new, not only about Iran, but also about family, culture, and Dumas herself.
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist whose artwork leans on her cultural background. She is a film director, video artist, and photographer. Neshat’s personal experiences have shaped and strengthened her artistic journey. Neshat focuses on the cultural history of the country she has been exiled from and is a voice for the people who her country silences. Her photographs, films, and videos take on large social issues and collide the traditional and the modern (Princenthal
This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
Music can decipher a narrative event by indicating a perspective. To unify a set of diverse images and provide rhythmic and formal continuity and momentum, a film’s structure is more often than not, directly articulated by a musical structure. Music can assist the dialogue and visuals of film and often is inaudible (e.g. music is meant to be heard unconsciously, not consciously). Music has been used by directors to reinforce or strengthen certain weak scenes in film and then on the other hand when music is not needed to reinforce a scene
Therefore, the distinctive visual techniques employed by the composer provide a vehicle for the respondent to understand the ideas and themes prompted by people and their experiences. Tykwer’s film, Run Lola Run demonstrates the effect of the distinctive visual in Lola’s exploration of the themes of chance and time, whilst Mackellar’s poem ‘My Country’ provides the audience with an evocative experience of the Australian environment.
Art has been always seen as a form to express self emotions and ideas; an artist creates an idea and shapes it by culturally known objects and forms to send encrypted message. Through the times both, ideas and materials used, separates art in to different periods and movements. In late 40’s and late 50’s two art and culture movements emerged, one from another. The first one, Lettrism, was under the aspiration to rewrite all human knowledge. From it another movement, Situationism, appeared. It was an anti-art movement which sought for Cultural Revolution. Both of these movements belong to wide and difficulty defined movement of experiment, a movement whose field is endless. Many different people create experimental films because of the variety of reasons. Some wishes to express their viewpoints which are unconventional. But most of them have an enthusiasm for medium itself. They yearn to explore what prospects the medium has and wishes to open new opportunities to create and to explore, as well as to educate. Experimental filmmaker, differently from mainstream filmmakers, wishes to step out from the orthodox notions. The overall appreciation is not the aim that the experimental filmmakers would seek for. Experimenters usually work on the film alone or with a small group, without the big budget. They intend to challenge the traditional ideas. And with intention to do so Lettrism tries to narrow the distance between the poetry and people’s lives, while Situationism tries to transform world into one that would exist in constant state of newness. Both of these avant-garde movements root from similar sources and have similar foundations. Nonetheless, they have different intentions for the art and culture world and these movements...
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
DeNora introduced the concept of “aesthetic reflexivity” which explains why a person values the comfort as well as love (DeNora, 1999). The song I chose, according to my own opinion brings peace and harmony and on the basis of DeNora’s concept, music is simply a referentialist tool. People constantly utilize music as one of the major means of self-expression for representing who they actually are. According to DeNora, “One of the first things music does is to help actors to shift mood or energy level…‘care of self”. Here music simply becomes self-regula...