making the non-perceivable more explicit
i´ll need ten more minutes
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Space and time are continually and inherently interfused with radiation. Radiation has always existed naturally. Background radiation originates in cosmic rays that come from outer space and from the surface of the Sun, from terrestrial radionuclides that occur in the Earth’s crust, in building materials, air, water, foods, and in the human body itself. Due to this, all matter simultaneously fulfills the properties of being a potential radiation emitter and target.
Work description:
The installation “I’ll need ten more minutes” consists of twelve devices working on the Geiger-Müller principle, detecting the radiation in different spots of a room and turn them into audible noise. Each unit produces its specific click sound of different timbre. The units are arranged in a square of 10.4 by 5.3 meters, creating four equally spaced rows of three units in each row. The units are held by microphone mounts, placed slightly above the human head at two meters height. The position and height of each detector is recognizable due to a white light below each stand and a red light inside the detector circuit. There's no light in the room, except that of the installation itself. Four rows form four lines at different depths of the room which are also represented by different timbres. Closed and open resonance volumes are attached to speakers of the three far most lines. The first row has no resonance volumes attached to the speaker units allowing only the propagation of high click frequencies. The following three rows successively allow lower frequencies to propagate, so the three lines are ordered by timbre from bright to dark, from front to back. Inside a row no explicit difference is made between the resonance volumes of the units, but they are tuned differently to further distinguish between all units of a row. In an average room every device detects approximately 20 events per minute. The bodies of the Visitors entering the room are new radiation sources but are also absorbing some of the room's or surroundings radiation, resulting in both noticeable and unnoticeable variation of the click rate. The nearer a visitor gets to one unit, the more influence he or she has on the probability of the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of a particular event resulting in a click.
To make the non-perceivable more explicit: Background radiation is a site-specific quality of space locally different and constantly changing. Everything decays at some speed following a chance driven system, allowing to conceive and measure different intervals of time Here I take background to mean what is–at a specific time and point of view–just out of focus for the viewer. The background radiation is inherent and clearly defined by materials used to create our reality's places. Furthermore location and composition of matter itself represent a filter for radiation sources. The radiation, after the filtering process, becomes part of the specific background of the space in focus. Background, in painting, photography, computer vision, medical imaging, etc. is the part of an image that lies outside the objects of interest captured by the image. Background is also spatial: it is the part of a scene that appears to be farthest from the viewer. In addition to this we have no receptive correlates to measure or sense radiation although it constantly influences our body processes by rising the probability of mutations on a cellular level. What is the sound produced on the surfaces of raindrops while they fall ? Can we listen to it and how it different to the sound of raindrops meeting different surfaces transferring their energy, merging, forming a lake? What is color red to someone that is blind; what is radiation to us ? Where are the borders between recognizable differences in random events? Do we only perceive the time in-between?[hoffmann/schied]
radiation´s echoes
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"radiation´s echoes".The moment when a particle / radiation enters a GM-Tube is very unique. On the one hand it indicates an event at a specific point of time, on the other hand the same moment marks the particles end. It is transformed energy given away to electrons that are going to produce a current which then is converted into sound. The death or transformation of a particle gives birth to sound. This moment is very short but due to the acoustic qualities of specific places in rooms the time of the transformation process can be elongated and manifested in our perception. The work [r radiations echoes] focusses on reverberation to explore the acoustic qualities of that transformation process. A reverberation is created when a sound, produced in an enclosed space, causes a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the walls and air absorb the sound. In comparison to a distinct echo that is 50 to 100ms after the initial sound, reverberation is many thousands of echoes that arrive in very quick succession.
pitchblended
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pitchblended. performance, videodocumentation, 00:49:45. The work pitchblended has three performative parts in order to make the set-up and the process within the room accessible to the viewer / listener. In the first part of the performance devices are placed and after a certain time switched on in a specific order so that it becomes obvious how sound or sound sources in different locations of a room can explain the space.The second part of the performance intends to put the devices gradually closer to the natural radioactive sources [pitchblende] installed in the room. On the one hand the choreography of sound - although it follows a totally chance driven system - finds a syncope through the units being as close as possible to the radioactive ore. On the other hand, the process of getting closer widens the sculptural understanding of the viewer, in the way that the radiation becomes the sculpture and not only the visible stone. Other layers are the act of translocating a site-specific quality of a space located in nature, such as an ore field, into an exhibition context. To set radioactive material in focus of the viewer adresses his/her criticality. The third part of the performance is a text being read to the audience by a computer voice. It is about the background of this work and references that could be made. It is read at a speed and volume that creates a strong reverberation making it almost impossible to follow. The performance closes with the curator saying Markus Hoffmann 2010, pitchblended. Pitchblended allows to contemplate an to listen to a site-specific part of the never-ending composition of radioactive decay. The set-up consists of twelve devices working on a GM principle detecting the decay of unstable isotopes in the sourrounding space, microphone mounts, radioactive ore [pitchblende], dimensions variable.
symphony hall
The installation symphony hall consists of a darkend squared room 4000 x 4000 x 3500 mm and 20 devices working on a Geiger Mueller like principle, producing sounds of different timbre and a rotating stone 200 x 300 x 200 mm containing radioactive ore. The devices are able to detect the radiation originating from the constantly rotating radioaktive ore that is hanging on a steel cable from the ceiling. Whenever an incomming particle/ray originating from radioactive decay, is detected it triggers the creation of a specific sound that can be preset within each single device via a microcotroller. So to say the sculptural qualities of the stone, besides its shape and materialety, can be perceived in a widenend spectrum, that is typically not perceivable via our primary senses.The radioactive ore actually is, in collaboration with the chance driven system that radioactive decay follows and the speed of rotation, composing a piece of the never ending composition of radioactive decay. Visitors entering the Installation take influence on the probability of the particles beeing detected due to the fact that all matter simultaniasly works as radition taget and emitter. Due to this they become coauthors of the music piece. A very small amount of indirect light is comming from the glass ceiling with a quality almost like moonlight that, after the eyes adaptation, helps the vitors to navigate between the musicans/devices and the composer/radiactive ore. The placement of the devices on the acoustically dense floor supports reverbs to happen.
SPIELUHR
The installation SPIELUHR uses the site-specific background radiation to create a light and sound composition that is triggered by radioactive decay processes. It opens the possibility for the viewer to perceive the spatial quality of background radiation that is normally not accessible to the human senses. The invisible gets visible for the viewer, he gets access to parts of never ending composition of radioactive decay processes in a acoustic and visual way. The installation SPIELUHR uses 12 sensors, 12 piezo speakers of different timbre and 12 flash Led’s to create a techno romantic constantly changing chance driven pattern of light and sound.
aloop
