[Image: Garrett Phelan] Garrett Phelan works and lives in Dublin, Ireland. In recent years Phelan has focussed his practice on extensive explorations into the formation of opinion and the absolute present, particularly manifested through independent FM radio transmission projects, drawing, video, photography and web based projects in both gallery and non gallery environments.

At what point will common sense prevail, 26 sound works to be presented for a 5 year period, was commissioned by the Lewis Glucksman Gallery and curated by René Zechlin. It marks the second phase of a series of projects exploring the formation of opinion; it deals with how cognition occurs in conversation, discussion or debate. Continue reading

Transition Soundings — an interactive public sound art sculpture by David Birchfield, David Lorig, Kelly Phillips, and Assegid Kidané — is a free standing, fully self contained outdoor installation. Located at a bus stop in Tempe, Arizona, the structure has the appearance of a large transit map with hubs and paths connecting locations across its surface. However, this stylized ‘map’ is actually a large network of sensors and speakers that trace paths in sound across the surface of the wall. As users move and gesture in front of the piece, a network of proximity sensors initiates sonic events that wash across the surface in a fashion that references ripples across the surface of water. Sound events propagate through the network in a way that mimics movement of traffic, ideas, currents, and connections in the networks of our lives. Continue reading

A few years ago, composer, musician and programmer Øyvind Brandtsegg built a sound installation into Nils Sigurd Aas’ Flounder, a public sculpture located at Straumen in Inderøy, Norway.

When Brandtsegg suggested the idea to Aas in 2003, Aas responded “I really would like to hear the Flounder sing”. Brandtsegg’s installation makes use of a loudspeaker technique in which the sound is transferred to the metal in the sculpture. The natural environment, and especially the tidal stream, inspired Brandtsegg to program several variables which different sensors record from their surroundings. Continue reading

Soundpockets is a series of intimate sound interventions in public spaces. By using FM radiowaves, soundbeams and miniature speakers to create local pockets of sound, the different projects create private listening rooms, change the soundtracks of locations, and/or displace time and space.

Soundpocket 1 — created for Urban Interface, Oslo (2007) — was installed in a narrow passageway connecting two parts of the city. The soundbeam, which can be as narrow as 50 cm in diameter, was mounted on a pan/tilt head which made it possible to place the sounds very precisely in the passageway. Continue reading

[Image: Icon attached to the railing] Touched Echo, a performative installation by Markus Kison, can be experienced at Brühlsche Terrasse, Dresden until October 31, 2008. The installation takes visitors back to the night of February 13, 1945 when Dresden’s Old Town was almost completely destroyed.

An icon on the balustrade instructs participants to adopt a contemplative position - one must lay ones elbows onto the balustrade, cover ones ears, and look at the Old Town. While in this position, they hear the sounds of bombers and explosions, which travel through their arms directly into their inner ears via bone conduction. Continue reading

Bill Fontana:: Acoustic Simultaneity and the Sculpture of Sound :: March 10, 2008, 6 – 7.30 pm :: Lecture Theatre, Chelsea College of Art & Design, Atterbury Street, London.

‘Speeds of Time’: view behind the clock face - In advance of Speeds of Time a Chelsea College of Art & Design / Tate Britain commission for the Parade Ground in Autumn 2008 (a live interactive sound sculpture utilising the bells and clockwork of Big Ben), Chelsea Programme announce a public lecture by American sound artist Bill Fontana. Continue reading

I posted about some work of Rodrigo Derteano’s last week (here) but this third work I omitted as it didn’t quite seem suitable to include with the other two works.

Recomputing Space is a sound installation which employs field recordings as a psychogeographic study of urban sound. “Following the commands and rhythm imposed by an algorithm, two persons walk around in chosen locations in the city, recording a mix of noise, language, music and the sound of their own steps. The chosen locations are public places, such as public squares, parks, tram stations etc. Continue reading

Presented by Sonic Arts Network and RadioReverb 97.2FM, in association with Earshot and Arika - Expo Brighton :: July 4-6, 2008 :: Call for Submissions and Commission Proposals.

Expo is the hub and playground of the experimental music and sound art scene in the UK and beyond. Free and open, the event mobilises a national network of artists and engages with communities from all backgrounds – placing sonic art and the people who make it in direct contact with the public. Expo steps out from traditional venues and into spaces that lie at the heart of the community - inspiring practitioners and the public to reconsider their environments. Continue reading

Moving Forest: Insurgency - presented by AKA the castle @ CONSPIRE, Transmediale08, House of World Cultures, Berlin :: February 1, 2008.

Moving Forest of the PEOPLE’S FRONT is conspiring with KEIN.ORG and INURA (International Network for Urban Research and Action) in a call for an INSURGENCY act. The Russians took Moltke bridge. The prisoners took JVA Moabit. We take the prisoners. We are all 129a. The walls are blasted. The data are mined. The phones are tapped. The lives of others. We listen through walls. The cities of others. We walk through walls.

Moving Forest, conceived by Shu Lea Cheang (Plenum, nodeLondon06) and Martin Howse (xxxxx, nodeLondon06), is a 12 hour 5 act sonic performance operating with public wifi and mobile technology - an expandable citywide operatic manoeuvre / intervention. Continue reading

Performances at transmediale.08: CONSPIRE - festival for art and digital culture, Berlin: Moving Forest by AKA the castle:: February 1, 2008, 11.00 am - 11.00 pm, all day performance at HKW and several locations in Berlin’s centre: Moving Forest is a 12-hour 5 act sonic performance operating with public wifi and mobile technology – an expandable citywide operatic manoeuvre/intervention. Derived from Kurosawa’s film version of Macbeth, Spider Web Castle, Moving Forest renders the film’s final sequences (12 minutes in length) into a 12-hour ‘sonica’ of grand scale. Moving Forest reinvents a modern edition of a Castle Central (here: the House of World Cultures) and a city in revolt. Continue reading