imaginary landscapes
jacques soddell
imaginary landscapes is an experiment in random soundtracks.
Inspired by John Cage, who experimented with various methods of composition, especially using the I Ching as a random compositional tool. His first composition using this method was Imaginary Landscape No 4 (1951).
In this piece there are 64 x 1 minute films using sound and/or video material collected during walks in Paddy Ranges State Park (heading towards Avoca), the Goldfields Track (near Vaughan Springs), One Tree Hill (Bendigo), walking to MIFF from East Melbourne (Fitzroy Gardens), and a walk in George Town (Penang). The I Ching uses 64 hexagrams, charting all possible combinations of 8 upper x 8 lower trigrams randomly selected by coin tossing, The 64 short films created here are all possible combinations of 8 video and 8 sound compositions. Each of the 64 pieces was allocated a hexagram from the I Ching. The order of screening was determined by throwing coins
to select hexagrams.
imaginary landscapes was produced for the On Foot exhibition at Lot 19. Castlemaine, Nov10-25. 2018 (weekends 12-5): Sculpture drawing sound photography and written work on walking by Jane Rusden, Catherine Shields, Zeb Olsen, Zoe Hambleton. Tobias Richardson, Lucy Mow, Jacques Soddell, CiPi
Four of the 64 films are viewable on vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/302202436
https://vimeo.com/302202555
https://vimeo.com/302204912
https://vimeo.com/302204787
Contact me to purchase the full dvd (($20, almost 70 min)