lose enden (loose ends)
audiovisual spatial composition
In progress (since 2010):
loose ends projects physical gestures acoustically into space. The aim is not the simple playback of pre-recorded sounds, but an all-embracing physical experience. This is made possible by pulling auditory and visual information apart and varying the distance (gap) between them, which creates sphere-like three-dimensional auditory impressions.
|Material|
Over a period of three months, I experimented with 20 insulation foil sheets each day (Leuna Rettungsdecken).
I started out by setting a series of various actions I could do with them using my hand /body like rolling, ripping, bumping, knotting, throwing, pushing, crumpling, etc., which I repeated and varied, the corresponding sounds of which, I recorded.
Within the limits of their acoustic properties, I modified and composed these groups of acoustic gestures digitally while making sure not to distort the origin of the sound (group). These miniature sound compositions and the foils used are the raw materials for the spatial composition.
|Installation|
There will be a cluster of 6 - 10 Genelec 8020-A speakers spread out over an area of 8 x 9 metres. Some of the speakers will be positioned on their sides or backs and others in their originally planned positions.
The foils will be taped together and spread out over the speakers and the floor, creating a kind of landscape characterised by the topography of the speakers, the golden foils and by folds and crevices in the covers, which have been ingrained into the material using various processing methods.
The audience will be able to experience and view the landscape from all sides, but they will not be able to enter it.
Six directional microphones will hang down from the ceiling, positioned above the landscape at various spots and heights, which have yet to be defined. They can be listened to using earphones (earbuds / in-ear headphones), which will be hanging down along the periphery of the landscape. There is one earphone for each microphone.
Additionally, 4-6 large Genelec 8040-A speakers will be positioned above the landscape and in the corners of the room but out of sight for the visitors.
Throughout the test phase, various basic gestures will be transferred to the physical space, as the sounds are projected with the hidden speakers. The miniature compositions will be divided up among different speakers/channels, allowing the sounds to fold in and out of the space and become entangled with it. Depending on the direction of the speakers, i.e. projection from up and down, the speed, rhythm and colouration of the sounds projected through the foils, they become plastic and appear to be sculpted in space.
That means the material’s past, frozen in time, comes to life acoustically and takes on a almost physical shape.
This creates tension between auditory and visual perception; on the one hand, variations of the gestures acoustically depicted in the room give a sense of activity. While, on the other hand, the material on the ground, the landscape, is static, whose only proof of any history or activity is seen by the inscriptions on it.
While the spatialization of the sounds allows the ear to wander through the room (from the middle of the field to above head and then to the corners…), the eye remains focused on the foil and its paralyzed movement.
The visitor concentrates on the frozen movement of the objects on the ground, while acoustic gestures become plastic in space.
In other words: The gap between these two realities is the space into which the visitors’ perception can project the gestures.
|Field|Landscape|
This field cannot be entered, but viewed and experienced from all sides.
It is like an arrangement or a heap that has become solidified. It defines the onlooker’s perception of the room, for one, because it is a visually noticeable barrier and also because of the sound structures continually changing above and beneath its surface.
|Microphones|
The microphones are unidirectional microphones that each (hanging from the ceiling) focus on one specific point of the landscape, only transferring the sounds at that particular point and almost completely precluding all surrounding sounds.
The microphones are positioned at different heights above the foils. This makes it seem the acoustical movement is not only horizontal but also vertical.
As the visitor moves on to the next set of earphones, the listening perspective raises and declines like an in and out zoom.
The microphones also allow the visitor to listen to isolated areas at certain coordinates of the landscape. Here, too, there is a visual disruption, as the listener cannot be sure which microphone is picking up the sounds coming out of the earphones he or she is listening to. But after listening for a while with concentration, the acoustic scene becomes clearer. Up to that point, however, one’s attention jumps back and forth between auditory and visual perception, as one naturally tries to make a connection between the seen and the heard. The visitor notices a divergence from his or her inner space induced by the sounds and the outer surroundings of the landscape, which cannot be touched.
Tangents are created (jumping: head inner/outer, into/out of the landscape) as well as plains, which continually traverse through the room and constantly reshape and redefine its balance. And depending on the composition of the gestures and the direction of the speakers and resonances of the room, “sound bodies” appear, which, based on auditory perception, seem like plastic formations.
|Headphones|
There are six Walkman headphones (earbuds / in-ear headphones) each soldered to a 20-metre cable strand, hanging from the ceiling above the space surrounding the landscape. They were used previously in my installation for the German Sound Art Ward, Klangkunstpreis, entitled „wieder und nie“ in 2008, installed at Marl’s city hall.
As soon as the visitor puts on the headphones, the sound environment disappears, as he or she focuses on one acoustic point now only heard in their heads.
The visitor does not know which microphone he/she is listening to, although it is always the nearest one. The listener then visually concentrates on one point or searches for a point and for a moment, while experiencing an almost microscopic aspect of their surroundings that is only heard by their ears.
As soon as the headphones are removed, the visitor experiences the room as a whole again; attention floats from one isolated and individual point back into the entirety of the space.
If one places the earphone just in front of the ear or moves it around the ear, outer and inner sounds/worlds can be filtered against each other.
|Foils | Filters|
The foils I used in this installation have been used in many performances in the past few years.
They are usually used as decorative eye-catchers, which also produce sound and can be used to hide objects or cover bodies. They often end up ignored and on the side of the stage somewhere, rustling away.
But it is exactly this fringe use that I focus on. In my opinion, sound is only ‘viewed’(!) as an interchangeable necessity in most performances. Being that emphasis is usually placed on the visual aspect, there is no detailed focus on the uniqueness of the sounds the materials make.
It is known that music is often only “added” to theatre and video performances. But I believe the fact that most dance and theatrical performances are not interested in the music/sounds they use is a topic that is too seldom discussed.
This is the weakness of many performances. But what sense does it make using something in a performance that one does not take seriously, ex. by using just one element, like rhythm, melodic patterns, etc., and NOT eliminating the rest? By treating the auditory dimension as negligible, the desired compositional interweaving with the visual dimension is usually not as effective as one would like. This leaves unexplained remnants of information in the room and makes them seem completely irrelevant.
The foils in loose ends are an integral part of the audio-visual spatial composition and they have a few purposes: First of all, they are the original source of the sounds. All of the sound material was taken from doing different things with the material. They also cover up the floor and speakers. By covering up the source of the sounds, perception of the sounds as a whole is changed (that is why Platon was talking to his students from behind a curtain). If the speakers were visible, the audience would concentrate on them, weakening the associative power of auditory perception. Furthermore, the foils filter the sounds coming up from under them, which changes the colouration of the sounds considerably compared to the sounds projected from the ceiling. By traversing composed sound clusters through different coordinates in space, the room receives a certain colouration so that the acoustic movements and also the psycho-acoustic elements are perceived as physical gestures.
|Miniature|
First, the sounds of the recorded Material were modified, i.e. the frequencies were spread, filtered, changed in time, compressed and stretched. But the modifications I made all corresponded to each specific group.
The new sounds created out of the group sounds were then joined together. This created a kind of polyphonic sphere, which can be spread throughout the room via multiple channels with variations in frequency, rhythm and movement.
The set up is computer-controlled. A SC3-patch will organize the order and the spatialization of the miniature compositions (which channels, at which time and where) in varying loops.
