WE
PASS
THESE
MESSAGES

Craving was presented during Coded Cultures - Exploring Creative Emergences in May 2009.
Thank you 5uper.net and Georg Russegger!

We will be presenting our work at the 5TH INTERNATIONAL MOBILE MUSIC WORKSHOP 2008 in Vienna on May 13th.

Introduction

In “Craving” Bernhard Garnicnig and Gottfried Haider aurally stage a text inspired by the late Sarah Kane’s play Crave in public space. It unfolds while members of the audience individually wander a high-rise area, wearing headphones and a mobile computing device.

Process

The audience is escorted from the Mobile Music Workshop venue in Vienna’s city center to the site of the production. Once arrived, they have the opportunity to explore the location two at a time. Equipped with a Wearable Computer and headphones the recipient is immersed in sound surroundings he can physically navigate. The path they chose is in no way - auditory or visually - predetermined, thereby allowing the audience to let themselves be guided by aspects of the place itself such as its architecture while experiencing the production.

Text

The text used in Craving draws on Crave, a play by British dramatist Sarah Kane (1971 - 1999). In it, four sparsely drawn characters weave a tapestry made up of quotations and fragments, the cloth of which are their individual traumas, loves, grieves and resignations. Plot and signs indicating temporal developments are reduced to a minimum. It is in repetition and the final defeat of communication of internal landscapes that we come full circle to the urbane Wüste (the urban desert) in between the towers of the Donaustadt.

Kane’s text, which is filled with elements of subjective meditations on urban surroundings, but devoid of stage directions has been rearranged and expanded using pieces of everyday conversations to work with individual clusters according to the demands of certain places.

Method

The selection and spatial and temporal distribution of sound elements require a detailed study of text and conditions of the space such as architecture, flow of movements and rhythms. The technology (GPS, etc.) framing the production obviously plays another, very important role.

As environmental influences such as weather or social interaction surrounding the participants or their personal movement patterns cannot be foreseen, the sound design is not geared towards constructing a linear narrative. It aims, rather, to create individual, but loosely-connected scenes. To achieve this, acoustic elements are placed on street corners, on wide, open spaces or in lively passage ways as they relate to a sensation and meaning created by their architecture or the human beings inhabiting it. In order to do this the artists have developed a software, which enables a composition of temporally and spatially dynamic acoustic scenes.

Sound fragments such as spoken language or music are grouped together, following an internal temporal logic. These groups are distributed all over the area and linked through the recipient’s perception as he moves through the space.

Applying their other senses and their feeling for the specific place the participants then put the perceived sensations into a larger context. This ability to freely associate intentional design elements through reflection accepts the spectator in the temporal and spatial complexity of his cognition.

Technology

The participant is equipped with a wearable computer and headphones. Custom software determines his position via GPS, tracks his head- and body movements through a magnetometer. Based on their results the computer renders the audio composition in real-time. Through a simulation of binaural hearing, sounds previously affiliated to certain places now become audible from their specific direction. The software incorporates a real-time virtual acoustic environment rendering engine. It is based on head-related transfer function (HRTF), describing how a given sound input (parameterized as frequency and source location) is filtered by the diffraction and reflection properties of the torso, head and pinna before reaching the eardrum and inner ear. These location-specific filter effects provide the human neural system with enough cues to properly locate a sound’s source. Through the realistic simulation of these effects it is now possible to place sound emitting “props” into the listener’s environment.

Site

Craving was envisioned for production in Vienna DC, a modern complex of commercial and residential buildings in the city’s Donaustadt district. This most preeminent area is defined by a branch of the river Danube in the south and the United Nations building in the north. Vienna DC was conceived entirely on the drawing board after plans for a World Fair in this location had been vetoed in a referendum in that same year of 1991. Nevertheless, ten years after its opening, the area is still urbanity in progress, as various vacant lots create a layered surface, whose heaps of dirt contrast with the spotless facades otherwise dominating the view. Vienna DC houses numerous multinational corporations and information technology firms in office skyscrapers, but there are also vivid residential zones in between. One can literally walk around a corner to see the number of suits diminished and people leading their lives in a slower and more informal way. There is a bizarre city within, whose 4.000 inhabitants have adopted to the given system of open spaces and the spatial logic of the complex. For them the architects envisioned a church, a museum exhibiting works of an Austrian sculptor, a bilingual school and kindergarten, a supermarket, a number of cafés located in the lobbies of skyscrapers, and a restaurant. Other unique architectural features also strongly influence the way in which the space is perceived: a wide flight of stairs leading up to nothing, surveillance cameras places at eye level, deserted children’s playgrounds, a vast empty space whose floor is covered in glaring white paint. This microcosm allows the artists to use the space’s emotional tectonics and possible associations while breaking with the normal patterns of movement, perception and interaction with the environment and other people.

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the generous support of the University for Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture. We would also like to thank Anatol Vitouch, Amira Ben-Saoud, Anne Thieme, Max Berger and Sarah Rechberger for lending our project their voice and Angelika Katzinger for designing and fabricating our wearable computer jacket.

A project by Bernhard Garnicnig and Gottfried Haider

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Vienna/Austria, July 2007. I’m walking through the Donau City, a remote business district in Vienna, over wide concrete surfaces surrounded by tall commercial buildings. Headphones on and a mobile computer in my pockets, my movement contrasts to the systematic paths the people around me seem to follow. Some of them glance at me with a slightly puzzled look on their faces, probably I appear disoriented to them as I walk back and forth or just stand still where nothing seems to be. But there is something happening only I can hear – voices and music are scattered all over the place. I discover new things everywhere I go; I hear men and women talking, fractions of dialogues in a street corner, an intensely emotional monologue just a few steps further. Words, noise and the musical droning blend into space around me. As I further explore the site a fragmented story evolves that colours the places I visit in unexpected dark but rich tones.

Six Contemporary Artists Who Use Maps in Their Work
by Craig Roland, 2000 - 2007

Uncharted Territory: Subjective Mapping by Artists and Cartographers
at Julie Saul Gallery, New York City, 2004

GET LOST: Artists Map Downtown New York
at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, 2007

The Map Room: Art
Extensive archive of articles concerning maps and art.

An indoor variant of our work in Vienna DC is on show at our class’ exhibition (mis)used media since June 21st through July 2nd. It was previously also shown at etc17, a group show by and at the atelier Bernhard is part of.

Three scences taken from our still-work-in-progress composition Craving at Vienna DC are accompanied by three slide projected photographs taken at the outdoor location.

While the auditory composition Craving was specifically designed for Vienna DC, a site in the Austrian capital, the demonstration in Amsterdam provided a glimpse into the possibilities the technology offers to create audiovisual experiences by linking specific places with sound structured into space and time. Simple acoustic scenes were established in the workshop’s venues, a small park next to STEIM and the Nieuwmarkt around the Waag building. Sound fragments and structures specific to the production in Vienna were left out in favour of larger areas of atmospheric sound and brief temporally-structured voice scenes. It was the first public presentation at this stage in the life of the project and resulted in new insights into the perception and interpretation of the work by the workshop participants.

Photos on Flickr
Mobile Music Workshop weblog
Notes by Regine Debatty on we-make-money-not-art.com
The Conference Proceedings

We are excited to be part of the Mobile Music Workshop in Amsterdam from the 6th to the 8th of May 2007 along with for example Teri Rueb, Atau Tanaka, Martin Pichlmair and the best bluetooth rockband in the world, the handydandy.

ShotSpotter utilizes the principle of acoustic triangulation to locate gunfire across wide areas. Because of its patented spatial filter technology, ShotSpotter systems are not fooled by noises which sound like gunfire but are misleading (like car backfires, firecrackers, etc.). Similarly, the technology filters out echoes and other acoustical anomalies. Using a continuous feedback loop which constantly adjusts sensor trigger and other parameters, ShotSpotter is able to deliver instantaneous system reports to dispatchers within seconds of a weapon being fired.

Forensic evidence from a drive-by shooting:
11 shots fired by two gunmen in vehicle moving NNW @ 9mph

Our aim is to investigate the effects of long-term stimulation with orientation information on humans. In order to do this, we constructed a belt which enables its user to feel his orientation in space via vibrotactile stimulation.

This belt is equipped with a set of vibrators controlled by an electronic compass: the element pointing north is always slightly vibrating. That way, the person wearing the belt gets permanent input about his heading relative to the earth’s magnetic field.

feelSpace - The Magnetic Perception Group

Ingo Günther, WORLDPROCESSOR, 074 “100 Projection Problems”

One of 300 globes reflecting global statistical data made by Ingo Günther: WORLDPROCESSOR

[Re: ] Magazine #01 has an interview with Jeremy Hight, whose project “34 North 118 West” can be regarded as the first GPS based spatial audio narrative. He is also an active writer and theorist and published several texts [1, 2]. Most notably is his current work where he lifts locative media into space with the project “Floating Points” [1, 2].

Ruffian Logistics, 1.5m x 3.3m, ink and acrylic on canvas, 2001

Julie Merethu draws and paints huge canvases based on city maps, architectural drawings and symbols where her interest for form, color and space meet with geopolitical and global social processes.
More images and more information.

The latest issue of hz has an article by Arthur Clays called “Opening Up Public Space” where he presents the ideas and insights around his project “China Gates”.

“Performing art in civic space automatically awakens curiosity and interest in the public. The audience is lifted out and away from that of the everyday by the performers presence and actions. This type of art reaches a diverse audience who, in part, generally does not make it to the modern art venues. The resulting social interaction in civic space is unique and therefore can be important for the arts, which are all to often isolate amongst a select audience. Mobile music- and art works are finding their way into civic space, but they tend to isolate the public as a possible audience due to privacy aspect of headphones and personal displays. The resulting isolation of the performer from the audience deprives both sides of one of the most important functions of public performance: social interaction.”

His work and research at the ETH Zürich focusses on the possibilities of algorithmic composition of music through networked mobile devices. Theres a lot more information available on his personal website.

dr reinhold grether’s directory to mobile art and locative media is an insanely extensive ressource on everything that deals with “art through locative/ mobile/ pervasive/ wearable/ wireless devices”.

Raoul Hausmann (AT, 1886-1971): Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time) from 1920 reminded me a lot of the uberheadphone we are currently developing. Some of the things he attached to the wooden wig-making dummy, like a segment of measuring tape, parts of an old camera, a ruler and a pocket watch are closely related to the features our headphones has, like GPS to track the users absolute position in space and other sensors to measure the users movement and rotation.

A rather nice paper that delivers an overview about the spatial aspects of composition and sound.

In this paper, I will briefly present one of the most comprehensive and well-established theories of music cognition, and show how it does not account for elements of music composition not based on pitch, such as space. The use of space as a parameter in composition of many contemporary electro-acoustic works is not merely a metaphor, but a critical property of musical structure. Spatial composition is directly related with research in sound localization, taking advantage of what is known about our ability to discriminate sound sources in the real world to create a spatial experience within the musical domain. Finally, I will present an attempt at a theory which describes musical space and suggest how its shortcomings would benefit from an improved integration of knowledge about the process of listening.

aya karpinska || spatial composition || spring 2001

“Prof. Aeneas Ioannis” posted the documentation of his work “Suicide Walks” to the locative mailinglist and it all looks like a total prank to me. In the video of a “lecture” he gave at UCSD and ends with blatant recorded applause and yelling, he seems to state that his work is based on recordings of the last minutes of the life of people actually commiting suicide, recording their last thoughts and wishes, in order to, as he states, “contribute to the memorial after their death”.

Not sure about the intentions of this guy, but while I dont have any more information on this, I remain in WTF? state.

Update: There’s more information available here

PML Psychogeographical Markup Language

PML is a set of keywords lifted from various sources that can be used to capture meaningful psychogeographical [meta]data about urban space. PML is a unified system of psychogeonamic classification that lurks behind the psychogeogram: the diagrammatic representation of psychogeographically experienced space.

Usman Haque: Environmental XML

EnvironmentXML proposes a kind of “RSS feed” for tagged environmental data, enabling anyone to release realtime environmental data from a physical object or space in XML format via the internet in such a way that this content becomes part of the input data to spaces/interfaces/objects designed by other people.

Its really interesting to compare these works with the classic “Attempt at a Psychogeographical Description of Les Halles” by Abdelhafid Khatib from 1958.

Ready for a load of useless knowledge about DC?
Continue reading Agentursplitter…

Richard Long geht um des gehens willen, so wie sich wie alles in der Natur kontinuierlich bewegt, und wir durch das bewusste mitbewegen eine Verbindung zu dieser aufzubauen können. Seine Wege folgen einer initialen Idee. Während der Ausführung dokumentiert er seine Bewegungen mit Texten, Fotografien und Karten. Auf seinem Weg enstehen auch Skulpturen aus ortsspezifischen Materialien, die er nach dem Fotografieren entweder zerstört oder der Witterung überlasst. Durch diese Objekte werden seine walks vor Ort sichtbar. Seine zentrale Bestrebung, das gehen, ist so nicht mehr ein einmaliges Geschehniss sondern hinterlässt eine ästhetische Spur, die seine Arbeit einem gewissen Sinn beweisen und konsumierbar macht. Erst so wird seine Arbeit für den aussenstehenden Real.

So muss auch eine auditive, nicht direkt sichtbare aber begehbare Überlagerung durch ortspezifische Artefakte visuell bestätigt werden. Einfache, an Umgebung und Inhalt angelehnte Objekte reflektieren das gehörte auf visueller Ebene.

Robert Smithson und Richard Serra schaffen Skulpturen nicht um deren visuellen Ästhetik willen, sondern um es durch die Bewegung des Menschen durch oder um das Objekt erfahren zu können. Während Smithson seine Arbeit (zB Spiral Jetty 1970) noch bildlich entwirft und studiert geht Serra weiter und erforscht zuerst ortspezifische Größenverhältnisse. Beider Arbeiten steht eine Analyse der Umgebung voran.

Serras Skulpturen sind “… an invitation to do the thinking on your feet.”
Serra über die Abbildungen von Smithsons Spiral Jetty: “What most people know of Smithsons Spiral Jetty for example, is an image shot from a helicopter. When you actually see the work, it has none of that purely graphic character … But if you reduce sculpture to the flat plane of the photograph … you’re denying the temporal experience of the work. You’re not only reducing the sculpture to a different scale for the purposes of consumption, but you’re denying the real content of the work.”

Reading John Cage “Silence” (1937)
Cage says that the composer is the organizer of sound. He writes that future musicians will be able to compose with the entire field of sound and time. With our project, the composer can become the the organizer of sound in space and time.

“It is time to realize that we are capable as well of inventing feelings, perhaps even feelings comparable in power to love or hate.” Paul Nougé, Charleroi Conference

Reading Guy Debord “Introduction to a critique of urban geography” (1955)
“In fact, the variety of possible combinations of ambiances, analogous to the blending of pure chemicals in an infinite numer of mixtures, gives rise to feelings as differentiated and complex as any other form of the spectacle can evoke.”

From “Definitions”, International Situationiste #1 (1958)
“Constructed Situation: A moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events.”
“Psychogeography: The study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”
“Dérive: A mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of transient passage through varied ambiances. Also used to designate a specific period of continuous deriving.”
“Détournement: Short for: détournement of preexisting aesthetic elements. The inegration of present or past artistic production into a superior construction of a milieu. (…)”
“Situationism: A meaningless term improperly derived from the above [Situationist]. There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine of interpretation of existing facts. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by anti-situationists.”

Wir arbeiten in Craving mit einigen Methoden, Audrücken und Grundlagen die wir von den den Situationisten geerbt haben. Das dérive, die psychogeographische Analyse, die konstruierte Situation, das Ambiente eines Ortes im öffentlichen Raum und seine Auswirkungen auf den Menschen usw. beruht alles auf der Grundlagenforschung des Kreises um Guy Debord. Wie bei uns waren diese analytischen und künstlerischen Grundlagen nur Vehikel für die eigentlichen spielerischen Absichten, künstlerischen Interessen und politischen Utopien der Gruppe. Deshalb verlassen wir bei der Endeckung der Geschichte unserer Arbeit die Situationisten nachdem sie diese Grundlagen erörtert haben und wenden uns denjenigen zu, die mit einem stärkeren Interesse an Ästhetik, Sensorik und dem Menschen mit dem öffentlichen Raum arbeiten: Die Skulptur, Land Art und Field Recording.

Hier spielen die elektronischen Bauteile funktionell und ästhetisch eine Rolle. Auch scheint es, als wäre die Form nicht aus den funktionalen Voraussetzungen sondern aus einer ästhetischen Überlegung enstanden.
Martin Bellardi and Anne-Christin Delakowitz: Wearable rhythm communicator

“Kitt, bitte kommen”: Handgelenkcomputer für industrielle Zwecke:
Eurotech Wearable WWPC

Die Platzierung der Lautsprecher lässt an eine umdrehung der Klangperspektive denken:
Vincent Leclerc, Joey Berzowska & the XS Labs Squirrels: Accouphene
Man bewegt sich durch den Raum, und die Stimmen sprechen nach aussen, was man sonst nie sagen würde - Eine Beichte?

Um die fragmentierte, gesprochene Erzählung zu unterstützen fügen wir zu Kanes Stück eine fünfte, wortlose Stimme hinzu, die ausdrückt was Worte nicht ausdrücken können, und so die Erzählung erweitert. Der dadurch enstehende Soundscape <ad>, nie war dieser Begriff seiner eigentlichen bedeutung so nahe,</ad> dient zur Konstruktion der Geschichte und hilft bei der Navigation des Hörers durch den Raum.
Der Soundscape könnte sowohl aus einer musikalischen Komposition von Klängen (zB Drones, Musik, etc), als auch aus Samples (Ortsspezifische, bekannte Umgebungsgeräusche) bestehen, die in der Umgebung, der vorhandenen Szenerie narrative Elemente bilden.

“A: Ich habe keine Musik, Gott, ich wünschte, ich hätte Musik, aber alles was ich habe, sind Worte.”
Sarah Kane, Crave

Brilliant, extensive resource for almost everything related to geography and mapping (in German): http://www.geoinformation.net/

Endless arrays of glass = mirroring surfaces for intro-/extrospective reflection

A: Ich will neben dir schlafen und für dich einkaufen und deine Tüten tragen und dir sagen wie sehr ich es liebe bei dir zu sein aber sie bringen mich immer wieder dazu dumme Sachen zu machen.

A: Und ich will Verstecken spielen und dir meine Kleider geben und dir sagen Ich mag deine Schuhe und auf den Stufen sitzen während du badest und deinen Nacken massieren und deine Füße küssen und deine Hand halten und essen gehen und mich nicht beklagen wenn du mein Essen isst und dich bei Rudys treffen und über den Tag reden und deine Briefe tippen und deine Kisten tragen und lachen über deinen Verfolgungswahn und dir Kassetten schenken die du nicht anhörst und tolle Filme sehen und schreckliche Filme sehen und schimpfen über das Radio und Fotos machen von dir wenn du schläfst und aufstehen um dir Kaffee zu bringen und Bagels und Kopenhagener und zu Florent gehen und Kaffee trinken um Mitternacht und dich meine Zigaretten klauen lassen und nie ein Streichholz finden können und dir vom Fernsehprogramm erzählen das ich die Nacht zuvor gesehen hab und dich in die Augenklinik bringen und nicht über deine Witze lachen und dich wollen aM Morgen aber noch eine Weile schlafen lassen und deinen Rücken küssen und deine Haut streicheln und dir sagen wie sehr ich dein Haar liebe deine Augen deine Lippen deinen Hals deine Brüste deinen Arsch deine und auf den Stufen sitzen und rauchen bis dein Nachbar heimkommt und auf den Stufen sitzen und rauchen bis du heimkommst und mich sorgen wenn du zu spät bist und erstaunt sein wenn du zu früh bist und dir Sonnenblumen schenken und auf deine Party gehen und tanzen bis ich schwarz werde und es bedauern wenn ich Unrecht habe und glücklich sein wenn du mir vergibst und deine Fotos ansehen und wünschen ich hätte dich schon immer gekannt und deine Stimme hören in meineM Ohr und deine Haut spüren auf meiner Haut und Angst kriegen wenn du wütend bist und dein Auge rot geworden ist und das andere Auge blau und dein Haar nach links und dein Gesicht orientalisch und dir sagen du bist hinreißend und dich in den ArM nehmen wenn du ängstlich bist und dich halten wenns wehtut und dich wollen wenn ich dich rieche und dich anwidern wenn ich dich berühre und wimmern wenn ich dir nah bin und wimmern wenn nicht und auf deine Brust sabbern und dich erdrücken in der Nacht und frieren wenn du die Decke nimmst und schwitzen wenn nicht und schmelzen wenn du lächelst und mich auflösen wenn du lachst und nicht verstehen warum du denkst ich weise dich zurück wenn ich dich nicht zurückweise und mich fragen wie du denken konntest ich könnte dich jemals zurückweisen und mich fragen wer du bist aber dich dennoch akzeptieren und dir erzählen voM Baumengelzauberwaldjungen der über den Ozean flog weil er dich liebte und Gedichte schreiben für dich und mich fragen warum du mir nicht glaubst und ein Gefühl haben so tief dass ich keine Worte dafür finden kann und dir ein Kätzchen kaufen wollen auf das ich dann eifersüchtig wäre weil es mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekäme als ich und dich im Bett festhalten wenn du los musst und heulen wie ein Kleinkind wenn du zuletzt wirklich gehst und die Kakerlaken loswerden und dir Geschenke kaufen die du nicht willst und sie wieder wegbringen und dich bitten mich zu heiraten und du sagst wieder nein und nicht aufhören zu bitten denn obwohl du denkst ich mein es nicht ernst mein ich es ernst hab es immer ernst gemeint voM ersten Mal an wo ich dich gebeten habe und in der Stadt herumirren und denken sie ist leer ohne dich und wollen was du willst und denken ich verliere mich selbst aber wissen dass ich in Sicherheit bn bei dir und dir das Schlimmste von mir erzählen und versuchen dir mein Bestes zu geben weil du kein bisschen weniger verdienst und deine Fragen beantworten wenn ich es lieber nicht täte und dir die Wahrheit sagen wenn ich es wirklich nicht will und versuchen ehrlich zu sein weil ich weiß das ist dir lieber und denken es ist alles vorbei aber noch wenigstens zehn Minuten ausharren bevor du mich rausschmeißen wirst aus deineM Leben und vergessen wer ich bin und versuchen dir näher zu kommen weil es schön ist dich kennen zu lernen und die Mühe sehr wert und in schlechteM Deutsch auf dich einreden und hebräisch noch schlechter und mit dir schlafen um drei Uhr morgens und irgendwie irgendwie irgendwie etwas mitteilen von der / überwältigenden unsterblichen übermächtigen bedingungslosen allesumfassenden herzbereichernden verstanderweiternden anhaltenden niemalsendenden Liebe die ich für dich empfinde.