Electronic Frequencies

Ron Kuivila Spark Vault Sound Installation 2002 08:24

The sound of a spark has no ‘body’. It is not created by a vibrating object that sets the air in motion, but literally by the tearing of the air itself. The sound that is created in this way spreads evenly in all directions and has an unmistakable presence for the listener. You do not hear this sound through speakers and that is exactly what I am interested in. Spark Vault is based on the construction of the remarkable former vault room in the basement of the State Bank and is part of a series of works in which static electricity is used to generate spark fields in dark rooms, activate spark harps, generate overtone drones, and activate rhythmic sequences using simple chaotic systems of paper and wire. Because the electric current used has a limited strength, the sparks are small and safe to touch. Thanks to electricity, the recording, storage, reproduction, and distribution of sounds and images has become considerably easier. Like the audible and visible traces of the entire world, it has brought us closer to its music – human and non-human – in space and time. Like a prosthesis, it supports monstrous musicians and musical monsters. This area has always fascinated me; that is where my work is located. However, the electronic media landscape has developed into a constant, incessant flow that deafens the ears and blurs consciousness. A concrete example of this: with the pink sound of air conditioning, office buildings secretly and silently deafen their inhabitants. Now follow these simple instructions: Turn off all the fans in your immediate vicinity (air conditioning, heating, refrigerator, computer). As soon as the noise stops, I feel an instant sense of relief. I would like to do that during my lunch break, for ten minutes, in any office building. A musical example: according to Virgil Thomson, one of Stravinsky’s great discoveries was that one could arbitrarily place accents on an unaccented pulse. It is precisely because of this type of meter that dance music makes room for any sound or sample. In this form, the beat stabilizes and unifies, but it also smooths out all differences. The sonically uncertain is domesticated as a four-quarter burger. Here is a social/cultural example: the real role of commercial radio is not to make music available to listeners, but to make listeners accessible to advertising. This creates a stream of music that, in the words of Friedrich Kittler, flows like water from a tap. In such a context, even the chorus of a great pop tune is little more than a slight deviation in the soft, soothing babbling of the musical fountain. As a source of music (or any other art form), this flow from the tap acts as a leveler; it evens out the difference and numbs any reaction. Most people’s musical experience comes from these flows. As a composer, I have to accept that every piece of music I make is inevitably part of this flow. Sound installations play a special role: the flow they set in motion is so physical and special that they stand out from most media experiences. In this context, I see sound installations as a way to incorporate the main media flows of our culture in a resistant way. The perfection of the tap is that it is always working: it must never drip or overflow. But a river drips, overflows, dries up, and may even be dammed – and yet it remains a river. I want to make installations that feel like rivers, not like tap water.

José Antonio Orts Territorio Estelado sound installation 2002 09:58

The installation consists of objects that capture the traces left by passers-by in the air. These objects are distributed throughout the exhibition space according to compositional criteria (image and sound) and transform the traces of the visitors into musical harmonies and rhythms. The poetry of the installation arises from the intention to capture the attraction of the visitor, his energy and his life pulse. He is therefore the main character (and the center) of the work. Rhythm and expression arise from human movement. Only with this can the wonder of sounds be transformed into music.

Johannes Sienknecht reincarnation 2000-2002 06:58

The installation Reincarnation is based on specially programmed software with Max/MSP, which generates video and sound events from selected, concrete image and sound data during the course of the installation. The underlying images are digital close-ups of human skin on a body; the underlying sounds are digital recordings of two skin surfaces of the same body rubbing against each other. In a circular process without repetition, the recorded sound and image material is fragmented and structured into a constantly changing fabric. The image and sound processing processes are interconnected: they stand in an algorithmic and conceptually meaningful relationship to each other. Reincarnation arose from an involvement with the literary work of the American writer Kathy Acker, who died in 1997.

Franz Martin Olbrisch I got involved in something I realize… 2002 04:02

With: Gerrit Haasler, Michael Hampel, Ben Lauber, Sven-Armin Lembke, Marian Mentrup, Lorenz Pilz, Hanns-Holger, Rutz Jörg, Wankmüller, Roswitha Baumeister, Yaeko Osono, Anton Rabe and Yueyang Wang.

This is the result of a seminar by Franz Martin Olbrisch at the Technical University of Berlin. The participants include students from the TU as well as guests from various courses at other universities and art colleges. Some of them have already completed their studies for some time, which has resulted in a group project in which the participants from very different artistic and technical backgrounds contributed to the project. The starting point of this work was therefore in all respects based on the interaction and communication between heterogeneous viewpoints, which played a decisive role in the shaping of the project in the further course of the conception. First, the possible reference points for the location of the Staatsbank were discussed in detail. The place should not only be understood as a space or an architectural element, but precisely as a social place. Its special meaning and history should be included in the concept. The concept of place, which unlike the concept of space is not understood as an absolute dimension, always presupposes the existence of other places and thus opens itself up to the imaginary. This should influence important decisions in the course of the work. The first step was to expose the historical layers of the place, its transformation from a place of private financial markets (as the Berlin branch of the Dresdner Bank) to a place of centralized state finance (as the GDR State Bank) to a place of art. This line of development creates connections that are confusing at first glance. It shows the GDR Staatsbank as a bank and shows finance as a fundamental current that reaches beyond the social and political systems. This place, like hardly any other in the city, houses the hidden connections between economic utopias and social reality. The two former owners of the building, the Dresdner Bank and the GDR, were initially very much involved in their involvement. In the meantime, however, both owners have ceased to exist. This is the aura of the place to which our work refers. Expectation, utopia or whatever one may call this imaginary act of human thought and feeling, is confronted with sobering reality. This all too often manifests itself in disappointment, in frustrated expectations – even the expected disappointment causes no problems for the complex human psyche. It was these complex motives for action, woven into a network of unfathomable systems, that gave rise to further considerations in the project. A foundation that is so universally valid that everyone has probably come into contact with it – to put it mildly. The work now connects the most intimate form of utopia, subjective expectation, with an extremely abstract form of reality: the international flows of money, which, hardly noticeable to anyone, reach all levels of the society, deep into the private sphere of each individual.

Gerhard Eckel Grenzenlose Freiheit I 2002 06:34

With: Eckehard Güther, Maximilian Szczepanski, Daniel Teige and Martin Völkel.

The collective sound installation Boundless Freedom is the result of a course that Gerhard Eckel gave in the winter semester of 2001/2002 as part of the DAAD guest professorship Edgard Varèse at the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin. The subject of the course was the sound installation as an approach to the utopia of the open form. The central question in the discussion was how open, formal concepts can be made directly tangible for the public. However, since such concepts can only be tested in artistic practice, a concrete result was sought from the outset. The idea for this work emerged from an intensive joint discussion on the subject and uses the latest computer technology for real-time sound editing and projection. Using a graphic interface specially developed for the project, three people from the audience simultaneously collectively control the sound development of the installation. In Boundless Freedom, you move with a portable, wireless computer through the sound work that takes place in three different but interconnected spaces. Intuitively and together with the other two people, you direct the sound events. The installation Boundless Freedom, whose title refers to the utopian character of the project, was created in joint consultation and over several months.

Robin Minard/André Bartetzki/Dieter Kemter Rumor 2002 03:55

Die Installation im Treppenhaus der ehemaligen Staatsbank handelt von Bewegung. So whoever moves around the trellis, has the installation of the movement of the movement: the installation of the movement of the movement is possible, the sound is released and the movement is set up.

Robin Minard/André Bartetzki/Dieter Kemter Rumor 2002 03:55

The installation in the stairwell of the former Staatsbank is about movement. Just as visitors depend on the stairs to move through the building, the installation lives from the movement of visitors: they are the driving force that triggers sound and sets it in motion.

Thomas Seelig Several Species… 2002 09:45

Mit: Ewa Chamerska, Thomas Kusitzky, Inge Morgenroth & Beate Brinkmann, nico franzke, Yueyang Wang.

Various Species… is a sound installation consisting of sound installations. Six basically self-sufficient works of art share the atrium in the Haus des Rundfunks. They suddenly find themselves in an environment that they can no longer claim as their own… But competition stimulates surprises; the installations now respond not only to the visitors, but also to each other.

Inventions 2002
Berlin Festival of New Music
June 26 – July 7, 2002

© 2004 DAAD
PFAU-Verlag and authors

ISBN-3-89727-259-8
LC 08864
GEMA