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LANGSCAPES



All the material for the tracks (except for the sung voice) was created from audio recordings of various texts: 5 literary texts (excerpts and whole texts) and 1 quote from a film director, read in their original (or next available) languages first - English, Czech, Serbian and Russian, then in Swedish, Norwegian, Irish, Czech and English (some of those translations were done by Kemmer herself). These audio recordings were then processed as follows:

  • through each other using convolution reverb in Max, with 1 or 2 languages acting as the source, and another (1 or 2) as the impulse;
  • juxtaposed against one another in DAWs, processed through various audio effects, edited, cut up and played around with in different ways.

The aim of the project was to create sonic buildings and objects made out of language/text as building blocks, and place them within sonic landscapes made out of the same material - the same way physical buildings and objects made out of bricks, planks, concrete etc. are surrounded by air, sky and natural landscapes outdoors.


The playlist should be listened to on shuffle, preferably through noise-cancelling headphones/earbuds, or through a good sound system with properly spaced speakers. Click on the shuffle icon in the player before playing the first track.


'Langscapes' can be experienced in 3 different ways:


1) in a completely dark room, with eyes closed,

2) in a completely dark room, watching the video below (click on the Vimeo button in the bottom right corner of the video to open it on Vimeo, and watch it in full-screen mode, with the highest possible resolution),

3) as an audio-walk (take a walk through a physical space of your own choice, preferably outdoors, at night, and listen to the playlist on headphones as you're walking - just be mindful of your surroundings).


Feel free to share with me your thoughts during and after experiencing 'Langscapes' via kemmersound@gmail.com - I'd love to hear from you!




Special thanks to Dr. Eoin Callery for all the work with Max (teaching, crafting, assembling, re-assembling, and having tons of patience), without which the convolution reverb of the language-based material wouldn't be possible.

All sounds recorded by Kemmer.
All tracks composed, arranged and recorded by Kemmer.







Langscapes is a sonic exploration of non-physical spaces created by reverberating the sounds of 2 different languages (acquired from various literary texts) through one another (real time and non-real time), using convolution reverb. Convolution reverb works by multiplying an input signal (in this case, a sound from one language) and the sound of a physical/virtual acoustic environment – impulse response (a sound from another language). As a result, the input signal sounds as if it was recorded in that physical/virtual acoustic environment.


This exploration led to creation of an interactive multimedia website, as a digital/virtual representation of the abovementioned sonic spaces, consisting of different non-physical realms, cities, monuments, or buildings, each represented by an audio track. The listener is instructed to interact with these sonic spaces by shuffling the audio tracks, so that the topography of Langscapes is constantly in flux, redefined and reevaluated upon each new visit.

The main aim of the project was to expand the notion of space itself – from physical space governed by physical boundaries to a space defined/bounded by the characteristics of the spoken/sung language, thus suggesting a different way of using, understanding, and experiencing language/text. If physical material can be used for building cities, monuments or buildings, as physical manifestations of an idea, desire or intention, so can the sounds of language be used for building non-physical cities, monuments or buildings, as non-physical manifestations of the abovementioned.





Langscapes - sound installation, Sound Art Lab, Struer, Denmark





The sound installation made of Langscapes took place on October 29 2022 in Struer, Denmark, as a result of the collaboration between Sound Art Lab and the local Aktivitetscenter in Struer, to provide a sound installation for Aktivitetscenter's annual autumn market. I'm so thankful to Sound Art Lab who approached me with the idea for the sound installation based on Langscapes - my (sadly remote) collaboration with Cecilia and Jacob was pure joy, they had great ideas for the installation from the start, which I agreed on, adding some bits of my own...
My deepest gratitude to Cecilia, who put so much effort and thought into setting up the installation with Kristoffer, and to the whole team for having such enthusiasm for Langscapes!

Due to COVID, Langscapes had to be restricted to the online space and solo experience, and my initial idea for a sound installation in a physical space (should it ever happen) was different than what the installation in Struer turned out to be, as I initially envisioned a different kind of physical space for presenting Langscapes. However, the long narrow corridor and the speakers hidden away on the ceiling and in some other odd places in the corridor, the distribution of the tracks among the speakers resulting in totally unexpected overlaps of sound as one walks through the corridor, proved to me that the whole point of Langscapes - reconsidering the notions of physical space, language and sound - made absolute sense: the possibilities for sound installations are virtually endless, the outcome could always be different depending on the characteristics of the physical space, the placement of the speakers, as well as how the 11 tracks (Langscapes and Artefacts) are distributed among the speakers. I couldn't be there myself, but this beautiful video, filmed and edited by Cecilia Tyrrell, conveys the atmosphere so well...

www.soundartlab.org
https://www.aktivitetscenterstruer.dk/



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