Improvised Sound Device

As part of the studio ‘acoustic space’ students were asked to produce an object, relating to that of a human body, that will generate its own acoustic signature. The automaton was installed in-situ and interjected in the formation and experience of specific locations within the city of Bergen.

The studio focused on constructing sound through motion. The workshop approached the fundamentals of building a device that can mechanically and/or electronically activate sound environment. Using an interdisciplinary approach, different technical issues and possibilities of the marriage between sound and technic were explored in order to find the voice of inanimate materials.

Parallel to the workshop in a drawing exercise, students were asked to construct a map of the sonic conditions. Here the map was based on the concept of the Situationists' "psychogeography" in the sense that it was a map of a mind, done in two parts: the geocentric and the egocentric. The geocentric map signifies the information in terms of cardinal, actual indicators and landmarks in an objective and geographically consistent manner. In the meantime, the egocentric version of the map shows the relative and personal understanding of the sonic condition centered on the person, the subject. Both forms of psychogeographies inform the allographic understanding of architectural processes.

Bergen School of Architecture, taught in collaboration with Sang Lee, Dieter Vandoren, Mark-David Hosale, 2012, 2013