Bains::Connective

[luea]

I got last week a mail from chiyoko with some inputs what i wanted to share with you in the meeting we normally had yesterday - so here they are

luea
*****

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.