[Overview]
[Pure Audio Sound Sculpture]
[How Does It Work?]
[Sound Design]
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Locale S3 :: Pure Audio Sound Sculpture


A sound installation by Michelle Jaffé, Phil Edelstein and David Reeder.

Presented via Harvestworks New Works Artist Residencies 2023.



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:: O V E R V I E W ::
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Locale S3 is a collection of sound sculptures made from pure audio. Visitors immerse themselves this interactive environment, developed for Nolan House.

Presented via Harvestworks New Works Artist Resisidencies 2023 between September 1 and October 29, 2023 at Nolan House on Governors Island in New York City:

We build an immersive audio environment using a platform developed by NousSonic which is capable of mapping sound to physical space at the granularity of a centimeter.

The NousSonic platform allows for the composition of audio objects into immersive sound sculptures defined by a combination of digital sound files and code. Sound sculptures are managed by system level events, allowing for the room of active audio objects to be reprogrammed according to choices made by the visitors.

Visitors wear a special headset to track their physical location while listening, enabling them to interactively explore the audio environment of each sound sculpture with their ears.



See below for technical details and first-person videos of the visitors' immersion into the sound sculptures.

Click here for a directory of videos, images and other assets that document the installation.



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:: P U R E * A U D I O * S O U N D * S C U L P T U R E ::
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Each visitor navigates the sound sculptures in the room differently, according to their movement and their taste. The final mix, or performance, of the installation emerges from the immersive engagement of the visitor. As with most complex installations, it is impossible to reduce this experience into documentation. However, the following audio, video and image samples provide an opportunity to experience the original and to understand it as an observer.

The following directories contain first-person videos that navigate the works of each artist:
In the artist directories above, a Diagram documents the shape and location of audio objects in the sound sculpture. Each Walk video records an actual exploration of the sound sculpture, from the perspective of the Diagram or from the first-person perspective of the visitor in the physical space of the Room.


See also video of visitors listening to the sound sculptures. Thank you Ti Wen Hsu, Michelle Jaffé and Harvestworks staff for posting this to YouTube.



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:: H O W * D O E S * I T * W O R K ? ::
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:: S O U N D * D E S I G N ::
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Each of the Locale S3 artists bring their own methods and techniques to the sound design and composition of their sound sculptures. Watch this space for details from Michelle Jaffé and Phil Edelstein.

David Reeder

Compositions by David Reeder rely on a combination of modular synthesizer improvisations and found sound. All modsynth sounds are developed with MakeNoise 0-Coast. The improvisational sessions focus on particular themes or techniques. The sessions are recorded, then divided into small, clearly defined sections to serve as audio objects in the sound sculptures.

See the 0-Coast in action:



The room contains two compositions: 1) a small, circular set in the top room; 2) a longer, linear set that fills the remainder of the room. Each of these intends to provide a well-defined narrative for the visitor to explore and/or to improvise further according to their movement.

The following tracks contain original sound material, presented roughly in order of its original conception with some overlap between sounds to simulate visitor movement.
Each composition is driven by modsynth sets and complimented with found sound. The room also contains easter eggs intended to stand alone, but which can easily combine with other audio objects. A few stand-alone compositions were created along the way, but unused in the final work. See the following directories for some of these:
To experience the final compositions, see the first-person videos recorded at Nolan House in the section "Pure Audio Sound Sculpture".


[Overview]
[Pure Audio Sound Sculpture]
[How Does It Work?]
[Sound Design]


Sunset on Governors Island, Fall 2023.


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Copyright © 2023 by David Reeder