Bio

1993, Leicester, UK

Working with sound as both a medium and a subject, Miriam primarily uses noise in conjunction with dissonance to create indeterminate installations. Miriam Bean is an artist based in Leicester whose practice is centred on sound as both a subject and a medium, spanning printmaking, moving image, installation and composition. Her work often explores pure tones, noise and chance operations to question how we perceive harmony, dissonance and rhythm.

Her research into sound perception ranges from physiology to musicology, seeking to understand how the brain interprets some sounds as jarring noise and others as expressive, concordant music. The term ‘dissonance’ is not unique to music theory. In psychoacoustics, the science of how sound is received and interpreted by the brain, physicists have a number of neurological and acoustical explanations as to why certain sounds clash. By comparing cultural receptions of dissonance with physiological evidence, there is reason to suggest that the physicality of noise is integral to the psychological responses to dissonant works of art and music.

Her main aim in making discordant works is to create something visceral in which the listener has a reaction; whether the inclination is positive or negative is less important than the response itself. When using indeterminate techniques, she is able to question her own response and listen to the outcome as an audience member, because the composition is left to chance. Through subtle spatial intervention, she creates live installations to project sound waves into a space, and in most cases keeps the timbre of the work as neutral as possible by using sine frequencies. Miriam’s installations create an experience for the listener that shows the power of resonance by highlighting the unearthly nature of pure tones and the effect they have on space and material.

Through traditional and digital processes, Miriam uses printmaking to explore how sound can be translated into images and patterns. She is currently working on a new body of work at Leicester Print Workshop, experimenting with lithography, monoprinting and collage.

Exhibitions

2018    Gallery Without Walls 04

LCB Depot, Leicester

2018    Loop

LCB Depot, Leicester

2018    Four 

Phoenix, Leicester

2017    Leftovers

Surface Gallery, Nottingham

2016    EM16: Pulse 

Surface Gallery, Nottingham

2016    Apex

University of Lincoln

2015    Lucky Like (Collaboration)

Frequency Festival, Lincoln

2015    Timequake

Vonnegut Arts Festival, Lincoln

2014    The Ecclesiastical Space

University of Lincoln