Space Against Itself
An experiment in structural sound.
Multi-Speaker System and Listening Machines.
5th - 14th March 2010, Tyne Bridge North Tower, AV Festival 10, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Sound is an energetic material force in the production of dynamic spaces. Reverberations count as the acoustic signature of a space, audible expressions of dimension and materiality. Space Against Itself is a generative sound installation that makes repeated futile attempts at cancelling out these sonic signatures by occupying and saturating the frequencies at which the building makes itself heard most strongly. Listening machines construct an acoustic map of the Tyne Tower by identifying its specific resonant properties. The presence of bodies change the contours and dimensions of the space and therefore its sound; as visitors enter and move throughout the space the acoustic characteristics that the piece works against shift and reform, making its job ever harder and inevitably impossible. The sounds of the building itself are amplified and chiselled into shape for use in attempts to contract and close-in acoustic space. Repeated attempts are made at rendering this vast space small through the manipulation of its sonic-material properties, vibrational elements that testify to that which is energetic and ephemeral in the production of space.
Space Against Itself is a commission for AV Festival 10, and is generously supported by Culture Lab and Newcastle City Council.
