2022-2023
Installation involving 8.1 channel speaker arrangement, environmental data, light tubes, algorithmic manipulation of spatial sound
How can sound realize a non-linear presence in architecture - particularly with spaces that imagine a radical future or a significant shift in our collective place of being?
In 2022, I immersed myself in the sonic exploration of Ant Farm's utopian landmark, the “Arts Building” at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (1972) Through a series of microphone recording sessions and live data capture, I designed an imprint of the uninhabited four-story structure where the derelict facade interweaves with the presence of birds, stalactites, and organic growth. This unique non-ruin, standing amidst Ant Farm's inflatable creations, resonates as a temporal capsule—a manifestation of utopian architecture and an embodiment of their pedagogical art model.
Antioch’s Art Building is one of only two permanent buildings Ant Farm made in their 10-year career and the only building made by the collective that is not a ruin. The architects, Doug Michels and Tom Morey, of Ant Farm, typically made performance spectacles, architectural interventions, video art, and time capsules throughout the 1970s. Although some members of the collective were trained in architecture the majority of their buildings were ‘inflatables’, temporary bubble-like structures made of cut and taped polyethylene sheets held up by currents of air generated by strategically placed box fans. This building is a unique landmark of utopian architecture and serves as a time capsule of a pedagogical model of art in practice.
To reveal the building's operational history, I delved into archival materials, blueprints, and property data, channeling also the inner workings of this sonic environment. Live data from Raspberry Pi-operated sensors within the structure became my sonic accomplices, relaying shifts in heat, humidity, motion, and light. Simultaneously, the microphones engaged in a meticulous dance, capturing the intricacies of the architecture—from nuanced frequency shifts to material composition and the ebb and flow of presence.
The culmination manifests as a multi-channel sound composition on the museum's third floor—a sonic pilgrimage guiding listeners through an imperceptible, envisioned space. The operative aspects of sound within this composition unveil the building's past, its present resonances, the essence of design, the materiality that withstands time, and the very dimensions that define its existence. This sonic journey encapsulates a condensed exploration of the interplay between architectural history and the dynamic forces shaping it.
Exhibited: Realistic Utopias, KØS Museum- for Art in Public Spaces, Köge, (DK) December 17, 2022- June 15, 2023.
Co-curated by Director, Ulrikke Neergaard and guest curator and researcher, Irene Campolmi.
Max/ MSP consultant and designer: Zach Layton
AFFAB Preservation team: Liz Flyntz, Giorgia Aquilar, Tim Noble, Catalina, Jordan-Alvarez, Michael Caselli, Victoria Keddie