Indistinct images are projected onto a large screen, accompanied by inarticulate sounds reverberating across the entire exhibition space. All of these images and sounds are created by disassembling and recomposing algorithmically in real-time from vast amount of video materials that are picked up from the internet continuously over the period of the exhibition. The fragmented videos that provide the visual and acoustic source material are recomposed/reordered based on their respective data of luminance and sound (magnitude/level) to create a sine wave, which means that the original videos are deprived of their meaning, and reduced to abstract elements of light and sound for the construction of a sine wave.
Each visitor is given a small device which can play a sine wave, chooses its frequency, and positions it at a location on one of the 49 spiral-shaped columns of copper wire that are arranged in a grid in the exhibition space. These sine waves remain audible for the rest of the exhibition period, which means that the sound field - starting with absolute silence at the beginning of the exhibition - gets increasingly complex with every single visitor’s contribution towards the end of the exhibition. It is thus a collective performance, creating a work that continues to change while revealing different sonic qualities depending on the listening point, and number and position of device being installed.
This sound installation consists of four loudspeakers that play sine waves in a small concrete-walled room. Frequency responses were measured beforehand at each point on a 30 x 30 cm grid in the exhibition space. Based on these measurement results, revealed the spatial “deviations” that found the characteristic frequencies and combinations of these create the space’s distinctive sound. Even though the individual sounds themselves do not change, together they make up a dynamically transforming sound field in which sounds intensify or cancel out each other depending on the listening position in the room. While walking around the space of four invisible layers of sine waves, visitors discover and explore their own individual narratives, the characteristics of hearing, the interaction of sine waves, and the acoustics of the space itself.
The essence of the piece is a set of devices that translate the progression of the sun into the spatiality of sound. Each device consists of a solar panel which actuates an oscillator which then produces a sine wave through a speaker. The amount of light picked up by the solar panel regulates the volume – the objects only play a sine wave when exposed to strong light (e.g. sunlight).
Each participant who enters the space may choose a location for a new device and faces the collective sound of the sine waves produced by the irradiated objects which have already been placed. The sine waves produced by each participant accumulate over the exhibition period of the piece.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA mediate
2006
The installation The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA mediate accumulates sequences of sine wave alterations in time. Eight pillars, each with one loudspeaker and one touch sensitive motorized fader, record and play back, audibly and physically, the visitor’s interaction with the frequency changing fader. Each visitor can intervene the looped playback and insert their own trace.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA stay amplified
2006
This piece shows the process of the accumulation of sine waves left by each visitor over the period of its exhibition. The installation consists of a circular octophonic array of loudspeakers in a wooden pavilion. A pedestal situated in the middle of the room allows for playing a sine wave defined by a fader and a dial. Each visitor enters the pavilion and choses a frequency with the fader and position of the sine wave via the dial. Every choice remains and adds to the ever growing collective performance – from absolute silence to a sound level close to white noise at the end of the festival.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA tour 2006
2005
SWO performances are concerned with breaking the border between spectators and musicians, as well as the common restriction of the traditional formats of music (music has a beginning and an end) and its hierarchy (e.g. a classical orchestra).
The three performances in the tour invited participants to meet at a given time and place to perform together, everyone in their own manner and to their own liking. Participants were asked to either bring a sine wave generating object or make use of the provided egg-shaped sine wave generator, furnished with a loudspeaker and controllable via a potentiometer (frequency) and an on/off switch.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA nomadic
2005
SWO nomadic consisted of 6 participatory performances in 6 different acoustically interesting locations in Yokohama. 5 performances invited each 20 chosen participants to experience a different site. After each performance the participants were asked to hang their hacked iPod with an attached loudspeaker, playing a chosen sine wave, in the pier warehouse. Over the course of the exhibition time 100 iPods were hung in the warehouse. The grand finale took place in the Yamashita Park, where all iPods were brought to play till their batteries ran out.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA stay in Anechoic Chamber
2005
This piece shows the process of the accumulation of sine waves left by each visitor over the period of its exhibition. The installation consists of an anechoic chamber lined with an array of loudspeakers and a pedestal with two dials situated in the middle of the room. Each visitor enters the chamber and choses a frequency and position of a sine wave via the dials. Every choice remains and adds to the ever growing collective performance – from absolute silence on day one to a sound level close to white noise at the finissage.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA district
2004
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA district offered participants a highly Immersive installation of 24 sine waves in an former factory.
It provided the tool for every participant to experience their very own sound narrative based on the personal experience of the occurring multitude of complex sound patterns throughout the exhibition space.
The extreme volume and multitude of difference tones and their interplay with the room allowed for an extremely bodily experience of sound.
The Stairway of the SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA
2004
SWO performances are concerned with breaking the border between spectators and musicians, as well as the common restriction of the traditional formats of music (music has a beginning and an end) and its hierarchy (e.g. a classical orchestra).
The Stairway of the SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA invited participants to meet at a given time and place to perform together, everyone in their own manner and to their own liking. Participants were asked to either bring a sine wave generating object or make use of the provided spherical sine wave generator, each battery driven and furnished with a loudspeaker and a light sensor, changing frequency depending on light intensity.
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA, and if you like, some clicks
2002
SWO performances are concerned with breaking the border between spectators and musicians, as well as the common restriction of the traditional formats of music (music has a beginning and an end) and its hierarchy (e.g. a classical orchestra).
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA, and if you like, some clicks invited participants to meet at a given time and place to perform together, everyone in their own manner and to their own liking. Participants were asked to bring a sine wave generating object.
