Ordinary Hidden Soundscape (2012)
4-channel fixed audio
The speakers or headphones should be capable of reproducing sounds at 40 Hz. The first sound should be forte, and the environment should be extremely silent.
Duration: 11.52 minutes
Performances:
- 26-Oct-2012 - Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea.
- 19-Sep-2014 - International Computer Music Conference, Athens, Greece.
Ordinary Hidden Soundscape seeks to renew the experience of the most ordinary sounds. Concrete sounds recorded in Rome without any a priori selective intention, together with electronic sounds, are employed in ways that encourage perception to associate them with experiences often radically different from the usual ones: bird sounds are transformed into loud noise, loud electronic pulses into the small steps of pedestrians, and car horns into delicate sustained tones.
Electronic and concrete materials are related either as part of a continuous morphing process or as alternating counterparts, sometimes sharing features and sometimes not. The rhythm of these changes plays a crucial role. Very different sounds are brought into relation through their placement on the timeline, often left immobile and undeveloped, serving as mere signs of an intuitive duration.
Through rhythm and duration, the work aims to influence how information is processed—at times giving the listener space to formulate an idea, at others using brief durations to offer subliminal cues or to merge highly disparate materials into unified perceptual entities.
The electronic material is realized using techniques ranging from basic oscillators to complex forms of recursive modulation and granular synthesis.