The Fallout - Immersive Sound Installation
“The Fallout is a 5 minute immersive sound installation exploring perspectives on nuclear war. It was originally exhibited at the Queercall arts festival in Folkestone in March 2024.”
Listen Below
(Best experienced with over-ear headphones)
In January 2024, I got the opportunity to create a piece of audio art that was going to be presented at the Queercall Arts festival in Folkestone in March 2024.
Inspiration
Two of my favourite songs are 'Breathing' by Kate Bush & The Packt by Toyah which both touch on Nuclear War in their themes and lyrics.
I set myself a challenge to write a song on this subject inspired by these tracks. While I was in the process of writing, the opportunity came up to make this sound installation. I decided to run with this concept and I cut my track in half to try and make an experience based on real life research of what would happen in a nuclear blast. I was also very interested in experimenting with spacial sound on a more traditional musical arrangement, so I preserved some of the track to give a unique listening experience and explore more than one perspective in the piece.
Why Nuclear War?
Aside from the inspiration of the above artists and tracks, I just find myself increasingly feeling upset, powerless and somewhat bewildered at what is happening all around the world at the moment. The most recent events in Ukraine and Gaza being at the forefront. While these do not specifically involve nuclear weapons, I do feel a lot of the sentiment in this piece relates to these situations as well. I wanted some way to highlight this and to get my feelings out that wasn’t just shouting into the void of social media.
My hope is that this piece will invoke an emotional reaction in the people that experience it, that in turn will prompt them to explore, talk or share awareness of what’s happening in the world.
Tech Used
Ableton Live 11
Arturia Analog Lab
Casio VL Tone
Envelop Plugin Suite
Kontakt 7
Neumann 16 Speaker Circular Sound Rig
Phone Recorder App
Presonus Studio One
Teenage Enginnering OP-1
Flyer for the Exhibition!
Exhibition dates and further info can be found by scanning the QR code.
Exploration of Concept
Research & Resources Used
atomicarchive (2014). 2nd Soviet Atomic Bomb Test. [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/2ndsovietatomicbombtest [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
atomicarchive (2015a). First Soviet air burst atomic bomb (1951). [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/firstsovietairburstatomicbomb1951 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
atomicarchive (2015b). Owens nuclear test in Nevada (1957). [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/owensnucleartestinnevada1957 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
atomicarchive (2015c). RDS-37 Soviet hydrogen bomb test (1955). [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/rds37soviethydrogenbombtest1955_202003 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
atomicarchive (2018). Ivy MIKE fireball and mushroom cloud. [online] Internet Archive. Available at: https://archive.org/details/ivymikefireballandmushroomcloud [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
Craxic (n.d.). Freesound - Craxic. [online] freesound.org. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/Craxic/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
Hill, K. (n.d.). Why isn’t Hiroshima a Nuclear Wasteland? [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://youtu.be/e3RRycSmd5A?si=w5W3vYreoMa1EUUD [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
ICAN (2019). ICAN | International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. [online] Icanw.org. Available at: https://www.icanw.org/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
LEGOlasStudios (2023). Would you only here the nuclear explosion when the shockwave hits or do you hear it when it goes off regardless of where you are? [online] Reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclearweapons/comments/1586rpe/would_you_only_here_the_nuclear_explosion_when/?rdt=49392 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
librivox.org. (n.d.). LibriVox. [online] Available at: https://librivox.org/atomic-by-henry-kuttner/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
MultiMax2121 (n.d.). Freesound - MultiMax2121. [online] freesound.org. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/MultiMax2121/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
sites.google.com. (n.d.). Sources Nuclear Weapons. [online] Available at: https://sites.google.com/view/nuclearweapons/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
Smith, C. (n.d.). Freesound - craigsmith. [online] freesound.org. Available at: https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
What if We Nuke a City (2019). What if We Nuke a City? [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/5iPH-br_eJQ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].
www.envelop.us. (n.d.). Envelop - Listen together. [online] Available at: https://envelop.us/page/software [Accessed 10 Mar. 2024].