Sounding Time: Explorations in Audio Time-Lapse and Temporal Layering in Interdisciplinary Collaboration

In this article, Evelyn Ficarra considers her compositional practice, giving particular emphasis to the techniques and aesthetics of using time-lapse media and other temporal manipulations in interdisciplinary contexts. Foregrounding her collaboration with media artist Ian Winters on the large-scale interdisciplinary installation/performance Summer, Winter, Spring, Ficarra describes her attempt to model audio-temporal methods on techniques borrowed from the visual realm. She considers temporal compression, extension and layering as compositional tools, highlighting issues of scale, structure and experience, and suggests that radical temporal manipulations of material can serve to bridge referential and abstract sound worlds. Ficarra concludes with reflections on the meanings and poetic resonances of time-lapse media.