SummerSounds 18.06 – 14.08 2016

Tommi Grönlund & Petteri Nisunen, Copenhagen Beat Frequency, 2015. Sound installation, Nordic Music Days. Photo: Mads Kullberg

A Space for Sound Art By Mads Kullberg

Sound art is a multifaceted entity, ranging trary, sound – maybe more than ever – is now widely in expression and manifested in and incorporated as a medium or material that art- as performance art, conceptual art, sculpture, ists from different disciplines can and want graphics, painting, installation and other art to work with. There is also an awareness of forms. Through a series of major manifesta- sound art and sound installations at music tions over the past two decades, sound art has academies in Denmark, something seen at positioned itself as an independent genre at institutions like DIEM (Danish Institute of Elec- the intersection of music and the otherwise tronic Music) at the Royal Academy of Music visually privileged domain of art. Aarhus/Aalborg, and the electronic music and sound art track at the Danish National Acade- In the late 2000s the art academies of Scan- my of Music. dinavia embraced sound art and established the educational programme Nordic Sound That sound art has found an identity of its own Art, where students from the participating can be traced in the ways it has been exhibited academies could hone their skills in working during the 2000s and 2010s. As early as the with sound. Even though the Nordic Sound 2000s, sound art made its mark as a new inde- Art programme no longer exists, art students pendent art form at landmark exhibitions like have not lost interest in sound. On the con- Sonic Boom at Hayward Gallery (2000) and Sonic Process at Centre Pompidou (2002). the Fluxus movement. In the crossover forms Both exhibitions presented sound art as a of music and visual art, these instructions new field, emphasising the spatial as well as were developed, refined, experimented with time-based properties of acoustic art. As the and used as a new basic and central element, title Sonic Boom indicates, it was an acous- although the instructions of sound art are far tic explosion of something new. Another key from always explicit or noticeable, being used point is that the sound from different artworks instead to reflect a processual approach.- In was allowed to spread and mix in the galleries. structions can also form a diagrammatic link between practices from the domains of visual In Japan, where sound art was linked at an art and the performing arts. early stage to the growth of new media and technologies, NTT InterCommunication Cen- A sound work can be audible in itself or it can ter (ICC) was among the first to focus on the be a direction for audible action. Its many man- interconnectedness of sound and electronic ifestations – auditory and visual, performative media in the exhibition Sound Art: Sound as and static – contribute to the diffuseness of Media (2000), then three years later on the the boundaries of sound art as a category. spatial qualities of sound with the exhibition Even though sound art is worth attention as Sounding Spaces (2003). The evident connec- an independent genre, it also embodies be- tion and interaction between music and art havioural and functional (rather than material) was highlighted at the Museum of Contempo- principles that are shared by and unite a num- rary Art Tokyo with the exhibition Art & Music: ber of other art disciplines. The description of Search for New Synergies (2013), just as the sound art can be seen as partly characterised range of sound art within and between mu- by the attempt to contain and categorise it (by sical, architectural, technological, sculptural identifying specific and identifiable features), performative and installational practices was and partly by issues that clearly underline that exemplified in the major sound art exhibition there is an experiential difference between the Sound Art: Klang als Medium der Kunst (2012- visual objects of art and time-based works. 13) at ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in MoMAs exhibi- Actions and Effects tion Soundings: A Contemporary Score (2013) The experience of sound art goes beyond mov- in New York. Here in Denmark the relation- ing within defined categories or genres: it is ship between sound art and music was also a about being present, listening and making theme of Nordic Music Days in 2015. sound, and about what happens when we experience the work. As the theoretical focus Function and Behaviour of recent decades on the performative dimen- Because sound art is both time-based and sion of the art experience has emphasised, the spatial, it is capable of bringing a broad range art experience occurs in the meeting between of professional disciplines together. A com- the work and the visitor. mon factor is the instructional element or technical model different professions have In the experience of sound works, time, activ- incorporated in different ways (the sketch of ity and places are joined in the space where visual art, the floor plan of the architect, the the event takes place. In this way, sound and directions of performance art, the score of listening as site-specific activities have qual- music). From this perspective, sound art can ities that generate space, since the impact be seen to have a specific material focus, but of specific sounds can create highly precise it also implies that rather than being viewed spatial and bodily sensations. As such, sound as a finished object, sound art should be seen and the scope of sound can be incorporated as a process developing according to a more in the architectural, visually defined exhibi- or less defined programme. The use of instruc- tion space and amplify, manipulate or displace tions, plans or diagrams in sound art also the sense of spatiality. This can be done with points back to the sound experiments of the auditory influences, technological devices and 1950s (e.g. John Cage and Karlheinz Stock- acoustic processing that transport, transform hausen) and at the multidisciplinary art forms and transpose sound through the rooms of an or movements of the 1960s and 1970s, like exhibition. The location and movements of the body are in this way inseparable from the with an ear for the transitions and interference experience of sound, since like an instrument, between the works. The spaces between the the body can vibrate and tune into and out of audible zones, where one sound work takes acoustic phenomena. over from another, characterises the audio- visual exhibition experience as a series of epi- Exhibiting Sound sodes with rhythmic transitions. It is precisely Time, technology and media are key to how this – allowing the works to impact on each sound art is experienced and unfolds in an other and motivating experience in motion – exhibition space. Technological developments, that reinforces the conceptual point of Sum- especially the invention of recording and feed- merSounds, where the focus is on exhibitions ing devices, have opened passages between and works that in Overgaden’s own words performance and concert formats and the challenge the ‘concentrated devoutness’ of- exhibition format. In this respect, the experi- ten experienced in the presentation of visual ence of acoustic works obviously has other art and the performance and concert format of requirements than the experience of more music. Not that the works in SummerSounds traditional, visual art forms. It is far from rare do not deserve concentration and respect, but for sound works to be experienced via head- rather that the experience of them is of a dif- phones or other forms of isolating the visitor ferent temporal and situation-based character. with the work; something that means the works demand activation or active selection. Mads Kullberg, PhD, is a curator specialising in sound art. Sound works are also often seen as difficult to exhibit together, because of the obvious 1. SummerSounds, Overgaden, May 18, 2016: http:// impact different sound fields can have on overgaden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/forom- each other. They require a curatorial approach tale_april16_summersounds.pdf.

space measure sound time By Rune Søchting

The exhibition rum mål lyd tid (’space measure Rhythms and rhythmic patterns are key sound time’) presents three artists – Cevdet concepts in the art of the Turkish artist Cev- Erek, Ursula Nistrup and Steve Roden – who det Erek, whose works have been shown at use the pivot of sound to explore how spa- dOCUMENTA 13 in 2012 and the 2015 Istan- tial and temporal patterns can be brought into bul Biennial. Erek’s investigation of rhythm play. The impetus for the exhibition is question- extends beyond a musical context, and can ing the role of sound in the experience of space be seen in the light of a more general explo- and the formation of place. How do spaces ration of how a temporal flow can be divided and objects ‘speak’? How does a place leave into specific patterns. As part of his interest in its mark? And how do we experience a space? temporal patterns, the artist has developed a The goal of the exhibition has been to esta- series of conceptual rulers that make it possi- blish points of contact and interference be- ble to transfer abstract time intervals to spatial tween architecture, objects and sound. Rather lengths. A selection of the rulers will be shown than focusing on sound as an isolated phe- in the exhibition. nomenon, sound forms a unifying figure as a site-specific event and inseparable part and in- The Danish artist Ursula Nistrup’s contribution tegrated element of an environment. On this to the exhibition addresses sound as an acous- basis, the works investigate conceptual move- tically fluctuating phenomenon on the basis of ments between audio and spatial phenomena a technique originally developed by the Ger- and explore possible translations, transferences man physicist Ernst Chladni. Chladni discover- and impressions. ed that if a bow is drawn across the edge of a metal plate with a specific frequency, a pattern score and a painting where the choice of colour of standing waves will be distributed across and length of the brushstroke is determined by the plate. Covering the plate with a light lay- each note, or where a piece of architecture is er of sand made this pattern visible. Nistrup played as if it was a piece of music. Roden’s works with these visible patterns, as well as contribution to the exhibition is a continua- focusing on a specific harmonic interval – the tion of his project Vascellum (1997), in which so-called triton interval, which consists of six drawings or pictures of loudspeakers form a half tones. In music history, this interval was central element. Roden uses the project to in- an anathema because of its dissonant quali- vestigate how images can provide a basis for ties. It was also banned by the church during imagining sounds. the Middle Ages, because since harmonies were seen as the most direct way of commu- The contributions are different in tone, tem- nicating with God, people believed that dishar- perament and material. The elements of the mony was a form of devil worship. Later, how- exhibition’s title ’space’, ’measure’, ’sound’ ever, the triton interval became a common and and ’time’ are familiar and intended as navi- central part of blues music. Taking the triton gation points. Together, these points form a interval as her sound base, Nistrup – with the field the works navigate in different ways. The assistance of the musicians Cæcilie Trier and results presented in the exhibition are thus not Maria Diekmann and an acoustic engineer – exponents of any rigid position, but rather new has investigated the acoustic resonance of the openings, each of which encourages us to re- exhibition space. flect on sound as a space-generating pheno- menon. The third artist in the exhibition, the Ameri- can Steve Roden, investigates principles for Rune Søchting is a visual artist, composer and curator translating between phenomena like a musical specialising in sound art.

Ursula Nistrup, Patterns of Dissonance, 2014. Silkscreen print. Foto: Léa Nielsen The White-Walled Laboratory By Karen Juhl

What happens in the moment we actually to include the categories ‘silence’ and ‘noise’ hear ourselves and our own presence? In the and reinstated music as a category of sound. moment when the inaudible becomes audi- As an extension of this, a group of artists ble? Christian Skjødt’s exhibition sub- makes under the collective name Fluxus started to the mind and body vibrate. incorporate sound in more sculptural and vis- ual forms that were spatially installed. Many Laser beams are directed at the windows of these artists attended Cage’s courses on facing onto Christianshavn Canal, capturing experimental composition at the New School vibrations from their panes. They shoot back, of Social Research in New York. creating feedback. The first room of the exhibi- tion houses the installation Refractions (2016). In the publication Background Noise (2015), Here Skjødt works acoustically with the phe- the art theorist Brandon Labelle describes nomenon of the window as the material divi- how Fluxus’ innovative use of mixed media sion of two spaces. Because at the exact point (especially sound) changed perceptions of art. when the laser beam is translated into sound, Fluxus artists drew attention to the radical use whether the sound comes from inside or out- of art in situ, pointing to our presence in a ma- side is irrelevant. This generates new premises terial world. Consequently, the art world start- for the space. Not as a single space, but as ed to turn its attention to attentiveness itself – x number of spaces with the emergence of a the aesthetic experience – rather than the art sensitive relationship between the feedback object. According to Labelle, sound art gained system and the people who occupy the space. ground as art moved from objects to environ- As soon as one system shuts down, another ments, because the essence of sound is rela- begins. The work is the sum of the number tional, oscillating and communicative – in a of systems listening to themselves and each constant, dynamic relationship to the spaces other – an uncontrollable sum of x number of and bodies it emerges between. memories, x number of perspectives as sound is not solely something we can measure in dec- Physics and Aesthetics ibels and hertz. Christian Skjødt compiles sound installations with a laboratory approach in which technical The kinetic work Inclinations (2016) is installed and physical experiments play a central role. in the corridor. The loudspeakers send out He has described how in many ways sound sound waves that are beyond the audible fre- bypasses the intellect and ‘speaks’ directly quency range of human hearing. On each of to the body, reminding us of the direct link them there is a ball that the vibrations of the between the body, thinking and reality. His loudspeaker set in motion, creating a rhyth- visuals are minimalist, investigating individu- mic pattern. The prepared loudspeakers make al audio-technical principles that investigate sound present. The work is a witness to what themselves and the space they are in. His work we are unable to hear and the boundary be- is based on the physicist’s approach of allow- tween our sensory apparatus and the materi- ing objects and materials to be what they are. ality of the world. But the listener physically changes this sterile scenario adding x number of unknown factors. The Installation of Flux and Vibrations By making the visitor part of the art situation Skjødt works in the field of installation art, standing in the midst of the artwork, Skjødt with a specific focus on the connections be- continues the legacy of the Fluxus movement. tween sound and space and a constant eye As a work, Refractions can thus not be pin- and ear on human sensory perception. ned down, developing as it does due to the presence of the ‘sound bodies’ participating This approach takes us back to New York in in the space. Many of Skjødt’s works function the late 1950s, when the composer and theo- interactively and reactively, including Vibrant rist John Cage extended the field of musicality Disturbance (2012), which changes according to the degree and intensity of the flow of light. In this way, Skjødt creates spaces where it is impossible to stand at a distance as a viewer. We have to relate to place and time.

Between hearing and listening Skjødt combines two languages in his works. One is the language that articulates the con- ditions of hearing and conceives of people in terms of capacities – a language based on the scientific ideal of measuring the world and its materiality. The other articulates human per- ception and the potential of listening, where the individual is understood as a socially con- ditional entity. Skjødt intervenes between these two spheres, seeking to frame the mo- ments where the inaudible becomes audible to let sensory perception unfold.

Karen Juhl has a BA in Aesthetics and Culture and is a composer and musician. Christian Skjødt, EAVESDROPS, 2016. Sound installation, detail

Vertex – On Sound and the Understanding of the Self in an Audio-Spatial Context By Tobias Lukassen

At its most basic level, sound is elastic mo- where two or more equations collide creating lecular vibrations that move in liquid, air or a new angle – a new understanding of the co- solid materials. The movement, but also ordinate system as a whole. If the movement our perception of this energy, are to a large of sound through a space is seen as equations extent formed by architectural factors, since in a multidimensional coordinate system, peo- the materiality and proportions of a space are ple can be seen as individual nodes or subjec- key to the experience of sound. But this does tive vertex points, where sounds are used to not mean that two people in the same space create a new listening position in which new necessarily hear the same thing, because hear- nuances, rhythms, tonalities and phase condi- ing is a complex entity linked not only to space tions emerge. and time, but also to our physiology and our psychological understanding of auditory in- In extension of this concept, the exhibition formation. So both our individual genetic and consists of two installations, made in colla- bodily differences, as well as our personal and boration with Andreas Wetterberg, both of cultural understanding of sound, contribute to which investigate the spatial and time-related a subjective experience of a measurable phe- relationship between sources of sound, the nomenon. We use these variables more or movement of the listener, and the architecture less consciously to understand ourselves and of the space. In the first work, Superposition our place in the world, something that forms (2016), the meeting of frequencies played the basis for the exhibition Vertex. from three loudspeakers and the surfaces of the exhibition space reflect the sound waves, ’Vertex’ is a mathematical concept that de- which converge to form an audible sound scribes the point in a system of coordinates sculpture that seems static yet in constant flux. Due to the impact the sound waves have the fact that we cannot close our ears, or per- on each other, different frequencies and over- haps precisely because of that: we are used tones are emphasised in different parts of the to not hearing because we cannot handle the room depending on the height, head-shape sheer quantity of information and noise we and movements of the visitor. The accentu- are constantly exposed to. But just as with ation of this subjective, variable experience looking, there are different ways of listening. continues in the second installation, Simplex When we listen actively, it is usually to recog- (2016), which consists of a grid of small mo- nise and categorise. We can also listen seman- tors that from a distance form a graphic, to- tically, to decode what it means and how it is pographical surface. Controlled by digital algo- said – with which tone and dialect. Similarly, rithms – also called Perlin noise – each of the we can listen to the character or quality of motors creates a rhythm that moves in and sounds. When, for example, we hear a sound out of the others, with one rhythm standing we cannot identify the source of, our listening out more clearly than the others, depending becomes more focused. on where the listener stands. These different ways of listening often overlap Installed without walls or other soundproofing without us registering how we listen, which elements between them, the works interact may not be as important as the attitude with with each other so the depth and harmonies which we approach listening. I was once told of the first form a counterpoint to the deli- that noise is auditory information we have yet cate, sharp and occasionally rhythmic textures to understand. Therefore it is crucial not to ig- of the next. Moving between them, the rela- nore it, but instead have a much more explor- tionship between the experience of the tonal ative approach to sound in general. We are a and rhythmic expression of each installation constant vertex in motion, with sound from all changes correspondingly. The repetitive yet sides offering new information about how to infinitely differentiated character of the works relate to the world around us and understand encourage a heightened awareness of how ourselves within it. central the ways we listen to our surroundings are to the auditory culture we create and are Tobias Lukassen is a musician and sound designer. influenced by.

We are generally much more orientated to- wards the visual than the auditory – despite Translation all texts: Jane Rowley

Tobias Lukassen, Vertex, 2016. Visualisation EXHIBITION PROGRAMME brought into dialogue with the works in the 18.06 – 10.07 exhibition Vertex. Lars Kynde is interested in rum mål lyd tid the mutual influence of the music, the instru- Cevdet Erek, Ursula Nistrup, Steve Roden ment, and the notation system. Curated by Rune Søchting

15.07 – 31.07 UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS Christian Skjødt Friday 2 September 2016 Overgaden presents sub- a solo exhibition by Mette Winckelmann and Parable of Love by Michael Würtz Overbeck. 05.08 – 14.08 Both exhibitions run through 23 October 2016. Tobias Lukassen & Andreas Wetterberg Vertex

EVENTS Friday 17 June 6-7pm Performance // Ursula Nistrup: A Musical In- vestigation of a Space On the occasion of the opening of rum mål lyd tid, Ursula Nistrup will present a new site- specific performance developed in collabo- ration with the musicians Cæcilie Trier and Maria Diekmann. In extension of the artist’s This exhibition folder can be downloaded contribution to the exhibition, they will enact from: www.overgaden.org a musical study of Overgaden’s space that is based on the discordant principle of the triton interval. The exhibition is supported by:

Friday 15 Juli 6pm Concert // Lotte Anker At the opening of the exhibition sub-, the sax- ophone player and composer Lotte Anker will perform a solo set that will function as an audible activation of Christian Skjødt’s sound installations. Anker works in the field between experimental jazz and contemporary music. Kodas kulturelle midler

Friday 5 August 6pm Concert // Københavns LaptopOrkester Overgaden is supported by the Danish Arts To mark the opening of Vertex, the band Foundation’s Committee for Visual Arts and Copenhagen Laptop Orchestra (KLO) will per- the Obel Family Foundation. form an improvised interpretation of the work Superposition which is part of the exhibition. KLO is a musical network whose work combi- nes the site specific with the use of computer and self-programmed instruments in an explo- ration of digital live music. Overgaden. Institute of Contemporary Art Thursday 11 August 8pm Overgaden neden Vandet 17 Concert // Lars Kynde DK-1414 Copenhagen K This evening, the composer and sound artist Lars Kynde will perform his compositions www.overgaden.org Elephant Heart and Wandelende Tak which are +45 32 57 72 73