Trip to Brussels

Large trumpet

Avenue du Roi Koningslaan close Gare Du Midi facing in the direction of a busy junction near . Apparently this trumpet is meant for listening and not so effective at projecting a sound, which I would agree with as the hum of the traffic is condensed into a the small cavity of the mouthpiece through which you listen on the platform.

Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)

Not I
15' 06"
1973
Starring and Introduced by Billie Whitelaw

Not I takes place in a pitch black space illuminated only by a single beam of light. This light illuminates an actress's mouth. The mouth utters a monologue of fragmented, jumbled sentences which gradually coelesces into a narrative about a woman who has suffered an unpleasant experience. The title comes from the character's repeated insistence that the events she describes did not happen to her.


The stage directions also call for a character called 'the Auditor' who wears a black robe and can be dimly seen at the back of the stage, occasionally raising its hands in a gesture of impatience. When Beckett came to be involved in staging the play, he found that he was unable to place the Auditor in a stage position that pleased him, and consequently allowed the character to be omitted from those productions. However, he did not decide to cut the character from the published script, and whether or not the character is used in production seems to be at the discretion of individual producers. As he wrote to two American directors in 1986: "He is very difficult to stage (light--position) and may well be of more harm than good. For me the play needs him but I can do without him. I have never seen him function effectively."

A similar artist Steve McCaffrey has been experimenting in a very similar field since the 70's. To view my other post on him click here...

MICHAEL PRIME L-fields

Some records will please you, others will disturb or mystify you. And then some rare specimens will extend your conception of life. Michael Prime's L-fields is of the latter category. The source material on L-fields consists of bioelectrical recordings of hallucinogenic plants. Yep. Prime records the fluctuations of the electric guitar field of a plant, fluctuations that trigger an oscillator. Prime later compresses, overlays, and integrates sounds from the surrounding environment to the signal and voilà: through a work aesthetically close to electroacoustics, the listener is invited to hear a plant live its life!

Listen to an extract here: Contour of a Forgotten Landscape

Janna Levin: The sound the universe makes

WHAT A GEOPHONE DOES

A geophone converts seismic energy inputs (or vibrations) into electrical voltage which can be accurately measured. The term geophone derives from the Greek word “geo” meaning “earth” and “phōnē” meaning “sound”. A geophone is a passive device requiring no additional power which converts seismic energy (ground displacement) into an electrical signal producing an output voltage which is proportional to the geophone velocity.


The instrument is based on the principal of a spring mounted coil which moves within a magnetic field. The geophone’s coil remains stationary due to its inertia and the case moves in relation generating a voltage as the coil windings move through the magnetic field. Compared to active (powered) sensors a geophone offers the advantage of extreme low noise having only Brownian motion noise. The bandwidth of a geophone is generally defined from its natural frequency to the spurious frequencies which are unwanted parasitic resonances present in all geophones and caused by the sideward motion of the coil.

Soundbug turns flat surface into speakers

It may be more famous for making typewriters, but Olympia has just revealed what some observers are calling one of the sexiest gadgets of this year's CeBit: a small device that can turn pretty much any flat surface into a soundboard.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-860746.html#ixzz1Gn65YpIp

Tuned City Preview - 26.01.2008

Tuned City Preview / 26th January 2008 / Ballhaus Naunynstrasse / Berlin / Germany

As part of clubtransmediale 2008 we will organise a preview weekend. As a theory starting point lectures and presentations will introduce the different aspects of the topic and outline the key points of the planned conference.
The sociologist Prof. Dr. Detlev Ipsen will open up with some basic thoughts on recent urban developments, followed by the philosophical position of Prof. Dr. Gernot Böhme defining space through the aesthetics of athmospheres. The architectural historian and theorist Prof. Dr. Ulrich Winko will give an introduction of the history of music and architecture and will hand over the topic of sound art to the writer and artist Brandon LaBelle. Coming from a critical sound and space dicourse himself, Labelle is going to question one of the pioneers and major figures of sound art Max Neuhaus.
Between the single lectures artists participating in the project in July 2008 will give short presentations of their work.

To hear some sound samples follow this link...Tuned City Preview

Key Events In Sound Art