2006-2007, WFS at Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media, IDMT
Aubaine
The work was realized with the sound art ensemble NooK – Dirk Specht and gksh – as part of a joint postgraduate project at the KHM, Cologne.
The composition focuses on the self-localisation of the individual in (sonic) environments.
FESTIVALS and INVITATIONS
In 2006 the composition was presented at SPARK Festival for Electronic Music (Minneapolis, USA) and at ISCM New World Music Festival 2006 in Stuttgart by DEGEM at ZKM Radio.
Honorable Mentioning from Eastman Computer Music Centre (EMC#25) – Electroacoustic Music Competition 2006, Rochester (New York). At altitude 2006 it was presented within an audio-visual installation context and at the exhibition Whale Baltic in Nida (Lithonia) it was shown with a 3 channel-video and audio projections. 2006 Aubaine was also presented as a multi-channel audio-visual live-performance at Frischzelle-Festival Düsseldorf. 2007 DeutschlandradioKultur Berlin broadcasted Aubaine #3. 2008 Aubaine was part auf the Audience Festival in Delhi (India).
It was part of the exhibition Geração Transterritorial at Paço das Artes (Sao Paulo, Brasil).
The composition was derived from considerations like:
Time-jam stretching / compression of moment / duration-variable NOW
Temporal lattice modulation / parallel non-simultaneity-sync off / abrupt change of perspective space flapping / variable spatial scaling / blurring of perception / play with depth of focus – spatial resolution / analogies to cinematic processes – setting sizes & montage / zoom / pan / traveling / closeup / total / focus: view axes – Höhlesen / tilted angles / perspective sections, subject positioning in and opposite acoustic, musical tableaus.
The audio material used for this composition does not consist of original recordings from spaces and events. The complex acoustic tableau is entirely composed of abstract sounds, electronically developed and processed by NooK. The composition is a constant play with the perception of movement, distance and perspective. It examines issues like pattern recognition, “off-synced or off-phased” durations, blurring of spatial definition. Working in the fields of sound-composition and sound-design lead NooK to a deeper interest in developing a dynamic spatialization-concept for their sonic material. The functions and principles of the Wave-Field-Synthesis seemed to provide the necessary means for an electro acoustical sound-composition that emphasizes on precise and detailed spatial perspective. NooK composed Aubaine at Wave-Field-Synthesis-Studios Ilmenau (Germany) in April 2005. These facilities have been developed and built by the Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media, IDMT. A binaural recording of the piece was made by using a dummy-head (Kunstkopf) to give the listener the opportunity to experience the recording as if he/she was sitting right there in the Wave-Field himself. One can thus listen to the composition without the actual need of the specialised technical Wave-Field-Synthesis-equipment by simply wearing headphones. It is probably the first time that this combination of Wave-Field-Synthesis and dummy-head-recording was used to make a Wave-Field-Synthesis sound-composition available on common CD-format. Besides, the composition was recorded with a variety of microphones and then mixed and mastered to become a stereo version that can be listened to with an ordinary set of stereo speakers.
Both versions, binaural and stereo, were published on a double CD in 2006.
