TABAKALERA, 2009
Sous le nom °sone avec Christophe Havard
Installation sonore
Centre d’Art Tabakalera - San Sebastian Espagne

The first idea was to make the walls vibrate,
because the building will be totally renovated, so it would be a ‘direct contact’ to the place for people.
but we change as we knew the building was built late 19 century, so the walls are very strong-stone. impossible to move.
as we visited the place, we saw big cimaises that stay still from the last exhibition.
we feel it like a real part of the place, and as well corresponding to the new “skin” for this tobbaco fabric wich is transformed in art center.

We choosed in many big rooms this one because it was nearly the only one that you don’t pass through in visiting: you must get in, than after get out.
take the time you want… very different from walk through.
we think it fits more to °sone’s way of listening.
the room hasn’t natural light, it’s pretty rough.

So we cutted the big cimaises (8x4 meters) in two, hardly bring them to the room, and try to find the right way for installation.
we tested for long the cimaise, in differents orientations, inclinaisons. we discovered much way of playing with this walls:
combinaisons of phase shifting and phase renforcement, associated to frequencies resonnance of the room create really great “physical sound” in low frequencies. (around 19 to 44 hertz)
we decided that people would enter directly behind a cimaise, so that he can discovers the system that make the sound,
and feel to be behind the decor, “under a skin”. moreover when you’re in the installation, the cimaise mask the door. it helps feeling to be “in a place”.
one wall straight, and one in angle. one in the color of the yellow carrelage, and one in the amber color of the wall. so that the new skin fits the wall as much as possible.

We as well used a big cheminy (made in briques) that goes from floor to ceiling. it vibrates well, and as a very different timber than the wooden cimaise. (and in higher frequencies).

The whole thing is nearly unrecordable.
well it is recordable, but the speakers won’t be able to reproduce +30dB modulations around 20 Hertz.so you won’t have the physical effect of sound.
that’s why it’s an installation…