LISTEN & REPEAT: Eleven audio photo assignments from Gregory Halpern and Jason Fulford

“Ekphrasis” is when a work of art describes, interprets or responds to a work made in another medium. The looseness of its definition seems appropriate given the liberties made available to an artist when translating an idea from one medium to another.

This project, Listen & Repeat, was born out of a desire to explore aural influence in our own creative processes, as well as to re-think traditional photographic assignments. Sounds have a way of remaining in the sub-conscious. They often conjure images ranging from abstract peaks and valleys, or pure movement of color, to more specific visions. How would sounds inspire or influence our image making? In terms of art education, what would happen if a creative assignment did not take the usual form of text (typically written instructions, printed on 8.5 x 11 paper) but of sounds?

We began by individually making field recordings, which you will find on the enclosed flexidisc. We shared the sounds with each other, and then made photographs inspired by the sounds.

Our rules for interpretation were simple. The photograph(s) could be a deliberate and calculated response to a sound, or a more intuitive, poetic response. The correlation between image and sound could be figured in advance, or discovered in the editing process.

On the following pages, you will find a selection of our results. Our intention is for you to share this assignment with your students.