11.12. -12.12.2019 – Fluid Architectures and Aural Sculpturality – Towards an Aesthetic of Sonic Spatiotemporal Environments with a performance of works composed for the IKO by gksh and Angela McArthur.
Daily life experiences are already augmented, and will be increasingly informed by ‘artificial’ spaces such as the inside of cars, working spaces, laboratories, concert halls and even ‘intelligent homes’. The central conceit of ‘immersive audio’ is predicated on the use of auditory cues and their plausible spatial reproduction from an ‘objective’ or ‘real’ world, that is highly idealised, and questionably real. The development of advanced sonic (loudspeaker) environments – whether virtual or real – is most frequently directed by technological concerns, a focus upon physical modelling of signals and realistically simulated reproduction – less often towards aesthetic or perceptual characteristics, and the creative potentials inherent to theses systems. One should concentrate on both: the reproduction of highly idealised ‘natural‘ everyday life sound fields and at the same time developing strategies for arts, design and architecture to create alternative spaces in the environments yet to come. What might it mean to design environments with sound as a design parameter, using loudspeakers? Why should we care? How could sound practices aid us here? This presentation addressed such questions, and highlighted examples from the speakers’ practices over 10 years working in the field, with the IKO icosahedral and other loudspeaker arrays, as well as with virtual loudspeakers in artificial environments. They discussed the impact of working with the IKO in different spaces, and how this informed their relationship to space, virtual or ‘real’.
A concert of works composed specifically for the IKO followed in the evening.
