Samson Young + Susan Philipsz

The next two inspirational sound artists I am looking at are more contemporary; Samson Young + Susan Philipsz. 

Samson Young

Samson Young is a sound and installation artist, born in Hong Kong in 1979. His sounds have a very contemporary feel to them and he is mostly well known for his recreation of sounds in army and war videos. It became quiet controversial whether war sounds appear very fake, so he was proving how you can recreate them to be realistic. 

To recreate the sounds of a battlefield, he used a fan as a background sound. There was also a large base drum used for gunshot sounds, tin foil, and an electric razor. With the way he creates sounds, it is similar to how a foley studio would work. I find the way he is creating war sounds is very interesting, as they sound so realistic; it also helps the listener understand the sounds more deeply. This is as he taking things out of context and using them to sound like something else. 

Susan Philipsz

Susan Philipz is a Scottish sound artist who is known for created sound installations using recordings of her own voice. She currently lives and works in Berlin and was the first person to win a Turner Prize on a sound piece. This was for her piece 'LowLands', where she played speakers of her own voice singing under bridges. This must have created a very eerie effect for pedestrians walking by as echoes were created. When this piece was displayed in the Tate Gallery there was no visual art and this made the piece very controversial. 

Philipsz states that she is less interested in creating music, but more in what sounds in general are capable of and they affect they can crete for listeners. In terms of the impact she had on sound art, she deconstructs the sounds to create meaning and this is a new way to do it. I like the fact that she uses her own voice to create her pieces, even though she has said that she doesn't like singing, it is only for affect.