Sonic Art & Sound Design- P32:Sonic art is a new art form, or rather, forms. As we shall see, it can encompass a wide range of activities, perhaps wider than almost any other art form. It is an unusual case, based upon a medium that has traditionally been regarded as inferior and subservient to other creative or expressive forms. | MEDIA ma Scanner Scanner Robin Rimbaud first became well known as a result of his use of intercepted cellphone conversations in live performances his use of scanning radio receivers led to his stage name . Subsequently his work has focussed upon sounds images and forms that are normally hidden to the listening and watching public. As a performer and installation artist he uses both sound and image to create a wide range of works from oral histories to live electronic improvisations and soundscapes. Facing page Echo Days A 2002 collaboration with Katarina Matiasek exhibited in New Zealand USA Denmark Australia and Spain. The audio environment of the installation Echo Days used decelerated and thus audible echolocation sounds of bats flying through cities and landscapes for an unsettling and stroboscopic composition. As the soundtrack entirely exists of reflected sound it secretly transports absent structures. In the acoustic gaps of the music the staccato image of the visible moving structures of Echo Days appears their afterimages projected on to the black screen coinciding with each echolocation signal of the soundtrack. Thus edited in a mutually exclusive way the relationship between sound and image speaks of the difficult reconstruction of any outside world by our senses. Images courtesy of Katarina Matiasek. Right Into the Blue A 2002 multimedia installation work at the Naughton Gallery Queen s University Belfast A field of balloons as deep as the deep blue sea engulfs the viewer nestling up to them and creating a lighter than air environment. Soft carpet caresses your feet as you step slowly through this ever-adapting space as warm microscopic sounds flutter around your ears. You are immersed in a new commission by London-based artist Scanner whose work has consistently explored public and private spaces injecting them with ideas that offer an insight into the human condition with warmth and a sense of humour. He collected responses from people in Belfast to a
