大象传媒

The following transcript is from an interview with composer Christine Sun Kim, which was broadcast as part of this programme. It was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script. Whilst we have aimed for complete accuracy, because of the risk of mishearing, the 大象传媒 can't give a complete guarantee of this.

Transmission: 14 December 2019, from 12 minutes and 24 seconds into the programme through to 22 minutes [programme starts at 22.00]

Interviewer: Kate Molleson

The Swiss based wind and percussion group Ensemble ContreChamps were at St Paul鈥檚 Hall for the final Friday of the festival, with an arresting programme of contrasting pieces, not least the performance of a substantial new work by American composer and Sound Artist Christine Sun Kim. The group鈥檚 director, Serge Vuille, has forged a close working relationship with Sun Kim in recent years and the new piece is a product of that collaboration. Christine Sun Kim was born profoundly deaf and her new piece, 鈥淒eaf, Not Mute鈥�, is a continuing exploration of her relationship with, and the ownership of the perception of sound.

Kate Molleson caught up with her at the UK premi猫re of 鈥淒eaf, Not Mute鈥�

Music: From the opening of 鈥�Deaf, not mute鈥�

Kate Molleson
Imagine a performing space dominated by a large central screen. Onto the screen are projected short items of text, on a blue or a white background.听 To the left of the screen is a row of amplified musicians: trumpet, horn, trombone, sax and tuba, with a small battery of percussion as well. They respond to the text on the screen.....

(Music as before)

.....Meanwhile, on the right-hand side of the space is a table. With an angle-poise offers a small amount of light along with two document-projectors. Composer and Sound Artist, Christine Sun Kim sits behind the desk, carefully manoeuvring the sequence of text sheets beneath the projector - one by one. This is the set-up for her new piece 鈥楧eaf, not mute鈥�.
Much of Christine鈥檚 work explores how sound operates in society. It consistently draws on a multitude of different information systems: body language, American Sign Language, musical notation, graphic scores. She鈥檚 credited with the first ever sound exhibit for New York鈥檚 Museum of Modern Art; she鈥檚 given TedTalks; she鈥檚 regularly performed.听
I caught up with Christine shortly before the performance of 鈥楧eaf, not Mute鈥�, to talk about the new piece, assisted by her sign language translator.....

Christine Sun Kim
鈥淪o we came up with this title because there was a known artist in Berlin, who wrote a piece about work that I had done recently, and they said that Christine Sun Kim is a 鈥渄eaf mute artist鈥� and I just thought that is such an antiquated term, it鈥檚 really outdated. The word mute in itself is not a bad thing, though it鈥檚 interesting to be called mute. It really gave me a lot to think about in that moment. When I think about the word mute, really, to me it means to me three different things. Mute in terms of technology, is turning something on or off - quite binary. Another definition of mute, in the context of disability, can be considered - right - there鈥檚 no voice or something, it doesn鈥檛 have a way of expressing itself. So people often relate muteness to a level of intelligence - there鈥檚 no correlation there at all. And again that second definition has a lot of negative connotation associated with it. And then in the music world, mute means to soften something. To make something a bit more gentle. To make it muted. Right? So it鈥檚 not as binary as it is in the first definition. Like a speaker that you turn on and off, or a microphone that you turn on or off; or your television that you might turn off. So that鈥檚 why we chose that title, we were sort of experimenting with the idea of muteness and what that meant with the sound captioning that I do in the piece.

KM
And tell me about that sound captioning for listeners at home on the radio, they won鈥檛 be able to see these gradations of muteness that you build into your directions. So can you tell me how that works and what are these gradations that you鈥檙e playing with?

CSK
So for the sound captioning, when I was younger, in America, they had a lot of programmes that were captioned in subtitles. In the very beginning, when they starting doing it, their captioning itself was quite simple. So they would have - in parentheticals - 鈥淢USIC鈥�, right?听 But not what kind of music. And eventually things would be added like 鈥淗APPY MUSIC鈥� or there鈥檚 things happening in the background or there鈥檚 noises happening off-screen. So more and more information is being included. Another one for example is 鈥淜NOCKING WITH URGENCY鈥�. Right. So there are these types of sound captions in addition to the text.听 So I started a collection of these. I recently became a mother. I have a two year old daughter and we watch a lot of programmes. And so I just started noting all these sound captions; and I put them into this collection and turned that collection into the score for this piece.

(Example of brass like fanfare music from 鈥楧eaf, not mute鈥�)

..... It鈥檚 an abstract piece, and the intent when I was creating this was not what the audience should hear, I wasn鈥檛 so concerned with the final sound; and in a discussion with Serge who is the director at Contrechamp, we had a lot of conversations about whether we wanted this piece to be more abstract and literal and I was definitely more attracted to the abstract and more of disrupting people鈥檚 expectations. And I often work with individuals who come with assumptions of what my work should be, and what my work should represent. And really听 most of my work is idea based.

KM
When you say 鈥減eople come with assumptions of what your work should be鈥�, what do those assumptions tend to look like?

CSK
So based on my experience, I feel like the expectation is like, there is a right way to produce sound and I should be doing it that way. But I want to be experimental. I want to be playful. I want to test it out. And people will say 鈥淥h, this doesn鈥檛 sound that way or this isn鈥檛 pleasurable, you didn鈥檛 record this right鈥�. This is the kind of feedback I get. And my response is, that鈥檚 fine. I鈥檓 OK with that. I鈥檓 the artist, I鈥檓 working with the sound and I will make those decisions. And, you know, all my life I鈥檝e always sort of placated. I had speech-therapy; I needed their approval on my speech and if I was saying things correctly. And then it was getting a hearing-aid. And people saying, when someone is sleeping, 鈥淥h, you have to be quiet!鈥� And you know, I鈥檓 being told all of these societal rules and I鈥檓 trying to follow them all. And in that sense, in that way, my work has become about: this is my piece, my rules, my space, what it looks like, what it sounds like. I鈥檓 not going to be told what to do by society and their expectations ...... I鈥檒l play with it as I like!

听

(Brass and percussion groan like music)

KM
Christine has grouped the various sound captions into five sections, so 鈥楧eaf, not mute鈥� plays in five continuous movements. The combination of musicians is carefully prescribed, what they play on the other hand, is open to interpretation; but they are instructed to play within five degrees of dynamic or 鈥渕uteness鈥� - from the very loud to the almost inaudible. In order to illustrate let鈥檚 hear part of the piece with me quoting the text of the captions as they appear on the screen......

鈥淟ow Growl鈥�

(musical example)

鈥淔rightening Panting鈥�

(musical example)

鈥淪cared Panting鈥�

(musical example)

鈥淰oices blur indistinctly鈥�

(musical example)

CSK
鈥淪o the five sections and the movements that you鈥檝e spoken about have to do with these categorisations; we collected all those sound-captionings, categorised them, and as I was doing that they sort of fell into certain groups of sounds. A lot of them coming from just being physical in the environment, just moving in the environment and the sounds that that creates; from just existing. Then the captioning that related to sounds of emotion. And then at the end, the last piece, it was a sort of closure, we鈥檙e muting the sounds, we鈥檙e toning them down, as if to say 鈥渨e鈥檙e going to be done soon鈥� - right? - we鈥檙e bringing this to a close. The sound files that are used - cos these are pre-recorded sounds - are based on my voice; they鈥檙e vocalisations that I made and those sounds were modified to sound a bit droney. The interpretation of the sound captioning was done with my voice, and then modifying my voice as a pre-recorded sound.

(Drone like modified voice music)

KM
Christine鈥檚 onstage role in the piece is crucial. More than simply facilitating the running of the piece, she鈥檚 actually shaping the performance. Her movements and her gestures interpreting her concept of the sound. To this effect, it could be said that she鈥檚 adopting the role, well, of a traditional conductor....

CSK
For this particular project I am the conductor.听 Maybe not in the way you traditionally would experience one, but I am, in fact, the conductor. And I use these texts as a measure of the musical notes if you will. And I move them around in the space at various speeds to impact the dynamics of the sounds. And there鈥檚 lots of layers on how it is done and the score has quite a lot of depth to it. And again I think about the work I do with sign-language interpreters. Basically, actually, you could say that right now I am conducting the sounds that are coming out of this interpreter鈥檚 mouth, right? These are my words, my thoughts, I鈥檓 conducting. Again it really goes back to being an empowered individual.

(Music example. Soft brass chords from the end of the piece)

听