Held / Bainbridge : Observatory / Lisa Joy (2016) Installation view at “Escuchar con los ojos.” Sound generation software, speakers, minisynth, modified videogame console.
Observatory / Lisa Joy is a generative audiovisual installation created by two multidisciplinary artists, Barbara Held (USA/Spain) and Benton C Bainbridge (USA). It is currently on view as part of “Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016”, a group exhibition of Spanish Sound Art from the past half century at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. Tones and flute from Held’s software system (coding by Ariadna Alsina) are used as control voltages to shape sinuous lines from Bainbridge’s modified videogame console.
Observatory, a sonification of helioseismological measurements, translates numeric data into another numeric structure: the overtone series of a sampled flute note, filtered and reinforced in the rhythm of the sound waves produced by solar oscillations. Like an oscillation between a microscope and a telescope, Held varies the intensity of harmonics (the building blocks of sound) to highlight the rich deep abstraction of pure tone and the immediacy of the breath, while Bainbridge’s system divides the sound into component frequencies which are visualized onto the display, creating calligraphic patterns from the same electronic signals. Observatory was first created for Bioderivas, Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Tenerife. (Data thanks to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, audio software created by Ariadna Alsina).
Benton C Bainbridge’s Lisa Joy generates electronic drawings with an analog video synthesizer and a modified video game console. Bainbridge assembled a set of unique Eurorack modules into a custom system to create the abstract moving paintings. The lissajous patterns emerge from the relationship of 3 signals which guide the electron gun from left to right, top to bottom, and up and down in brightness. The shapes vary as the 3 waves dance in relationship to each other and the sound frequencies.
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An improvised performance for a specific space that activates an evolving 4 channel sound installation. The flute tunes around a very soft high-pitched drone that seems to change location depending on the room’s acoustics.
Una performance improvvisata che “collabora” con lo spazio acustico, trasformandosi in un’installazione sonora in evoluzione continua.
Observatory Movement II, generative sound installation by Barbara Held software created by Ariadna Alsina
Sonification of helioseismological data, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
The roots of the natural sciences lie in the fertile soil of discovery and an embrace of the unknown. At their core, the sciences mediate the surprising mysteries and mundane realities of the world around us. Through careful observation, we collect, catalog, and translate from geographic region to socio-cultural region, from ecosphere to biosphere, crossing boundaries of language and discipline to arrive at an understanding of the complexities of the environment. BioDerivas presents the work of three artists, Richard Garet (USA/Uruguay), Barbara Held (Spain/USA), and Yapci Ramos (Spain). The core activities of these artists has a strong resonance with the mission of the museum; by observing the world around us, they use technology to collect and present images and sounds that re-contextualize how we perceive the world. Through close-listening, focused sight, and careful attention to perception Garet, Held, and Ramos have created a micro-environment in the museum that rewards active exploration and encourages thoughtful contemplation of how we understand the world around us through our senses of sight and sound.
These pieces present a continuum between the environment we inhabit and the mechanism through which make sense of it. The work of Yapci Ramos shown here is forceful in its subtle simplicity. In Bruma, her soft, stark images of pino canario printed on cotton paper are juxtaposed against their slowly moving video counterparts on the opposite wall. The moment captured by each is deeply engaged with its site, drawing on the tension between the viewer’s memory of similar locations and the limits of perception.
These works were developed in collaboration with the composer, performer, and sound artist Barbara Held. Her focused and unfaltering audio work occupying half of the space both emphasizes the stillness of these works and draws attention to their movement. In Observatory, Ramos and Held create an evolving immersion that highlights the sublime quality of flora. The up-facing camera, the smooth, faster than walking pace, and the steady careful development of Held’s sound work sonifying the gases of the sun creates an other-worldly distance from which to contemplate the source material. Held’s headphone sound work Bucio on the other hand has a documentary approach, employing the conch shell to investigate the manner in which the pre-Hispanic Guanches communicated across the terrain of the islands through sound.
In contrast Richard Garet’s work explores concepts of transformation and translation between audio and visual information in its raw form. The silent vertical video works were developed using computer algorithms that took sound as an input and after generating the video the sound was taken away, creating a visual image that mirrors sound in its manner of movement. In the two audiovisual works, Garet explores the relationship between a desirable signal and an undesirable noise. Esion – Nothing is Something uses computer processes to degrade image and sound creating a form of data erosion while IP, Iota Expansion Varation I builds up from a simple black and white frame that results in almost planetary imagery suggesting the emptiness of space.
The common link between the earliest Cabinets of Curiosities of the renaissance, the natural history museums of the 17th century, and the modern centers of discovery common today is the thoughtful display of objects that implore the public to appreciate the experience of the new. Both on their own and in their interaction, the work of Garet, Held, and Ramos simultaneously draws attention to perception while presenting the unfamiliar alongside the commonplace and expanding our understanding of sound and image within our environment.
Seth Cluett
Las raíces de las Ciencias Naturales nacen de la tierra fértil donde crecen los descubrimientos y se abraza lo desconocido. En su esencia, las ciencias concilian los misterios más sorprendentes con la realidad cotidiana. A través de la observación minuciosa, recopilamos, catalogamos y transferimos de la región geográfica a la socio-cultural, de la ecosfera a la biosfera, cruzando los límites del lenguaje y la disciplina para llegar a comprender las complejidades de nuestro entorno.
BioDerivas presenta las obras de tres artistas multidiciplinares: Richard Garet (Estados Unidos/Uruguay), Barbara Held (España/Estados Unidos) y Yapci Ramos (España), cuyo trabajo artístico guarda estrecha relación con la misión del museo. En este sentido, en su afán por observar el mundo que les rodea, se valen de la tecnología para captar y mostrar imágenes y sonidos que permiten re-contextaulizar nuestra percepción del mundo. A través de la escucha atenta, la mirada focalizada y del complejo proceso de la percepción humana, Garet, Held y Ramos han creado un micro-hábitat en el museo que premia la exploración activa y promueve la contemplación reflexiva para llegar al entendimiento del mundo que nos rodea a través de los sentidos de la vista y el oído.
Estas piezas presentan una continuidad entre el entorno que habitamos y el mecanismo a través del cual éste cobra sentido. En el caso de Yapci Ramos, la fuerza de la obra que mostramos aquí radica en su sutil simplicidad. En Bruma, las imágenes delicadas y sobrias del pino canario impresas en papel de algodón se yuxtaponen a las que, con movimiento lento, aparecen proyectadas en la pared de enfrente. El momento capturado por cada una de estas obras está estrechamente ligado al lugar que ocupan en su espacio natural, generando una tensión entre el recuerdo de localizaciones similares del que observa y los límites de la percepción.
Esta creación artística se llevó a cabo en colaboración con la compositora, intérprete y artista sonoro Barbara Held. Su trabajo con los sonidos, focalizado y constante, inunda la sala enfatizando la quietud de estas obras y resaltando, al mismo tiempo, su movimiento. En Observatory, Ramos y Held crean una inmersión evolutiva que destaca la naturaleza sublime de la Flora. La cámara orientada hacia arriba, el ritmo regular y fluido −ligeramente más rápido que los pasos del ser humano en su caminar− y las emisiones sonoras constantes que sonifican el sonido de los gases del Sol −fruto del trabajo minucioso y concienzudo de Held−, nos transportan a otra dimensión etérea donde poder llegar a contemplar el objeto original. Por otro lado, Bucio, trabajo sonoro de Held basado en auriculares, parte de un enfoque documental en el que se emplea una caracola para investigar el modo en que los Guanches −pueblo aborigen prehispánico de las Islas Canarias− se comunicaban a lo largo de la topografía de estas islas a través del sonido.
En contraposición, la obra de Richard Garet explora los conceptos de transformación y conversión de sonidos en imágenes en su forma primigenia. La obra que se plasma en el vídeo vertical sin sonido se creó utilizando algoritmos informáticos que tomaban el sonido como punto de partida. Una vez elaborado el vídeo, este sonido se omite, creando una imagen visual que, en su movimiento, refleja el elemento sonoro que ha dejado de existir. En estos dos trabajos audiovisuales Garet explora la relación entre una señal deseable y un ruido de fondo. En Esion – Nothing is something, por ejemplo, utiliza procesos informáticos para degradar la imagen y el sonido creando una forma de erosión de datos, mientras que IP, Iota Expansion Varation I surge desde un simple marco en blanco y negro que produce imágenes casi planetarias que sugieren el vacío del espacio.
El nexo común entre los primeros Gabinetes de Curiosidades del Renacimiento, los museos de Historia Natural del siglo XVII y los modernos centros de investigación de hoy en día, es la cuidada exhibición de objetos que imploran al público que disfrute de la experiencia de lo nuevo. El trabajo de Garet, Held y Ramos, tanto individualmente como en su conjunto, resaltan la importancia de la percepción al mismo tiempo que nos muestran aquello que nos resulta diferente y desconocido junto con lo que podría resultar más habitual y cotidiano, expandiendo, de este modo, el conocimiento que tenemos del sonido y la imagen dentro de nuestro entorno más inmediato.
Seth Cluett
Installation view, Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Tenerife, 2013
We were asked to make a work that in some way defined a place, the island of Fuerteventura. One way of imagining a place is to capture an image of one concrete point. With the idea of the wall of volcanic rock that separated the island of Fuerteventura into two Guanche (the ancient natives of the Canary Islands) kingdoms, “la pared”, these videos picture two sides of an imaginary line. The soundtrack was composed to be heard on headphones only. The sound was recorded in close proximity to a stereo microphone, with the flutist moving from one side to the other. The listener will experience the sound intimately, as it moves just behind and on either side of his or her head.
Directional pattern, Neumann microphone used for recording of the piece.
La Isla Imaginada II, Centro de Arte Juan Ismael, Abr 10, 2014, Fuerteventura – LOOP#14, Barcelona 2 Monitors mounted horizontally as one piece / diptych 2 Digital Media Players Loop system Closed Stereo Headphones / Sound Soft & Intimate Headphones mounted at the midpoint of the two monitors with cable long enough to be able to see both monitors at once.
Many musicians, improvisers, composers, and sound artists were asked to record 7 minutes of sound-making using any method familiar and/or exciting to them. Suggestions, meant to be helpful (and to be taken, or not), included: recording in one pass, devising one’s own structure, imagining shared sonic space, and incorporating stillness or silence. The music could be improvised, composed, or created with any combination of methods that suited the artist.
In this installation, four recordings by four different contributing artists play simultaneously, each recording through its own speaker. The four sound files are chosen at random from all contributed files, forming impromptu quartets. Each quartet lasts for 7 minutes, with a 30-second pause before the next one begins.
The speakers are Baritone Hemisphere Speakers, which produce localized sound emanating from each speaker’s position and interact with a room’s natural acoustics. Each speaker is suspended from the ceiling at equal distance to one another, allowing installation-goers to traverse the space of the installation to experience different mixes of the quartets. The display shows which artists are currently being heard in each speaker.
The format of QUARTETS provides an avenue for participation for those engaged with sound-based art practices, some of whom perhaps do not have a performance practice, do not sell music objects, and/or cannot physically be present at the OPENSIGNAL festival (May 2014), for which this piece was created. The installation denies the power structures common to music performance (such as headliners, openers) by giving everyone’s contributions the same weight and equal footing in a unique setting. Additionally, it provides a platform upon which four artists, who might not know one another, may perform together. The result is a series of incredibly compelling surprises from the chance-determined quartets, as their sounds share time together.
There are 86 artists featured in this installation, allowing for a total of 2,123,555 possible quartets. Listening to all possible combinations would require 30 years and nearly 4 months.
QUARTETS is a sound installation by Stephan Moore in collaboration with OPENSIGNAL. First showing at the inaugural OPENSIGNAL Festival on May 16-17th, 2014 at the Granoff Center. Created to celebrate the Spring 2014 OPENSIGNAL project at Brown University, led by Asha Tamirisa and Caroline Park.
music by: Matt Davis, Barbara Held, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, and Tom Chant
photography and video by Yapci Ramos,
Soundproof 4 continues a series of annual exhibitions taking the 2012 Olympic site as a point of departure for commissioned artworks with a focus on sound. This year’s exhibition brings together artists from London and the 1992 Olympic city, Barcelona. The Sound Proof series is curated by Monica Biagioli.
The energy and optimism of Barcelona during the 1992 Olympic games is contained for me in one joyful, almost photographic memory, and this project is an exploration of the possibilities of working with photography and music, to celebrate the individual creative actions that write the real Legacy, in spite of the official planning of these big cultural events. I invited 5 very special artists whose personal and professional connections to each other branch out from the period of time of Barcelona’s emergence from the years of dictatorship as a culturally affirmative, outward looking society, willing to absorb the culture of the rest of Europe and the world, to create a legacy of excellence of artistic practice, emotion, memory and friendship. We made a series of 5 photographs of Barcelona locations with personal significance, and printed them on huge billboard paper. Yapci Ramos “performed” them on location at the construction site of the 2012 London Olympic Park, filming the changing light and reflected images that mixed with the still images. The visual composition that results is a 35 minute video. The soundtrack of our installation recreates the recording of a concert that Matt Davis gave in Barcelona 20 years ago as a score to be interpreted by 5 musicians, 5 solos. “Overtime” rebuilds the future reflected in the Barcelona past as in the title of one of our photographs, “I want to see you shining”.
Tom Chant
Rhodri Davies
Matt Davis
Barbara Held
Angharad Davies, recorded live on Resonance FM radio
(please listen with headphones or good speaker system for low frequencies)
A Dream
video installation
In 2010 Yapci Ramos travelled to Angola as a guest artist-in-residence at the 2nd Trienal de Luanda. Eight years after the end of thirty years of Cival War she filmed El Gaieta and Mussamba, the national and regional boxing champions, in a fight held exclusively for her benefit. The soundtrack is a mixture of the ambient sound of the hall during the fight and a recording of 10,000 Harley Davidson motorbikes crossing through the city of Barcelona.
Hace años practiqué boxeo. La lucha cuerpo a cuerpo. La distancia fija. El movimiento. Golpe. Suelo…En 1922 Siki fue el primer campeón mundial de boxeo nacido en África. Viajé a Angola como invitada artista en residencia por la II Trienal de Luanda en 2010. Ocho años atrás Angola salía de una Guerra Civil de tres décadas. Filmé a los campeones nacional y regional de boxeo, “El Gaieta” y “Mussamba” en una pelea que se celebró en exclusiva para mí. El sonido es la mezcla del ruido ambiental del pabellón durante el encuentro y la grabación de 10.000 motocicletas Harley Davidson circulando por la ciudad de Barcelona. Yapci Ramos
Video: Yapci Ramos
Sound: Barbara Held
Media: Digital Video HD / 1 Horizontal Video Channel
Stereo sound system + Subwoofer
Duration: 2 ́18 ́ ́
Edited Loop
Year: 2010-2011
Luanda
Sound installation and performance at Coldcreation Gallery, Barcelona, 2004.
Mantra sung by Dr. S. Mohanambal
Published with text by Luis Lopez “On the Metareality of Things” in FO A RM magazine 5, Autonomy foarm.artdocuments.org
Rock’s Role (After Ryoanji) 2004
A soundscape compiled by artist and composer Ron Kuivila,
combines the work of 17 artists to create an aural environment
Art in General, NYC
Ed Tomney, Andrew Neuman, Barbara Held, Bernhard Gal, Brenda Hutchinson, Damian Catera, David Galbraith, David Matorin, Future Remix, Gabriel Burian-Mohr, John Hudak, Maggi Payne, Masahiko Sunami, Michael Sunami, Mike Hallenbeck, Rilo Chmielorz, Stephen Vitello, Michael J. Schumacher
Curated by Ronald Kuivila
Responding to John Cage’s musical translations of the famed Japanese rock garden, Ryonanji, the audio works in this exhibition are installed in a novel way to create an aural environment in which the pieces can be heard both individually and simultaneously. The speakers from which the sounds are broadcast are arranged to visually mimic the stones and space of the garden. Like the Ryonanji garden, which cannot be viewed in its entirety from any one point, Rock’s Role similarly offers a separate experience from each position within the gallery. The exhibition was curated/composed by Ronald Kuivila.
Barbara Held 