Octet
By Matthew Rogalsky
June 25 to August 17, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Octet is a sound installation with eight SM58 vocal microphones wired in reverse to become tiny loudspeakers, and eight modified archival birdsong recordings by William WH Gunn (1951, with permission of the Macaulay Library of Environmental Sound, Cornell University).
This sound installation, which re-purposes common stage vocal microphones as tiny loudspeakers - eight of them hanging from the widespread branches of a tree - is part of ongoing research with Laura J. Cameron into the life and work of William W.H. Gunn, early Canadian environmental sound recordist. Octet is a creative response to Gunn's practice, and it was followed in 2017 and 2018 by two other sound installations exploring his sound library.
Beginning in 1951, Gunn recorded environmental sounds all over Canada and around the world. He gave numerous public lectures on birdsong and to reveal its intricacies he often played his tapes back at slow speeds. This presentation of the piece employs eight birdsong recordings made by Gunn in Ontario in 1951. You will periodically hear Gunn’s voice introducing a recording, followed by playback slowed down by 80%. Each microphone-speaker is a unique source.
The piece, situated in a tree, plays with the culture of “soloist” birdsong recording (isolating one bird from its surrounding “noise” as much as possible), the notion of birds as performers, the “reversibility principle” of microphones and loudspeakers, and Gunn’s encouragement of birdsong identification and appreciation through his lectures and the “Sounds of Nature” LP series he produced from the 1950s into the 1970s.
By Matthew Rogalsky
June 25 to August 17, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Octet is a sound installation with eight SM58 vocal microphones wired in reverse to become tiny loudspeakers, and eight modified archival birdsong recordings by William WH Gunn (1951, with permission of the Macaulay Library of Environmental Sound, Cornell University).
This sound installation, which re-purposes common stage vocal microphones as tiny loudspeakers - eight of them hanging from the widespread branches of a tree - is part of ongoing research with Laura J. Cameron into the life and work of William W.H. Gunn, early Canadian environmental sound recordist. Octet is a creative response to Gunn's practice, and it was followed in 2017 and 2018 by two other sound installations exploring his sound library.
Beginning in 1951, Gunn recorded environmental sounds all over Canada and around the world. He gave numerous public lectures on birdsong and to reveal its intricacies he often played his tapes back at slow speeds. This presentation of the piece employs eight birdsong recordings made by Gunn in Ontario in 1951. You will periodically hear Gunn’s voice introducing a recording, followed by playback slowed down by 80%. Each microphone-speaker is a unique source.
The piece, situated in a tree, plays with the culture of “soloist” birdsong recording (isolating one bird from its surrounding “noise” as much as possible), the notion of birds as performers, the “reversibility principle” of microphones and loudspeakers, and Gunn’s encouragement of birdsong identification and appreciation through his lectures and the “Sounds of Nature” LP series he produced from the 1950s into the 1970s.
Constant Plancks
By Bentley Jarvis
July 30 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
This digital sound sculpture uses algorithmic composition techniques to create a musical response to traffic noise. The piece listens to the traffic, ponders for a while, then responds by playing an improvised passage through resonant structures. Traffic sounds are picked up by a microphone and broken up into several spectral bands. The contents of the different bands are used to influence a generative electroacoustic music system. All programming is done with Max/MSP software from Cycling 74. Multiples of Planck’s constant, the quantum of electromagnetic action that relates a photon’s energy to its frequency, 6.62607015×10?34 are used throughout the piece to determine pitch relationships. The highly resonant structures that produce the electronic sounds are constructed from cedar planks and loudspeakers.
By Bentley Jarvis
July 30 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
This digital sound sculpture uses algorithmic composition techniques to create a musical response to traffic noise. The piece listens to the traffic, ponders for a while, then responds by playing an improvised passage through resonant structures. Traffic sounds are picked up by a microphone and broken up into several spectral bands. The contents of the different bands are used to influence a generative electroacoustic music system. All programming is done with Max/MSP software from Cycling 74. Multiples of Planck’s constant, the quantum of electromagnetic action that relates a photon’s energy to its frequency, 6.62607015×10?34 are used throughout the piece to determine pitch relationships. The highly resonant structures that produce the electronic sounds are constructed from cedar planks and loudspeakers.
Porch Radio
May 21 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Enjoy NAISA Radio without internet, without computers, and in the open fresh air. Porch Radio is an outdoor listening space on the porch of the NAISA North Media Arts Centre at 106 Ottawa Ave. with seating for up to 4 people.
May 21 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Enjoy NAISA Radio without internet, without computers, and in the open fresh air. Porch Radio is an outdoor listening space on the porch of the NAISA North Media Arts Centre at 106 Ottawa Ave. with seating for up to 4 people.
Audio Bench
June 25 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Works from NAISA’s first online Sound Travels compilation will be available for listening at the picnic tables outdoors at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre. A headphone extension will be provided for you to plug in your own headphones and listen while you enjoy a take out beverage from the café at NAISA.
June 25 to September 21, 2020. Open 11 am to 3 pm everyday except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 106 Ottawa Ave, South River
Pay by Donation
Works from NAISA’s first online Sound Travels compilation will be available for listening at the picnic tables outdoors at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre. A headphone extension will be provided for you to plug in your own headphones and listen while you enjoy a take out beverage from the café at NAISA.