My sound exhibition piece consist in a quadrophonic setup placed across the Gallery 46 garden, playing a generative granular composition that I created in SuperCollider. The composition is created with a library of buffers containing samples, this buffers are then later fed to two granular synths that manipulate such samples and then split them up to 4 channels. Using random LFO’s, the synth’s triggers and manipulates the samples, creating a purely generative piece. I am going to use NRT synthesis to record the 4 outputs of the script, this will record into a wav files a 20 minute version of the generative piece. This recording will be looped in a Raspberry Pi box and then outputted to the four monitors of the exhibition.

The Raspberry Pi will be the brains of the installation, it will be plugged into a multi-channel interface and an amp that would connect to each monitor. The monitors will be placed acousmatically, covered by plants, blending the sound from the speakers with the natural ecology of the garden. Below is a quick drawn map of the installation and how it’s going to work. For the real thing the speakers will be placed differently and the control centre will have to be placed in a strategic position that is also water prove.

I will need:

• 4 times 3.5mm inch cables
• An audio interface with 4 outputs.
• Raspberry Pi
• 4 waterproof monitors
• 4 stands
• 4 XLR cables

The concept of my piece revolves around the theme of consciousness, more specifically the hibridification of two conscious states. In modern life we have split our conscious activity into two different interfaces, the real or analogue world and the digital work, through computers and technology . With this concept in mind I wanted to explore how sound design is able to create or distinguish the sonic ecology of both consciousness interfaces. Creating a sound environment that will combine digital processes with natural sound environments. I fed field recordings into two different granular synthesisers, and modulated parameters that affected or disfigured (digitally) various aspect of the audio, mainly the grains (rate, which grains, etc). This creates a generative sequence of sounds that shift from affected audio, to non-affected audio. By this (also combined with the sonic ecology of the place) it will create a unique soundscape that adopts glitches and digital manifestation and combines it with a non affected sonic ecology. Below is a binaural recording of the installation, taken place in the performance lab of LCC.

Through his own experience and practice, Adam Basanta came up with a guide outlining different strategies for composing gallery sound pieces, with a particular focus in time and space and how they relate to each other to shape the form of a gallery. The first strategy in this guide is Inquiring Across Disciplines, what it’s meant by this is the natural division between the concept of form inside the musical practice and in the context of sound art galleries. Sound is forced to inquire in media as visual art and sculpture to fulfil the spatial demands of a gallery space, in the other hand music performances do not take into consideration space as one of the main compositional demands. “Sound materials are dispersed spatially and temporally, and are experienced by a mobile visitor at their own space”. Because of the autonomy of the audience in a sound gallery piece, the form of the piece has to be designed towards a first-person experience.

Basanta explains that to design this first person experience its crucial to think about time as one of the main modulators of the dimension of the piece, Olafur Eliasson explains that without time the individual experiencing the piece cannot engage with the form and its excluded of experiencing the sequential matter of it. Considering this it’s important to point out that there is not a single experience “there are at least as many forms as there are visitors experiencing the work”.

The figure above is an example of an architectonical analysis of a sound gallery piece. Its use is to map listening positions and how these are affected by the architecture of the space, knowledge in acoustics is helpful to avoid unwanted sonic features. Listening spots can determine the narrative of the piece and by the correct placing of sound sources linear or quasi linear narratives can be created.