Miranda-Luong-Looking-Outwards-11

Adventures of the Solitary Bee, Composed, written, performed and directed by Miya Masaoka. Special thanks to Scot Duration: 8:32 from Miya Masaoka on Vimeo.

The artist that I will be looked into was Miya Masaoka, a composer, sound artist, and musician based in New York City. Her work operates at the intersection of spatialized sound, recording inside physical objects or inside a plant or the human body, within architecturally resonant spaces or outdoor resonant canyons. A specific project that I found resonating was Adventures of the Solitary Bee (1999), where she uses natural sounds in addition to some musical notes made via instruments to create an almost electronic white-noise. The visual imagery and audio used in the video create a strong tie between the natural and man-made, two areas of study the artist has delved into before, but at separate times. Not much is written about the algorithms used to create this sound, but from what I can gather a basic audio editing program that allows overlays probably worked with as it is her raw material that is vital to the project.