THEORY – SUMKOVSKI.COM

Ш – The Noise of Creation – a personal view

SHUM – ∫ – шум – šum from Proto-Slavic šumъ – sound or signal generated by random fluctuations.

The story unfolds in a forest where the voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant prevails, uniting various media, methods, and concepts, evolving into a personal statement of my mindset and research. My ongoing work in Art and Architecture catalysed a fascination with unexplored, cryptic fields, where music and language offered new ways to investigate these blurry domains. The process was intuitive and spontaneous, drawing inspiration from Fluxus, George Maciunas, and John Cage, setting the course I continue to follow.

Gradually, I realised this blurry space holds both surface and hidden depths—a mission to reveal the unclear constantly emerges. The task of clarifying the unclarifiable remains both challenging and compelling.

In an attempt to describe space in permanent flux, I turned to various media, as it became evident to me that I had to deal with much more than just Art and Architecture in the form most commonly known. The term <Intermedia>, coined by Dick Higgins, describes this process.

Since change fuels my research, I am driving a decade-long investigation into BLUR and NOISE. This inquiry overlaps thematically with Art and Architecture, though mainly at a theoretical level. The meaning and form of content and structure shift according to subjective needs and mood.

I have included some samples of my art, architectural, and design work over a longer period. These works record my past activities. My attitude and output reflect the ever-changing fields of my personal and professional life. This gives me freedom, not tying me to one form of expression, and also depicts my continuous path into the realm of the unknown.

I do take turns and do not follow the “flow” continuously, so interruptions and interventions of various directions are faithful companions on this journey, making the voyage into the unknown even more adventurous. At times, I recall my favourite childhood stories and Jules Verne’s books. The fantasy and surreal worlds of Lewis Caroll, and, somewhat later, those of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, all seem to have contributed to an affinity for exploring and challenging the mind. Art plays a dominant role in making the magic visible or in deluding and hiding the obvious, using metaphors and signs of deep individual expression.

Architecture is well-suited as the right model for analysing this thesis, with a myriad of elements that raise questions. What does Architecture sound like? Is this noise a cacophony of sounds? A dissonant, unwanted sound? Can we hear what we see?

This subtle approach helps tune architectural settings, whether simple or complex, enhancing our awareness of sensory experiences as we observe and interact with the environments we inhabit.

For me, architecture is experienced aurally, visually, and spatially. Noise, as much as sound, shapes our awareness of inhabited and constructed places. Often, architecture acknowledges global harmony but fails to recognise the deeper values needed to solve the complexity of space for human dwelling.

For example, low levels of ambient noise can be disturbing and damaging, with a negative impact. Hypothetically, and given a protagonist environment, we could find that space (architectural urban living aesthetically fulfilled) can be humane and amiable, if given the right doses of repellents against bad olfactories + visuals + audios. This would then be the antidote to bad taste, kitsch, and populist architecture (where the question of whether populist, as opposed to popular, architecture is to be analysed).

Olfactory, visual, and auditory senses merge to shape our perception of space; their absence limits our experience. While haptic and gustatory senses contribute, a full sensation arises from their synthesis, creating the feelings we describe as harmonious.

Unlike olfactory, visual, and auditory senses, the blurred noise, or noisy blur, is introduced as a welcome distraction from bad taste and defocusing, which, in this case, would have the opposite effect on cognitive and other perceptual processes.