The work of the Austrian sound artist Sam Auigner regularly follows the theme of hearing perspectives. The concept of thinking with you’re ears, instead of leading yourself from visual stimuli. His work is lead by collaborations with mediums outside the sound art canon, for example urban planning, architecture and design. His great talent has made him win multiple awards, from prizes of art organisations to residences at culture institutions across Europe.

As discussed before, Auigner work is deeply linked with architecture and urban design. His pieces are always set in out of the ordinary spaces, abandoning gallery spaces and opting for churches, factories and even public spaces like bridges. In the video below we can see a sound installation by Auginer where he explores the acoustic nature of the mythic and controversial Berlin venue, Berghain.

This installation is quite interesting because the sound is design to mirror the aesthetic of the place. Long industrial drones are played towards the walls of the venue, mimicking a sine tone test for acoustic measurement. The drones slowly increase in volume until a threshold where the sound violently cuts itself, leaving a resonating reverb tail.

I thought that it was fascinating targeting an installation to a specific building design, this makes sound interact in communication with space, resulting in a unique installation that could not be reproduce again in the same way. For a while now I have played in my head with the idea of contacting spaces or venues that are not linked with artistic purposes, and try convincing them to let me experiment in the place with a gallery. For the moment I have mainly thought of contacting churches, I will try contacting the priest that I interviewed for my audio paper to see if he is open to the idea.