Beneath Our Feet, Imagining an Illuminated Geologic Soundscape
Materials/tools: wooden stands, metal discs, speakers,
amplifiers, water, Max MSP, MIAP (Manifold Interface Amplitude Panning)
Beneath our Feet; Imagining an Illuminated Geologic Soundscape took the form of a multi-channel audio installation in which an interactive sculptural cymatics piece was employed to illustrate the composition. The piece had a length of 12 minutes and explored the temporality and vibrational qualities of a geologic world unheard. The selections of sounds used in this piece were contact microphone recordings, pure frequency generations and recordings of pure crystal singing bowls. The only manipulations done to the samples were the process of stretching them in time. During the performance, participants were encouraged to touch the cymatic discs to experience the vibrations first hand in order to make the connection between the vibrations felt through the floor, the sight of the discs and the feeling of the liquid in the discs. When speaking about the piece as a group, participants mentioned the communal experience the interaction of touch gave them with each other and the piece. Murray Schafer, mentioned in his writings about the soundscape, “touch is the most personal of the senses. Hearing and touch meet where the lower frequencies of audible sound pass over to tactile vibrations (at about 20 hertz). Hearing is a way of touching at a distance and the intimacy of the first sense is fused with sociability when ever people gather together to hear something special.” (Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: the tuning of the world) With this piece, I was interested in the idea of a collective space that envelops the participants. Pulling them closer to the world we all very presently exist within by creating a device for expression, for speaking, for the ground beneath all of us.
