Bains::Connective

[chiyoko]

I am waiting for the next "report" from the meetings to be posted here, so that I can hear about what was discussed at your last meeting in Brussels.

My proposal at the first meeting, was that each of us artists should set up a Topic here, and post thoughts, images, findings, suggestions, or anything, whenever we want.

That way, dialogue could also happen in this format/forum.

I will now go and collect the text that Luea posted in another thread, to make my first real artistic entry/posting here.

We could view this as a view into each other's diaries, into our inner processes and thoughts with respect to les bains, and the things we think about, in general.

Since I am in Berlin, and not Brussels, for me this is a very good way of continuing, or starting discussion, getting to know you, but mostly, it's about seeing how different artists' ideas might coalesce, mingle, trigger inspire, or even collide!

Hope all of you will share some of your work here. Since the various projects will not necessarily overlap, I would really like it if we had some contact here, and I could get to know more about you and your work!

Have fun, and let's make art!

Chiyoko

[chiyoko]

These are thoughts and reflections, which arose out of the first meeting at les bains, on April 2nd:

Els and I examined the Zaventem airport foyer - there is high quality
soundproofing on the ceiling, and special acoustical soundproofing design
above the check-in counters. The floor seems to be granite or marble, and
"seems" to absorb, rather than reflect sound. This might be due to the
absorption by the soundproofing material, but it is phenomenally quiet
there, even when people are talking, walking with hard shoes, or pulling
suitcases with wheels.

An excellent book on architecture & acoustics:

"Architectural Acoustics" by Marshall Long, Elsevier Academic Press, 2006.

*****

Recommended acoustic experience in downtown Brussels:

The Rotunda Gallery ("Galerie Ravenstein", 1958), designed by Philippe
Dumont. It's beside the Central Station. If the fountain in the rotunda is
dry, as it was when Els took me there, stand on the fountain object in the
centre, and clap your hands once, and listen!

*****

Els & I are calling the "machine room/water room" the "Pump Room".

About my installation in the main space, there will be two sections of
composition, both of which draw our attention to the physical space through
sound projection.

#1: From the vantage point of the gallery, the audience will hear composed
material emanating from loudspeakers placed below, in the main space, but
also above, in the roof garden, and possibly to the side, in the corridor
behind the changing rooms. The composition will primarily focus on the main
space, but specific material will draw the audience's attention to the
various spaces around them.

In my testing last week, the types of sound waves (the frequencies) were
very reminiscent of water. The way the sound moves in the space, made me
aware of sound as material which moves air, which is what it is doing. It is
a kind of negotiation, a disturbance of air, through waves of sound. While
listening, it seemed to me that the piece is a kind of simulation of water,
but in a different media. Thinking about it now, the piece evokes a ghost
memory of the space, which was originally designed for water. I hope the
audience, with a full view of the swimming pool below, might also have a new experience, which is related to the history of the building. It is
interesting that listening, while viewing the space (aural and visual
information) created this kind of impression. That's why I'd like the
audience to be upstairs in the gallery.

#2: Not quite worked out, but will build a piece out of simple, short
pitches, which relate to the natural resonance of the room. This is the
"fountain piece", the "shooting sound" piece. I may engage a musician in
Berlin (tuba: Robin Hayward), so that there is a mixture of electronic and
real instrument sounds. I might create a semi-random program to realise the piece.

[chiyoko]

Here is a link to an essay (long one!) that looks fascinating:

http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistas/fll/11330392/articulos/EIUC0202110043A.PDF

It's an examination of the use of metaphors, from a linguistic perspective, being used by the community of architects. I haven't read the entire essay yet (it's a linguistic specialist essay, but very well-written and researched). I just thought some of you *might* be interested - but then, we all have different forms and sources of inspiration!

Since inspiration crosses disciplines, and our discussion at the first meeting brought many things together, intermingling in the room and after-thoughts, it would be really nice if others in the group would share some things. I could learn more about the space through your thinking and inspiration there, too!

Is anyone reading this forum? Should I post some soundfiles?

Best,

Chiyoko

[chiyoko]

Ocean Water: Acoustics

Water is an excellent sound conductor. This means that water does not absorb sound, so it can travel for great distances before it dies out. The speed of sound in the water is 4,750 to 5,150 feet (1,448 to 1,570 meters) per second. This time increases by 7 feet (2 meters) per second whenever the temperature increases by 1° degree F.

Though Jacques-Yves Cousteau once dubbed the ocean "the silent world," we now know that is not exactly true. The ocean is full of sound. Our ears just aren't specialized enough to hear all the different frequencies.

Ocean animals make noise all the time. They make noise while swimming, when they are frightened, to find food, to send out warnings, to check out their surroundings and to talk to each other.
Dolphins and some whales use a process called echolocation. First, they send out a series of clicks and whistles and then listen for echoes as the sounds bounce off objects, such as other fish, boats, the ocean floor or reefs, in their path. From the direction and strength of the echo, these animals can develop a mental image of their environment. They can "see" the size of objects in their path and how far away the objects are.

Dolphins
(Office of Naval Research photo)

The sonar we use to study the ocean floor works like echolocation. By sending out signals and retrieving the echoes, we can develop pictures of all the features on the ocean floor. We can also find objects on the bottom, like shipwrecks or mines, and in the water column, like submarines or large schools of fish.

Scientists found one part of the ocean that conducts sound a bit differently from the rest. It is called the SOFAR channel, which stands for SOnic Fixing And Ranging Channel. Low-frequency sounds can travel for hundreds of miles in this channel. Any shallower or deeper in the water column the sound will fade out much faster. It has been suggested that whales use this channel for communication over great distances.

[chiyoko]

Human echolocation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human echolocation is the ability of humans to sense objects in their environment by hearing echos off those objects. This ability is used by some blind people to navigate within their environment. They actively create sounds, such as by tapping their canes or by making clicking noises with their mouths. Human echolocation is similar in principle to active sonar and to the animal echolocation employed by some animals, including bats and dolphins.

By interpreting the sound waves reflected by nearby objects, a person trained to navigate by echolocation can identify the location and sometimes size of nearby objects, and use this information to steer around obstacles and travel from place to place. However, since humans make sounds with much lower frequencies and slower rates, human echolocation can only picture comparatively much larger objects than other echolocating animals.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Background
* 2 Individuals using echolocation
* 3 Vision and hearing
* 4 References
* 5 See also
* 6 External links

Background

Human echolocation has been known and formally studied since at least the 1950s.[1] Before it was known to be based on localization of echos, human echolocation was sometimes described as facial vision.[2][3][4] The field of human and animal echolocation was surveyed in book form as early as 1959.[5]

Some blind people have described the phenomenon not as a learned method of navigation, but as an inherent and intuitive extra sense. For example, a blind person could walk past a line of trees and feel a "pressure" at their side as they passed each tree. The cause of this would be the echo of the sound of their footsteps, however they may not be consciously aware of this mechanism, only that the phenomenon exists and can often be relied upon to detect obstacles.

Individuals using echolocation

One of the earliest documented cases of echolocation was "the blind traveler" James Holman (1786-1857) who used the sound of a tapping cane to become one of the 19th century's greatest world travelers.

Echolocation has been further developed and popularized by Daniel Kish. He is completely blind and taught himself to derive information about his surroundings by clicking his tongue and listening to the echo; using this technique, he is able to ride a bike and hike in unknown wilderness. He has developed a click-emitting device and trains other blind people in the use of echolocation.

Diagnosed with retinal cancer at the age of two, the American Ben Underwood had his eyes removed at the age of three [6]. He discovered echolocation at the age of five. He does not use a cane but is able to detect not only the position, size and frequently composition of objects near him, but sometimes their shape, by making clicking sounds with his tongue about once every half a second. [7] He now uses it to accomplish such feats as running, basketball, rollerblading, foosball and skateboarding.[8][9]

In a scene in the film Ray, the blind Ray Charles character (portrayed by Jamie Foxx) describes how -- by wearing hard-soled shoes -- he is able to find his way around. The sound lets him know what type of surface he is walking on and when he passes by an open door.

Vision and hearing

Vision and hearing are close cousins in that they both can process reflected waves of energy. Vision processes light waves as they travel from their source, bounce off surfaces throughout the environment and enter the eyes. Similarly, the auditory system processes sound waves as they travel from their source, bounce off surfaces and enter the ears. Both systems can extract a great deal of information about the environment by interpreting the complex patterns of reflected energy that they receive. In the case of sound, these waves of reflected energy are called "echoes."

Echoes and other sounds can convey spatial information that is comparable in many respects to that conveyed by light. With echoes, a blind traveler can perceive very complex, detailed, and specific information from distances far beyond the reach of the longest cane or arm. Echoes make information available about the nature and arrangement of objects and environmental features such as overhangs, walls, doorways and recesses, poles, ascending curbs and steps, planter boxes, pedestrians, fire hydrants, parked or moving vehicles, trees and other foliage, and much more. Echoes can give detailed information about location (where objects are), dimension (how big they are and their general shape), and density (how solid it is). Location is generally broken down into distance from the observer, and direction (left/right, front/back, high/low). Dimension refers to the object's height (tall or short) and breadth (wide or narrow).

By understanding the interrelationships of these qualities, much can be perceived about the nature of an object or multiple objects. For example, an object that is tall and narrow may be recognized quickly as a pole. An object that is tall and narrow near the bottom while broad near the top would be a tree. Something that is tall and very broad registers as a wall or building. While something that is broad and tall in the middle, while being shorter at either end may be identified as a parked car. Whereas an object that is low and broad may be a planter, retaining wall, or curb. And finally, something that starts out close and very low, but recedes into the distance as it gets higher is a set of steps. Density refers to the solidity of the object (solid/sparse, hard/soft). Awareness of density adds richness and complexity to one's available information. For instance, an object that is low and solid may be recognized as a table, while something low and sparse sounds like a bush; but an object that is tall and broad, and very sparse is probably a fence.

[chiyoko]

It is reported that cetaceans have a large portion of their brains devoted to auditory senses. Therefore they may be able to convert sound into an acoustic image in a section of their brains which allows them to 'see' in the darkness of the ocean, or in the murky waters of river deltas. There are many 'noise' sources in the ocean that could act to 'illuminate' objects with sound that cetaceans detect. For example, in shallow tropical and semi-tropical waters, snapping shrimp product continuous 'clicking' noises. These may allow cetaceans to 'see' fish without the need to use their own echo location - which might alert fish of their presence. Further out in the ocean, ambient sounds from wave action may serve the same purpose.

http://www.dolphinear.com/data/dolphin_sounds.htm

[chiyoko]

photos of extended ears (mostly used for detecting warplanes)

[chiyoko]

Watching a friend while he listened to music recently, I noticed that he looked like a blind person. Then I noticed that I do the same thing, concentrate so fully on sound, it's as if I shut out the visual sense...become blind, in order to fully concentrate on listening...