The first tone of the track corresponds to an upwards direction, the second downwards. The third tone means left and the last tone is right.
Track 2. Tones for the Lost Blueprint.
Starting in the middle of a piece of paper, it is theoretically possible to draw the blueprint of the upper floors of the former building block 11, of the Otto-dix Strasse. The track and its proportions are worked out to the average walking speed of a human being, i.e. the length of a tone lasts for as long as it takes for a person to walk the corresponding distance. But a drawing speed of approximately 1cm per second should give you a proportionate (in terms of shape) drawing. Follow the tones of the track corresponding to the correct directions that are dictated by the four different frequencies of track 1. The length of one of the walls of the blueprint dictates the length of a single tone.
Track 3. Everything is Equally Familiar. For the Artist who Disappeared.
The track is composed of the sounds made by a slide projector. The sounds were put into different rhythmical structures corresponding to each of the rooms of the apartment, i.e. the rooms and the sizes of the walls dictated the length and position of each sample, the composition of the track was then based upon the raw data gathered from one floor of the building.
Track 4. Suicide Cough. For Bas Medik.
The track is built up of one sound of a single cough. The sound was taken from a film fragment that Bas Medik played and projected during his lecture. The length in time of one cough corresponds to the volume of one of the rooms in the apartment, in this way a large room is represented by a long-lasting cough, and the shorter sounding cough is from a smaller room. The effect is achieved via what is called an ‘Acoustic mirror’. An Acoustic mirror records the reverberation of a room; how long a sound takes to reflect back. A sound can then be inserted into this mirror, the result of which gives the effect of the same sound if it were played in that particular room. During our mapping and recording of the building we also recorded the reverberation of each room, by way of recording one short sharp sound in each of the rooms, it was then these sounds that created the data for the acoustic mirror. The sound travels through the apartment in an anticlockwise motion as from looking down upon the blue print, starting with the living room, it moves through the other rooms in sequence, one sound leading off from the other; it is this that gives it its rhythm. The tempo of the track increases, till at last none of the sounds have the time to die out before the next sound starts.
Track 5. The Spaces in Between. For Sarah Burger.
For the construction of this track, sound fragments were taken from the silences in the lecture; the moments in between two spoken words. These fragments were enhanced till the point where the sound lost its entire reverential source. The track is constructed by the data, i.e. the length of the walls, taken from one single room; the room where the actual lecture took place. The track was therefore achieved by coupling a sound to a single wall in the room. The length of each sound fragment, in relation to the other sound fragments, has the same proportions as the length of the corresponding walls in relation to the circumference of the living room. The rhythm was thus created by each of the ‘walls’ layered next to each other, one leading off onto the other. The track moves through the space, from one wall to another and then moves through an exploration of the walls in different combinations, if you will, literally moving the walls of a single room and so forming new combinations.
Track 6. Antonioni’s Tennis Ball. For Ohad Ben Shimon.
The starting point of this track is a sound fragment taken from Antonioni’s movie ‘Blow-up’; a scene selected by Ohad and projected during his lecture. The scene comes at the end of the film, the scene where the mimes are playing an imaginary game of tennis. The tennis ball in the film is not real but made real from the sound of the tennis ball ricocheting from the racket to the floor Fragments from the film and also from the lecture were coupled together to create the track. The track’s entire structure is based upon the rhythm created by the richocheting tennis ball.
Track 7. Transitory Monuments and Other Memories. For Anna Korteweg.
The last track maps out the only varying floor of the building; the ground floor. Working in the same way as the first track, ‘Tones for the Lost Blueprint’, the track draws the lines of the blueprint, but instead of clear and defined tones, the track is composed of sounds that were recorded in the forest (soon to replace the building) and are then mixed with the sounds recorded in the building itself, creating a collage of sounds whose length and duration occupy the same space.
