Installations in 2009

Phoning in the Answer is a sound installation using hanging telephone handsets to talk about our problems today. Using talk-show type questions, politician answers and responses recorded by the viewers, the answers are all mixed together to try to make one solution. Placing different points of view into different phones and then mixing up different viewpoints on each phone will we make it easier or harder to understand? Can we take all points of view into any solution to a problem, can they be part of the same solution?

GOWANUS: Over/Under-Water is study of the endangered soundscape of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. Housed within an instrument called a Phonoscope, the installation combines binaural under-water and over-water sound recordings with stereoscopic images to create a heightened audio- visual experience for the viewer/listener that begs a closer listening to his/her everyday environment.

Visitors that encounter the "Synthecycletron", a favourite amongst Toronto cyclists, generate power by pedaling on stationary bicycles which in turn activate synthesizers and generate sounds connected to their movements.

Sonic Boardwalk, by Robert Mulder and Kristi Allik, is a sound installation located on the Ward's Island boardwalk that generates a microsound landscape activated by the kinetic imprint of passing visitors.

This year's Sound Travels indoor installations will open on August 6th and run until August 30th at the Loop Studio Centre for Lively Arts in the Artscape Wychwood Barns focusing on the topic of ecology from an acoustic point of view. Kenneth Emig's LISTENING is an interactive sound installation that presents sounds from a nearby environment around a suspended parabolic dish. Stefan Rose's SOUND TRAVELS DOCUMENTS and SOUND TRAVELS IN PORTRAIT each present portraits of Sound Travels events on Toronto Island from the first 10 years of its existence. Kevin Allen's GOWANUS: Over/Under-Water combines binaural under-water and over-water sound recordings with stereoscopic images. Viv Corringham's SHADOW-WALK, TORONTO EDITION is an audio-visual installation derived from recordings and found objects collected during a visit to Toronto at the Artscape-Wychwood Barns in which local people shared their special walks with Corringham.

Sound(e)scape is an immersive experience that surrounds the participant with the sounds of water, air, and natural soundscapes from around the world curated by NAISA's Artistic Director Darren Copeland. The works will be spatialized live with NAISA's unique realtime spatialization controller and software by Andrew Stewart, Hector Centeno and Darren Copeland and will include performances of works by the angelusnovus.net collective who will use this occasion to launch a six month residency at the NAISA Space.

Sound(e)scape is an immersive experience that surrounds the participant with the sounds of water, air, and natural soundscapes from around the world curated by NAISA's Artistic Director Darren Copeland. The works will be spatialized live with NAISA's unique realtime spatialization controller and software by Andrew Stewart, Hector Centeno and Darren Copeland and will include performances of works by the angelusnovus.net collective who will use this occasion to launch a six month residency at the NAISA Space.

Plant(ipod)Installation explores the poetics involved in creating new relationships between human and plant life, and subverts the traditional hierarchy, which positions plant life below human life. The installation evokes the possibility of developing technologies that are nature-centric rather than human-centric - and breath life back into the idea of the enchanted forest. The installation invites the viewer to walk through an environment, where the location of the body as it moves through the installation space triggers new auditory experiences for both plant and viewer.

"Plant(ipod)Installation reflects my interest in exploring the active relationship between objects in the space of the gallery, and the body of the viewer. Predominantly sculptural in nature, the installation is comprised of twelve plant/prosthetic objects of various shapes and sizes, spread out in a grid like fashion throughout the gallery, and spaced about one and a half meters apart. The organically shaped objects house embedded houseplants. They visually reference tree like forms, or, more specifically trees that have been coppiced, or pollarded, which are forms of pruning that encourage new growth. Each of the sculptural objects include a built in subwoofer with metal branches rising from it, to hold the two small speakers close to the leafy part of the plant, and function as a sound system. Individually, the objects contain both sensors and speakers, so that the sound being played to the plants is directly affected by the viewer's location and proximity.

The sound component of the work is also sculptural in nature, and has two modes - one for when there is a viewer and another for when there isn't. In "rest" mode, the speakers play the sounds of many different types of breathing, as though the space is filled with many people. As the viewer moves throughout the space, coming into range of the individual plants, the sounds transform into quiet whispering, evoking the theory that plants respond to people speaking to them, growing stronger and healthier. For the breathing sound, I have taken field recordings of mechanical noise - such as recordings of fans, the sounds of hinges, and motors. I have made sound control patches that allow me to adjust the speed, directionality, and length of the clips being played, as well as layer the sound files together. Once the files are layered, I convolve them with sound files of breathing to create a sound that is clearly breath, but with a feel that isn't quite natural - a sound that alludes to the breath of both the plants and the technological components. The "active" mode consists of recorded stories, and cultural tales that come from a web site of folktales and stories about trees. Individually the sounds played to the plants are not loud, but together fill the gallery space with collective breathing. As the viewer moves through the space, the sounds of the plants that s/he is closest to drifts in and out of stories told in multiple languages.

This work explores the poetics involved in creating new relationships between human and plant life, and subverts the traditional hierarchy, which positions plant life below human life. The installation evokes the possibility of developing technologies that are nature-centric rather than human-centric - and breath life back into the idea of the enchanted forest. The installation invites the viewer to walk through a sensorial environment, where the movement of the body collaborates with the objects in the space, and creates new auditory experiences for both plant and viewer." - Jane Tingley

Intrinsically silent ceramic bowls surprise the viewer in Les Puits by simply the act of making sound. As there is nothing to reveal the speakers hidden within the bowls, the imagination of the audience member must discover the source of the music. Sounds from a studio transport audiences to the very location where the bowls were created. The installation's poetic resonance carries them through a place and time that wouldn't be possible without the intersection of the bowls on display and the sound projected through them. The wonder is in this intersection, when the viewer identifies the source of the sound and suddenly, the ceramic bowls are singing.

Go on a Halloween sound treasure hunt at the Artscape Wychwood Barns and then learn about the secrets behind how sounds are made in the movies.