TYPE: SOFTWARE/GENERATIVE/SOUND-INSTALLATION
'for everywhere but not here' is a generative work that aims to be a reflection on the emotional side of distance, the perception we have of places where we're not, the obsessive desire of escape from territorial addiction.
Home?
How can a piece of software help to go deeper in the feeling of a culturally constructed perception? How can sound be employed to estabilish a relationship with distant places and with the people who inhabit those places? I've asked many web friends to collect the sounds out of their window and then to send me a field recording togheter with a reflection about the soundscape they daily experience.
This software randomly plays the sound files one after the other and process them in accordance with the distance between the locations where the recordings have been taken. So, the more a sound is distant from the one that preceded it, the more its original form is lost for being transformed into something new. Moreover, the reflections are displayed in accordance with what is playing.
Here is how the application (developed in Max/MSP) looks like.
The upper window in filled with menus that display the name of the location where the soundscape playing has been recorded, the location of the one that played just before, the distance in kilometers between the two and the relative digital sound processing level calculated in relation to the maximum distance avilable. Sounds are processed in a patch were the dsp level activates different ranges of values for the randomizers to work in. So, the patch reacts to the distance activating different areas of randomization so that the sound is always changing but this change gets more audible as the distance increases.
Click here to listen to an example of how it sounds like.
This short audio file has been recorded with the software running 'demo' mode, it means changing location/sound every 5 seconds. Anyway, f.e.b.n.h. can be setted to change soundscape every 30 seconds, or every 2 mins, 3 mins, 4 mins or 5 mins, for a much more 'medidative experience'...
The window at the bottom can be told via menu to show three different things:
- a simple 'about' (the same text you can find here, just before the too-big pic)
- 'credits' (a list of the AMAZING friends who gently recorded their soundscape for this project + software developers that i used stuff of)
- recorders' words: you can see this one in the pic up here, showing the name of the person who recorded the sound that is playing, the location, and the associated reflection about that soundscape.
After this detailed and boring description of the project maybe you still want to experience yourself the application.
Click here to download a light version of the app. ( one minute sound files instead of five minutes ones).
It's 100 MB and requires mac osx. I'm sorry about the weight but this is not intended for domestic use.
All my love to who made this possible:
Bodo Peters, Antwerp, Belgium
Martin, Gera, Germany
Kidko, Euless, Texas, USA
Christine Webster, Paris, France
Logicfray, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Yann, Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Fah, Veghel, Netherlands
Jonathan Fisher, Manchester, UK
Adcbicycle, Ottawa, Canada
Skab, Tokyo, Japan
Leafcutter John, London, Uk
Nils, Munich
Energygiant, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
feedback: skyapnea@gmail.com (mail me if you want the patch)
home
FOR THE GUYS OF THE TERMINAL01 CALL: I would be glad to modify this one to make it interactive if informed a bit more about the technical aspects of the kiosk. My BIO can be found here.