“Sonicsp∑ctrum” is an interactive multimedia installation conceived and realized by Matteo Tomasetti and Consuelo Donati that combines sound and light in a given path.
Concept:
The new generation of specters, namely the digital ones, is more greedy, shameless, and noisy. Doesn’t digital media surpass human strength? Do they not lead to a rapid manipulation of specters that can no longer be controlled?
The digital produces new specters; things that were once silent begin to speak. The automatic communication of things, which occurs without any human intervention, will increasingly feed the ghosts: it makes the world ghostly. The environment is becoming increasingly soft and hazy as far as the eye can see. The society of transparency has its backside and reverse: from a certain point of view; it is an appearance of surfaces. Behind or underneath it, spectral spaces open up, shunning any transparency. Spectral forms of communication are algorithms that surpass human forces and lead to unpredictable events. In the digital abyss, darkness also increases. Digital things are uncontrollable due to their high complexity. On the other hand, the latter is not a characteristic feature of secrecy. With the digital revolution, our environment is becoming increasingly soft, hazy, and ghostly as far as the eye can see.
“Sonicsp∑ctrum” is a digital sound spectrum. An interactive multimedia installation that combines sound and light in a given path, crossed by eight transparent panels.
Our interest converges toward sound installation and the exploration of new forms of perceptual communication. By integrating sound into immersive and interactive environments, using large or small projections, the viewer, in the case of the installation “Sonicsp∑ctrum,” can cross, “pass-through” the projection. The passage creates a direct interaction between work and spectator, work and machine. Each sound installation can be seen as an intermediate art form based on time. It can be seen as an expansion of a classical art installation. The sound element is included, and the time element, as sound and time are inversely proportional.
The sonic philosophy does not begin with music as a set of cultural objects, but with the more profound experience of sound as flow, event and effect”.
“Sonicsp∑ctrum” is:
- Path: a sound-visual path consisting of eight transparent crossable panels representing eight thresholds, eight passages, and eight transitions.
- Sound: each crossing returns a sound. This is thanks to contact microphones positioned on the sides of the individual panels; the contact microphones are processed using the Max/MSP audio language. Max has the function of processing all these sounds digitally.
- Light: the projection projected in the panels will be connected to the sound, thanks to the “Spectrafoo” software, a software used to analyze the sound spectrogram, which is the graphic representation of the intensity of a sound a function of time and frequency. The projection and sound will vary according to the user’s passage past the panels.
