Melting Buildings: developing a situated sound practice with Sheffield Arts Tower

This research investigates the potential of centring site-related and situated sound practices on a performative reading of architecture and on its lived experience in and through the everyday. It draws upon a lineage of scholarship and practice which intersects music, sound studies and architecture, in the process developing a method for working with architecture, where this is not only buildings but also elements from the discipline of spatial thinking and design. The research consists of a portfolio of sound-based artworks which span fixed-media compositions, installations and workshops (2020-2024). Together, they engage specifically with two public buildings that are part of The University of Sheffield estate - the Arts Tower and Western Bank Library. The works are organised into four categories based on their positioning in relation to the Arts Tower: outside, inside, astride, and next door. Following the same structure, the written component of the thesis frames this body of creative practice within a critical artistic perspective and outlines the exegesis of the artworks. The opening chapter situates the research within my site-related practice prior to the PhD, and introduces the field of enquiry through historical and contemporary contributions to the ‘music and architecture’ discourse. It also outlines a performative understanding of architecture (Leatherbarrow, 2005) within the context of the everyday, drawing on Henry Lefebvre’s key theoretical perspective. Chapter 2 provides a commentary on a series of works which engage with the Arts Tower’s facades and illumination, exploring an expansive notion of site and the use of resonant compositional material and techniques from a position which is not necessarily in direct sight of the building. In Chapter 3, I step inside the building and delve into its everyday rhythms. Lefebvrian rhythmanalysis is used as a framework for sounding the lifts and stairs of the building and revealing their time-defining nature. Chapter 4 investigates the wind tunnel that exists between the Arts Tower and Western Bank Library, considering performativity in relation to topography and the wider environment. Adopting the architectural praxis of making scale-models, I explore a reduced aesthetic of sound to create wind-like forces and events, and look at the history of the building through memory, anecdotes and fictions. Finally, Chapter 5 provides a commentary for the practice developed with the Library Staff at Western Bank Library. Whilst bringing together elements from the previous chapters and applying them to the building next door, here I reflect particularly on performativity within the programme of the library, and the tension between functional and creative use when making/installing sound works in a public building.