last year i made a sound sculpture called:
"three compositions for radioshack subwoofer"
it consisted of a cheap 12" speaker mounted on the wall (at standard
painting height), an amplifier and a cd player looping three tracks that i
composed from different shape waves 30hz and below. it was completely
inaudible except for small amounts of crunchy speaker distortion at high
amplitudes.
the speaker moves in the most uncanny ways. sometimes
breathing (>1hz), sometimes 'jelly-fishing' (1 hz saw wave), sometimes
beating (1-3hz), sometimes even downright waggling (low frequency noise
centered at 10hz) etc. i like how different frequencies and waveforms
make different references to organic or animal motion and how references
slowly changed as the waves slowly morph in frequency and shape. i also
like the way sound technology can be used to represent a set of things
that requires a visual experience to understand by drawing attention to
thier visual qualities, (we have no reason,
normally, to stare at speakers, their banality as functional objects).
there is a bright bold "RADIOSHACK" printed right in the center of the
speaker, at a 20 hz sine wave the word appears to become a double image,
one RADIOSHACK sitting at the crest and one RADIOSHACK sitting in the
trough of each oscillation. i find it very amusing, but i guess you had
to be there. what is most amuzing is that one must stick one's head
almost right in the speaker to see its subtle movements, which puts one in
a very vulnerable position considering the potential for sudden changes to
very loud audible frequencies sound (the amp is maxed out throughout).
i find it interesting that when ever we are listening to recorded music we
are, by default, also listening to speakers. even when i'm talking to my
mom on the phone i'm listening to her voice as articulated by a speaker.
it's almost creepy. mom are you there. much room for exploration here.