For my final project in DX Arts 200 at the University of Washington, I have designed a full-room installation that focuses on sound art called the Sound Chamber.
The Sound Chamber (plan), John Kieser, c. 2086. Installation, 8100 square feet.
The space is divided into 9 squares of equal size (900 square feet). Those walking into the gallery are invited to use a portable listening device – such as an iPod, Zune, discman etc. – as 9 infrared sensors (one for each square) within the room will pick up and warp the audio track they are hearing, corresponding to which of the nine squares they are standing in.
“The true objective in creating the Sound Chamber is to give an audience the chance to reflect and recognize the way in which one particular sound can hit the ear in many different ways. The Sound Chamber will change the sound the audience hears in their ears depending on the square they stand in – but who is to say that this cannot happen in every day life? For example, if someone has a great day – everything is going their way, they got a raise, etc. – and their friend tells them some bad news, this news will seem mollified, and the sound of their voice not as harsh. However if the day has gone terribly, the sound of their friend telling them bad news will be all the more damaging to the ear. Sound has an incredible influence on our every day lives, but since sound exists independent to our personal experiences, the manner in which and exact time it hits our ears changes the way we perceive any given sound entirely. The Sound Chamber allows us to experience such objective sounds in a number of different ways, depending on which mood-defined, colored square one stands in. As an internal contrast on the piece, an audience member not wearing headphones will walk around the installation in silence.” – John Kieser
Appearance and Function: The 8100 square foot room will be divided into 9 squares of equal size (900 square feet). Each square will be lit from the ground to be a different color. Each color is meant to represent a different mood:
Here are examples of the different filters; I picked an audience member listening to “The Mexican Hat Dance” for the demonstration.
The walls will be black wood to create the illusion of there not being any tangible space outside of the Sound Chamber, magnifying the immersive experience and hopefully clearing the minds of the audience. The point of the Sound Chamber is to appreciate pure aesthetic sound and how it can reach our ears in different ways or forms. Any extraneous visuals beyond the pure geometric square and pure primary (or close to) colors would take the work in more visual directions, and I am chiefly interested in the play of sound.
Prototype: After doing some research on infrared and scanning technology, I have designed a prototype that is capable of reading audio signals and feeding them back into the system playing the audio wave. The 9 infrared scans will pick up the audio signal from the headphone jack, take it to the Sound Chamber’s motherboard, and using a simple coded Cartesian system (depending on which of the 9 squares the audience member stands in), feed back the audio signal to go out the headphone jack and into the ears of the audience member. This would create a bit of a delay in the signal, but with time and mastering of the system, could be reduced to mere milliseconds. The infrared scan would ideally be designed to function as an intangible 1/8” cord, the kind that one plugs into a portable listening device. It will hijack the 1/8” port on the portable listening device and act as a filter before the audio signal enters the headphone jack. All of the potential circuitry for the Sound Chamber would be within the main computer system’s motherboard, which would not be very big.
This artwork takes place seventy-five years in the future. Music will have taken drastic leaps forward thanks to breakthroughs in technology, and the passing of the post-modern age (what I consider nowadays) will make people generally more comfortable using technology for any number of tasks they need to complete. Advancements in the field of portable music players will have progressed, in so that it would be possible for the infrared scanners that I have mentioned before to perform their task as an audio filter.
While in this day and age technology may have progressed to dizzying heights, it will not supplement the need for human expression. Humans will continue to find new ways to express themselves artistically and otherwise, and since I am now playing the role as an artist of the future, I consider advancements made by all artists from the past a long pattern of tradition, and that each successive generation will build upon the advancements of those that came before it. In light of that, my installation would rely on future advancements in technology in the fields of infrared lights, handheld devices, and scanners.
Influences and Inspiration for the Sound Chamber: After viewing and taking note of the many mixed-media installations throughout the quarter, the virtual realties pioneered by the Knowbotic Research collective particularly influenced me. Their idea of the real and virtual worlds colliding rings throughout the Sound Chamber. The cyborg-related idea of a kinetic interface also played a large role, but instead of having the kinetic interface as part of the artwork itself, I decided to involve the person experiencing the art (although the 9 different squares could be thought of as a interface as well). The kinetic interface being used to interact with the greater system of the artwork is the listening device the audience member possesses. As a musical performer, I value audience interaction as one of the most vital points of the artistic experience. In working with such a large space, I want the person experiencing the Sound Chamber to feel free to interact with the huge space but also to feel completely immersed in this virtual world where sounds are influenced by colored moods and bodily placement. In terms of visuals, the De Stijl Dutch painter Piet Mondrian inspired the Sound Chamber’s physical appearance and its organization of space and color.
Piet Mondrian, "Composition with Red, Blue, Black, Yellow and Gray," 1912. Oil on canvas.
The project would not have become fully realized without some additional research. I have summarized what I learned below:
Audio filters have existed since the invention of recorded music, and often operate on the basis of a “frequency-dependant amplifier,” or in other words, a device that is used to augment or change certain frequencies in a sound wave by means of electrical circuitry. (These research forays also lead me into a diversion where I thought about designing guitar pedals, which are essentially frequency-dependant amplifiers as well.) Research tells me the computer hardware needed to operate the Sound Chamber is actually quite simple; just an input feed to the motherboard for the audio waves to be collected through – dependant on which square the audience member is standing in – a device that warps the wave, and an output for the infrared to send the audio wave back to the right audience member, which would be done using a 2-dimensional grid system using Cartesian points.
A chart illustrating the range of audio frequencies
Research Bibliography:
“Installation Art” RM 2011. Helicon Publishing. Accessed November 18, 2011
“Sym-1 Single Board Computer Hardware Theory of Operations Manual” Robert A. Peck, 1979.
“Audio Filters - Theory and Practice” Ethan Winer, Recording-engineer/producer Magazine, August 1981. Accessed November 21, 2011 http://www.ethanwiner.com/filters.html
Ookay, here's a brief summary of what needs to be done to construct the Sound Chamber and roughly the amount of time it will take:
Week 1: Secure museum space in a large enough room and make sure it’s black. Start assembling the materials needed. Write the code needed to create the filter-feedback loop system and design the motherboard and sensors that will be installed in the room.
Week 2: Begin moving in the materials to the space. Install the colored light bulbs then put the large sheets of glass on top. Install the infrared feeds at the top of the room and have it hooked up to the motherboard.
Week 3: Testing and troubleshooting the entire system.
