Issue #2 - Davey - Tranquil Agitation

Tranquil Agitation

Matthew Davey

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Abstract

Tranquil Agitation (2022) is an interdisciplinary installation-based artwork consisting of a triptych of paintings and composition written for ten electric fans, two alto saxophones, trumpet, flugelhorn, and tape part. The piece is intended as a means of spreading awareness of the discomfort and pain experienced by those suffering with severe eczema, channelled through an expressive improvisational compositional practice. Tranquil Agitation is heavily interested in the utilisation of the everyday to broaden traditional listening practices. Placing a key emphasis on everyday objects holding a key significance to personal experience, accompanied with a use of painting as an expressive filter applied upon its reference material, Tranquil Agitation presents a combined conceptual sense of the physical and emotional discomfort of eczema. The composition uses an experimentation with non-traditional musical materials, in this case the electronic fan, to develop a broad collection of extended techniques. Using textural and pitched extended techniques, the overall structure and sound world are developed, forcing the composer to engage in a resourceful practice dependent upon the limitations of a chosen object.

Article

Tranquil Agitation is the largest instalment in a running series of fan compositions I have completed over the last few years, developing on its predecessors through its scale and interdisciplinarity interest.[1] The series initially stemmed from my own experience with eczema, within which the electronic fan became a prominent personal marker of the experience. This evolved into a method of experimenting with an integration of the everyday within my compositional practice. Through its use of both painting and music, Tranquil Agitation intends to create a multi-faceted viewing environment: utilising music as a conceptual presentation of the emotional discomfort and pain created by eczema; and visual artwork as a literal presentation of the physical impacts of the condition, stylised and emphasised as if seen through the eyes (and insecurities) of one with experience of the condition. The core aim of this piece is therefore to create a conceptual environment channelled through the experience of severe eczema.

​Tranquil Agitation utilises a multimethod practice, as presented by Susan Finley, using cross-discipline artworks which aim to ‘create new ways of understanding the social worlds we share’ through a contribution to the awareness of eczema.[2] The musical intent of Tranquil Agitation is to create an uncomfortable and restless sound-world representative of the experience of eczema. This is represented through a musical interpretation of both physical sensation (burning and irritation represented through harsh chordal clusters) and emotional impact (moments of distress interrupting a general a subdued energy). The musical and visual material are intended to contrast with each other and therefore support one another’s strengths, contrasting a directness of visual material with a conceptual and interpretive musical material. Using multiple modes of the presentation of conceptual material, this is intended to create a wider-ranging interaction between the audience and the composition.

Tranquil Agitation’s experimentation with the everyday, holds a strong influence from Michael Maierhof’s development of Klangkomplexe - a musical practice presenting a complex interaction of non-pitched material created by untraditional musical objects.[3] Engaging in an experimentation with ‘textural’ fan techniques, Tranquil Agitation shares a similar interest with Klangcomlexe in the prioritisation of acoustic non-pitched created by everyday objects. These techniques explore the physical materiality of the fan, including hits and scrapes of the fan cage and an experimentation with the interaction between external materials and the fan blades (paper and glass etc.). Unlike Maierhof’s work, the non-pitched techniques are not presented alone, but as a percussive basis from which pitched material is added. To ensure the priority of the ‘textural’ material within the piece, it was structured into the full piece prior to the addition of ‘pitched’ material. When stating ‘pitched’ material, this includes the instrumental accompaniment and fan techniques distinct in pitch, for example by tying string around a 16” fan cage to create a resonance chamber generating pronounced plucked pitches (as inspired by washtub basses).

Tranquil Agitation’s triptych, holds a key influence from Francis Bacon’s Tryptic May-June 1973, presenting three iterations of the same subject and environment:[4]

Using a retrospective presentation of images which initially served a purely practical purpose as documentation of my flare-ups, I chose to present an authentic and vulnerable marker of the effects of eczema. This decision was informed by the arguments presented by Gunilla Holm and others constituting towards the validity of image-based research, using memorable qualities of the image to ‘influence the ways we think and act’.[5] In Tranquil Agitation’s triptych, this lies in a presentation of a memorable presentation of Eczema’s physical effects, meanwhile eluding to both the physical irritation which it creates and the emotions caused by this experience (as the interest of the musical material). By essentially hoping to shock the viewer, the triptych intents to create a lasting impression on the viewer which is more easily recurred than its musical counterpart.​

Tranquil Agitation’s use of painting rather than another visual medium has emerged from its reference material, which lacks refined composition due to its originally pragmatic nature, amended within the final paintings. As a painter, I was also incredibly interested in using my experience with eczema as an artistic filter upon the reference images themselves, representing eczema with sticker-like blocks of colour as if applied directly as a disruption on the skin. This is therefore used to contribute to the memorability of the images, meanwhile adding to the directness and literalism contrasting with the conceptual application of musical material throughout the piece.

I would like to sincerely thank the Hugh Berkofsky Estate for making this project possible.

video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlRyF0FQ7j4

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Endnotes

[1] Matthew Davey, Attempted Soothing, Matthew Davey (2023) <https://matthewdavey80.wixsite.com/matthewdavey/copy-of-soothing> [Accessed 4th April 2023]; Matthew Davey, Soothing, Matthew Davey (2023) <https://matthewdavey80.wixsite.com/matthewdavey/copy-of-a-moment-s-decay> [Accessed 4th April 2023].

[2] Susan Finley, ‘Multimethod Arts-Based Research’, in Handbook of Arts-Based Research, ed. by Patricia Leavy (New York: The Guilford Press, 2019), pp. 477—490, (p.479).

[3] Sebastian Berweck, ‘Beyond Pitch Organization: An Interview with Michael Maierhof’, 131–144, Online PDF (n.d.) <https://www.michaelmaierhof.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MaierhofBerweck_Beyond_Pitch_Organisation.pdf> [Accessed 13 January 2023], (p.131).

[4] Francis Bacon, ‘Triptych May-June 1973’, Francis Bacon (2023) <https://www.francis-bacon.com/artworks/paintings/triptych-may-june> [Accessed 4th April 2023].

[5] Gunilla Holm and Others, ‘Arts-Based Visual Research’, in Handbook of Arts-Based Research, ed. by Patricia Leavy (New York: The Guilford Press, 2019), pp. 311—335, (p. 313).