Sonic Fragments: Narrative and Mediation in Sound Art - A two-day festival and symposium :: March 28-29, 2008 :: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ :: Free and open to the public.

Please join us as we host an international group of scholars and practitioners who are gathering to explore the roles of narrative and mediation in art practices that engage sound as a material. The symposium will consist of three panel discussions as well as an exhibition of audio-works for portable music players made expressly for the geography, architecture, and social spaces of the Princeton University campus. Continue reading

A forerunner of Radar, acoustic mirrors or ‘listening ears’ were built on the south and northeast coasts of England (1916 - 1930s) to detect approaching enemy aircraft at a distance of 8 to 15 miles. With the development of faster aircraft the sound mirrors became less useful, as an aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located; radar finally rendered the mirrors obsolete. [via]

Lise Autogena’s Sound Mirrors was inspired by the derelict acousic mirrors at Denge, England. It aims to create two new sound mirrors on the coasts of England and France to enable people on either side of the English Channel to speak to each other. Continue reading

Earlier this year I was briefly involved in the final stages of a project called “Mix House“, by architects Karen Van Lengen and Joel Sanders, and composer/sound artist Ben Rubin. My role was to compose a piece for the last minute of the video shown below. The concept behind the house, which currently exists only as a design and in this animation, is described below in the official text from the “Open House: Intelligent Living by Design” exhibit in 2007, a collaborative exhibit between the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

“‘Mix House’ expands the modernist notion of visual transparency afforded by the ubiquitous picture window to include aural transparency as well. Continue reading

Stephen Vitiello Audio Environments: Played back on a 5.1 surround sound system, Steven Vitiello Night Chatter is multi-channel work composed of an analog synth track that rumbles under natural sounds recorded in the James River State Park and Cypress Bridge Forest, both in Virginia. The piece plays with the abstraction of night voices of animals as the artist states: “When I’m out in the field at night recording, there is a feeling of chatter, insect and animal voices that are communicating outside of my translation skills.” Continue reading

Audiohyperspace is featuring as September’s audio link, Chaosradio.

Are tracking systems like for example GPS dangerous for our society? How will the development of biometry influence civil rights? Who is why interested in collecting data of patients within the health system? These and other questions, which reflect the relationship between computer technology and society are discussed by the monthly program Chaosradio. This broadcast has existed since 1995 and has become a real classic. It is one of Germany’s oldest radio programs on new technologies and communication. Continue reading

Jessica Feldman is a NYC-based sound/media artist who is currently putting together an audio installation that uses recordings of people whispering their secrets. “I am in the secret-collecting process right now and I’d love it if some of you could contribute. Your identity will not be recorded. The secret can be in any language you wish, but I prefer that it be whispered. The more disturbing the secret, the better!”

Please call 1.800.749.0632. You will be asked the channel number, which is 12260 and the channel password, which is 12345. Then, just follow instructions! It’s very easy. “If you have questions, concerns, want to know more about the project, etc, feel free to email me at feldman.jm[at]gmail.com. Thank you!” Continue reading

[From the site…] aka “AI to the People” :: Current Transmission: 8 June 2007 to 9 September 2007… Whitney Museum, New York….

By Amy Alexander, Wojciech Kosma, Vincent Rabaud with Nikhil Rasiwasia and Jesse Gilbert. Production Assistants: Marilia Maschion, Annina Rüst, Cristyn Magnus. The project that asks the question: If computer vision technology can be used to detect when you look like a terrorist, criminal, or other “undesirable” - why not when you look like a rock star? Continue reading

Chris Hand was commissioned by Rick Bamford of Essential Music for All “to design and program a device that would allow a roland SP-606 sampler to be controlled by a shed. Six sheds, in fact, each one produced by a different artist or group. This was the culmination of a public art project looking at what ordinary people get up to in their sheds. Found sounds from local participants were loaded onto a sampler in each shed, along with an amplifier and speakers. Each device comprised a BASIC stamp microcontroller with an ultrasonic sensor to detect proximity of audience members, triggering random sounds on the sampler via MIDI.” Link.

Jon Cambeul, sound artist and designer, member of someth;ng and creator of the Speech Guitar has three works created since 1997 bearing the name Auto Confessional (version 1, 2 and 3) which remind me of the confessional booth in THX 1138. The second and third are particularly interesting as they have networked aspects, however information on these works is minimal on Jon’s youtube site and there is no information that I can find on the something site.

Auto Confessional 1 (video below) or Automatic Confessional Machine “…was designed and built in 1997 in Swindon UK and exhibited in specific public spaces around the East End of London, and various rural locations in Wiltshire between 1997-1998. Continue reading

Implications of Paranoia in Sound Art

These days, a radio is a common transmitter of music and information. Historically, radios have had notorious alternative functions as instruments of surveillance. In this article, Anastasiya Osipova discusses how recent sound artists have incorporated the psychology of paranoia into their work, fitting for an environment where surveillance is constant and technology is fervently deployed to detect that which is hidden.

“Newly recruited member of the Resistance walks down the street. Anxiety circulates under his skin. Several uniformed men block his way. “What is inside your suitcase, sir?” “Radio.” They let him pass. He walks into what appears to be a shop, hands the radio transmitter to a portly woman who is standing firm on her high heels, cigarette held to her mouth. At that moment he feels that she, who he is seeing for the first time in life, is closer to him than any family member could possibly be.
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