Sound Installation: Bursfelde Resonances by Martin Slawig
a special event as part of Edgy Media, Armouries Building
The Noiseborder Multimedia Performance Laboratory is pleased to present Martin Slawig’s sound installation Bursfelde Resonances as part of the symposium Feedback #4: Marshall McLuhan and the Arts. March 1, 2019 6pm - 10pm
Bursfelde Variations is the title of a collection of sound pieces created by Martin Slawig, Elke Utermöhlen, and Brent Lee. The project began with a chance visit to the Bursfelde Abbey in Germany, built in 1093. We were struck by the unusual and very resonant acoustic, and also made aware of the possibility of a short residency. In the summer of 2018 we made a series of recordings in the abbey which we later mixed and processed to create an album with nine tracks; the album will be digitally released in 2019.
One of Martin’s sound experiments implements an algorithm that plays white noise into a space, records the resulting sound in the space, and then plays the newly recorded sound back into the space. With each recording iteration, the resonant frequencies of the space emerge a bit more from the white noise, much in the manner of Alvin Lucier’s piece I am sitting in a room. This concept is very adaptable to new spaces; Martin has called this installation Bursfelde Resonances in reference to the original acoustic space. For this installation, each iteration of white noise lasts twenty seconds; after ten iterations, the cycle begins again with pure white noise. – BL