Mechanism at the 2013 Patio Art Show

"They look like sound."

It's hard to be more public than having the images on a storefront in my own neighbourhood, and the Annex Patio Art Show was a huge success for me as I presented my most unconventional works. Last weekend was the first time I've shown the Mechanism series to a public audience, and largest body of work I've ever shown.

"I don't know what these are, but I like them."

While there's nothing in the world that looks like the Mechanism images, we have a natural desire to place things in context and name them. 'Every Crowd a Voice' was immediately identified as a sound wave; 'Progression and Process' and 'Continuation and Voice' strengthened the communication theme. Continuation and Projection and Continuation and Structure brought across the idea of urbanism, while the dynamism of Every Voice a Shout made it the show favourite.

"It's like DJ'ing with light. It gives me chills."

The Mechanism images are recordings of movement with light – while the capture itself is fundamentally photographic, each creation is a unique performance. Each has a goal and intention, but there's no feedback from the process until it is complete. And although the creation of the images is completely digital, they are typically no more a product of computer manipulation than a scanned film negative would be.

"I can almost hear them."

The ever-expanding Mechanism project is larger than the images themselves, and includes composited audio of the sounds of our city. A five-minute high definition video includes a small sample of these recordings, set into the sounds of the creation of the Mechanism images. Longer tracks, and higher-definition images, will be available at a later date.

A huge thanks to everyone who stopped to say hello at the Patio Art Show; I appreciate being a part of your neighbourhood and your weekend. I hope you stay tuned for more developments both with this series and with my other work.


Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.

Mechanism – The Video

Now on Vimeo is a video presentation of selected images from the Mechanism series, with a soundtrack assembled from audio recorded as part of the process.

Mechanism from matthew robertson on Vimeo.

The audio track doesn't reward ambivalence. Played at a low to moderate volume it will simply be an annoying drone, but at a higher volume there's subtly and nuance that can be appreciated. The base track is a combination of recordings of the motor in the flatbed scanner that captured the Mechanism images, and they have been layered, shifted, and stretched to create interference and sounds that didn't previously exist. Also layered into the base is the underlying rattle from an industrial heater in a parking garage, which what what started me down the path that has brought me to here.

The sounds that are woven into the soundtrack include eastbound and westbound traffic recorded from between their respective express and collector lanes of Highway 401, subway trains, both curving between Spadina and St George stations and passing overhead on the Prince Edward (Bloor Street) Viaduct, the lunch crowd at a local food court, concrete pumpers building the foundations for the future One Bloor condo tower, the rattles of a 72A Pape TTC bus on an empty run downtown, and the late-night footsteps of people walking past in the long hallway of Spadina subway station. As with the images in the series, the sounds are an expression of the city that I live in.

It can also be found at vimeo.com/matthewrobertson/mechanism

The images used in the video are also in Mechanism – The Book, which can be ordered from Blurb either as an 8x10 softcover or as an electronic download.

A number of large prints will also be on display as part of the Annex Patio Art Show, this coming weekend of July 13 and 14, 2013.


Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.

Found Material

While I enjoy music, it's not something that I aspire to. Musicians are tremendous creative artists, akin to painters or poets who can create something that didn't exist before. My approach to sound recording and production is inherently tied to my experience as a photographer.

A photographer will typically develop a skill in seeing things that others miss. Whether it's an object or a fleeting moment, the essence of a person or the tones of a shadow on the ground, a photographer finds things that that they can hold up and show to others in a different way. The creation of a photograph is an event that gives the subject, whether banal or beautiful, a certain gravitas. "This thing has been recorded and its presentation shaped in a way to bring out what I saw, so please look as well, and appreciate the possibilities of its meaning."

A painter will create art on a blank surface.

A photographer will find art within the incidental splatter on the drop cloth.

Recording sound, and even shaping it into something different, is also the act of observing and presenting something that others might miss or dismiss. It's embracing the incidental and unintentional around us, even if it means the rhythm and richness of a rattling fan. It's about finding these things and holding them up so that others might appreciate them as well. Sound is everywhere – there's a lot to be heard by listening.


Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.