sound etc.
experior
[re]struō
arguably clandestine audio installation in an elementary school's basement being renovated
2022 — [re]struō
This arguably clandestine audio installation consists of 7 speakers dispersed around the school's basement. Audio/RF recordings from the school were processed then transduced by 7 loudspeakers back into the source-environment, resulting in a partially condition-based soundscape.
During the pandemic, various structures of control were swiftly implemented, assimilated and normalized. It raised a certain preoccupation as to our psychological malleability and resilience (or lack of...) and how it may influence our political, social and cultural practises.
Transposing this ambiguity in the setting of an elementary school currently being renovated resonates thanks to its intriguing acoustic properties and paradoxical affinity to the uncanny eeriness of an abandoned building. By analogy, the symbol of youth embodies futurity.
The school was sonically scouted the with an RF analyzer and condenser microphones. The bandwidth in which the RF detector operates mostly consists of wi-fi, cellular and other communications protocols facilitating communication.
Depending on the location within the school the antenna's orientation, the modulating signal varied from poly-rhythmic periodic clicks, sustained harmonic clouds and erratic noisy bursts.
With the intention of maintaining the essence of the field recordings, the rhythmic content has either been kept in its origin form or used as a modulation factor. The sustained textures have been derived from the spectral content of both the RF content and other recordings carried at the school (water pipes, various humming/beeping devices).
Additionally, an elementary schoolyard was recorded on a sunny Friday afternoon. The schoolyard field recording behaves as an unpredictable, glitching element, sporadically erupting in any of the 7 speakers.
Project by Victor Burton. Thank you Hugo for your ear(s) and your generous help on the day of the installation.