Evans, D., 2024.

Exhibition Song

Exhibition Song #1 (2024) is an assemblage that taps into the underlying infrastructure of exhibition making and gives it voice. The work consists of a central processing unit, running a Raspberry Pi with and Midi controller and 4 channel audio interface. This bespoke unit receives signals from four sensors that are attached to different infrastructural elements. In this instance it was 1. A contact mic attached to a water pipe 2. A Soma Ether 2 EM sensor attached to a mains supply unit 3. A closed coil receiver picking up airborne wireless signals 4. A LOM geophon attached to a heating grill. These individual signals are pitch shifted, duplicated and harmonised by the processing unit by using custom made Pure Data patch. The resulting 'song' is then broadcast, in real time, into the exhibition using stereo speakers.

Exhibition Song uses the tools of acoustic ecology, sensors and microphones, to sonify the faint vibrations, radio signals and electromagnetic fields that these devices produce. But whereas acoustic ecology traditionally relies on the participation of a sensitized listener to 'tune into' these unfiltered sounds, the work mixes multiple 'voices' and uses vocal processing techniques to shift the emphasis to create a polyvocal assemblage that is negotiated between devices to express an underlying messier and more complex collection of material, bodies and processes.