The Archisonic turns architecture into giant sonic instruments
Sound artist Mark Bain will do his Archisonic performance at our final summer event at the Netherlands Architecture Institute tonight. Read a description he wrote for his earlier performance at Hear it!:
Vestibular liminal infection working as a functional aesthetic, or how to seduce an audience to surf the architectural plane while witnessing asonic event: this is The Archisonic, a tuning point for architecture in relation to space, sound, mind and its direct inebriation. Is there a future sound that surpasses the ear to engage a direct bodily experience perhaps as a kind of sensual hybrid? Can the body be the connecting point through tuned energy, attaching the self to that of others and the venue? There is a parallel between the resonant frequency of the human body and that of architecture, both resonate at self-similar frequencies. This project in essence divines that meeting point between two seemingly dissimilar entities, the biological self and that of the so-called static architectural form.
Using various arrays of seismological sensors placed throughout the building The Archisonic turns architecture into giant sonic instruments. Played live through large sound systems and injected with various bits of waveform material, the force of the building is driven within and tuned to maximal affect. As you move around, nodes and anti-nodes develop throughout, the composition arrives in the individual and within the collective action taken inside the space.
Then there was “The Archisonic” by Mark Bain, who used “seismic sensors, home built electronics, oscillators, and the building.” I’m not entirely sure what happened since I couldn’t see over anyone’s head. It seemed, though, that there were really strong and really low sound waves reverberating through the arches. I could feel all my bones shaking, and my kneecaps felt weird and gooey. My teeth were having a rave inside my mouth and my tonsils were jiggling so much I started coughing. I honestly felt scared for a moment, especially when the vinyl tablecloth I was standing near started slapping my thigh. If I ever were abducted by aliens, this is probably what it would feel like.
Phyllis Ma
Columbia Spectator