I Am Sitting in a Room – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am sitting in a room 1969 is one of composer Alvin Lucier’s best known works, featuring Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Since all rooms have characteristic resonance or formant frequencies e.g. different between a large hall and a small room, the effect is that certain frequencies are emphasized as they resonate in the room, until eventually the words become unintelligible, replaced by the pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself. The recited text describes this process in action—it begins “I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice,” and the rationale, concluding, “I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have,” referring to his own stuttering.Lucier had also specified that a performance need not use his text and the performance may be recorded in any room. The composer himself has recorded the piece in at least one room he did not find aesthetically acceptable.

via I Am Sitting in a Room – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

À une passante / A Passer-by / Flaneur

A Passer-by

The deafening street roared on. Full, slim, and grand
In mourning and majestic grief, passed down
A woman, lifting with a stately hand
And swaying the black borders of her gown;

Noble and swift, her leg with statues matching;
I drank, convulsed, out of her pensive eye,
A livid sky where hurricanes were hatching,
Sweetness that charms, and joy that makes one die.

A lighting-flash — then darkness! Fleeting chance
Whose look was my rebirth — a single glance!
Through endless time shall I not meet with you?

Far off! too late! or never! — I not knowing
Who you may be, nor you where I am going —
You, whom I might have loved, who know it too!

Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire

(New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)

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À une passante

La rue assourdissante autour de moi hurlait.
Longue, mince, en grand deuil, douleur majestueuse,
Une femme passa, d’une main fastueuse
Soulevant, balançant le feston et l’ourlet;

Agile et noble, avec sa jambe de statue.
Moi, je buvais, crispé comme un extravagant,
Dans son oeil, ciel livide où germe l’ouragan,
La douceur qui fascine et le plaisir qui tue.

Un éclair… puis la nuit! — Fugitive beauté
Dont le regard m’a fait soudainement renaître,
Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l’éternité?

Ailleurs, bien loin d’ici! trop tard! jamais peut-être!
Car j’ignore où tu fuis, tu ne sais où je vais,
Ô toi que j’eusse aimée, ô toi qui le savais!

Charles Baudelaire

Spatial sound perception

Classic psychoacoustic experiments showed that, when excited with simple sine
waves, the hearing system uses two strong cues for estimating the apparent
direction of a sound source. Namely, interaural intensity and time differences
(IID and ITD) are jointly used to that purpose. IID is mainly useful above
1500Hz, where the acoustic shadow produced by the head becomes effective,
thus reducing the intensity of the waves reaching the contralateral ear. For this
high-frequency range and for stationary waves, the ITD is also far less reliable,
since it produces phase differences in sine waves which often exceed 360

linkt to article: http://www.faqs.org/docs/sp/sp-181.html

David Claerbout

Beeldmanipulatie neemt in Claerbout’s werk een bepalende rol in. Foto’s worden met films gecombineerd of verschillende films worden over elkaar gelegd en in versneld of vertraagd tempo afgespeeld. Zijn technieken zijn weliswaar gestileerd van aard maar hebben verbluffende beelden tot gevolg. De video installaties verrassen in hun ogenschijnlijke eenvoud. door de zorgvuldig gekozen composities.

link to article: http://www.metropolism.com/reviews/the-shape-of-time-david-claerbou/

Bruce Nauman

Mapping the studio

link to article: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/25077/artist-dossier-bruce-nauman/

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvT44pT_b0E&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qml505hxp_c&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

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