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Spatial and sculptural sound


Spatial Sounds
(100dB at 100km/h) is an interactive audio installation created by Marnix de Nijs and Edwin van der Heide. This powerful and intimidating motor-powered installation consists of a rotating arm with a speaker mounted on one end and a counterweight on the other. When a person enters the room, the machine senses it and the visitor can hear the engine slowly revving up, then swinging towards them at 100km/h in order to blast sounds at them at 100dB. At the same time, the installation is made more chaotic by a randomly flashing strobe light. The visitor is both drawn to the piece and repelled from it by its deadly swinging and deafening sounds that are as intense as a freight train and eerily contorted by the Doppler effect.

 

Spatial Sounds by Marnix de Nijs and Edwin van der Heide. Ars Electronica. 2000-2001.

 

As the machine slows down and the shock wears off, the viewer feels tangibly connected to the machine with the memory of their chest rumbling from the vibration of the heavy sounds.

Bjoern Schulke has created an organ that uses photo resistors hooked up to the surface of a TV screen to sense light and trigger the organ to play. As the photo resistors, are exposed to different content on the screen, they are activated or not activated, which causes relays to switch fan motors on and off and blow air through the pipes. The sound of the organ is mixed naturally with the sound coming from the TV, which creates a very humorous collage of sounds and pokes fun at the dramatic content you see streaming through the TV tube.

 

Orgamat by Bjoern Schuelke. 2003, 170 x 90 x 120cm.

 

Orgamat by Bjoern Schuelke. 2003, 170 x 90 x 120cm.

 

The work is constructed with white fiberglass over plywood, and an important component of the work is a large couch (not shown), built in the same style of the organ, and a TV remote that allows the viewer to switch the channel and therefore change the sound that will be created by the piece.