Gallery Show
Bowman, Penelec & Megahan Art Galleries
Allegheny College, Meadville PA
September 26 – November 13, 2024
OPEN SOUND CONTROL is a diverse collection of moving sculptures, interactive installations and visual representations that explore the complex relationship between sound and control. Sound can exert control by compelling people to be together, act together, coordinate. Sound can be controlled by action, movements, and physical mechanisms. Sound can dictate what we see and feel, but what we see and feel can also change our perception of sound. The tension between what sound is – invisible and ephemeral – and what makes sound – the physical and tangible – highlights the ironic materiality of sound and sound experiences. Through drawing, typing, crushing, waving, and breathing, the artists in this exhibit reexamine how sound can control and be controlled.
Featured Artists:
Emily Graber, Allegheny College
Julie Zhu, University of Michigan
John Granzow, University of Michigan
Grace Needlman, Northwestern University
Acoustic Piano
The Acoustic Piano installation is a grand piano with a mechanical extension that defamiliarizes the instrument and transforms human actions/gestures into a new multisensory aesthetic experience. Suspension strings physically connect forty sound-producing metal weights to a cross-bar where people can pull and play the piano with a carillon-like mechanism. Each metal weight is fastened between the piano soundboard and a piano string such that when the suspension string is pulled from afar, three things occur: the metal weight is lifted, the piano string is hit, and sound is produced.
The mapping of the suspension strings to piano strings maintains the linear organization of pitch found on the piano, however because the cross bar is located behind the piano, pitches fall from left to right. Maintaining the order of tones based on spatial location was intentional, to allow people to associate low and high tones to spatial regions and facilitate motor responses (Rusconi et al., 2006) and engagement with the installation.
The installation design incorporates active embodiment through through string pulling to facilitate actor engagement and appreciation for the sounds produced by the installation. Motor actions can impact auditory perception and cognition (Morillon et al., 2017; Manning and Schutz, 2015, Ross et al., 2017), and the visual aspect of sound-producing movement is also thought to impact human sound processing (Godøy, 2003). If the coherence between acting and hearing establishes a framework of predictability, the Acoustic Piano Installation design can motivate actors and observers to engage with the work.
Shadow Piano
Typewriter Installation
Allegheny College News
