Soundwalls 1988

Sculptural sound space with 3 vertical resonators (310 cm, 276 cm, 246 cm) x 153 cm x 11 cm, 12 integrated sound transducers and 3 auto-reverse stereo tape players.
Produced at the Elektronisches Studio of the TU Berlin.
Presentation: Berlin Kongreßhalle, Kulturstadt Europas, Berlin, August-September, 1988.

Soundwalls was conceived for the main foyer of the Berlin Kongreßhalle. The aim of the work was to create a confined sculptural listening space — that is to say a small acoustically enclosed space where one might concentrate on the sounds of the installation — to be situated within an active entrance foyer.

The installation consists of three large vertical resonators, made of wood and coated with an aluminium-base paint. The metallic structure stands in an open triangle, allowing the public to circulate freely inside. The angles of the three walls create an acoustically enclosed area.

Four sound-transducers are attached inside each wall. The transducers transmit tape-recorded audio signals to the inner faces of the walls causing their thin surfaces to vibrate like loudspeakers. From outside the structure, a relatively quiet mixture of sounds is heard. From inside the structure —when one is surrounded by the three vibrating surfaces —sounds are reflected by the triangular arrangement of the walls and an intimate and much more present listening space is experienced.

Each of the three walls receives two channels of sound recorded on stereo tape and played back continuously over auto-reverse tape players. Although the structure is continually "active", periods of silence and varying degrees of activity are composed onto the tapes. The assignment of audio channels to the three structures alternates between walls so that stereo effects move between the walls, in other words around the listener.

Soundwalls, Berlin Kongreßhalle, Berlin Kulturstadt Europas 1988.
August to September 1988.
(Photo: G. Oteri)