Spatial Measure (2014)

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spatial measure (2014) in the Auricle Gallery, Christchurch, NZ

 

In this project, i attempt to ‘measure’ the qualities of connectivity within the space, by creating a call/response type dialogue system between 2 technological entities.  A speech recognition algorithm listens to a live radio feed and subsequently pulls up youtube videos related to words the computer hears.  The soundscape is made through spatialization of the various youtube videos, recording them and manipulating them through SuperCollider.  The work continually evolves towards certain “found words” because of deficiencies in the speech recognition system, its’ internal logic creating an internal system of feedback that seemingly evokes a site-specific memory.

 

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The work is partially inspired by John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape no.4 – a work for 12 radios.  This was the first piece Cage presented using his methods of indeterminacy from the I-Ching to govern the sounds in the piece.  In Spatial Measure, i look to the radiophonic ether and the inconsistencies in the speech recognition algorithms to provide the indeterminate parameters. In this way the work engages an eco-technical environment and proposes a method of site-specific measuring through the balance of coherence and noise.