Within: Instruments that challenge the way we understand hearing

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Tarek Atoui/ Sonic Therapy Sessions, Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros and Ione.Documentation shot, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

A few days ago, i started writing about Tarek Atoui‘s artistic proposal for Bergen Assembly, a triennial currently taking place all over Bergen, Norway. The sound artist filled an abandoned swimming pool with new music instruments, historical objects, ideas, noises and sounds that challenge how both deaf and hearing people experience sound. Atoui delegated part of the exhibition to Council, a curatorial practice interested in connecting art with science and social engagement. The French duo came up with Infinite Ear, a show that looks into practices and artifacts which involve other senses in the hearing experience. I blogged about it last week so today is going to be about WITHIN, the research project about hearing diversities that Atoui started back in 2012 at the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE.

Atoui inhabited the largest, deepest (and obviously dried up) swimming basin with a series of sound instruments that he developed in collaboration with the local deaf communities, with other sound artists and with academics from various disciplines.

By working together on the instruments, which appeal to both the hearing and deaf public, the aim is to convey to visitors from the perspective of deaf people how instruments and the sounds produced by them are perceived by the deaf community and how the instruments can be played in these circumstances.

Atoui’s research project was as much about developing music instruments for people who cannot hear as it was about learning from the deaf and expanding our understanding of auditory perceptions. Is the hearing experience confined to the ear? Can sound be tactile? Can it emerge from visual stimuli? Can gestuality convey some of the sound experience? How can the eyes, the hands, the whole body even participate in the experience of sound?

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Unfortunately, you cannot play with Tarek Atoui’s instruments. But you can experience the sensations, vibrations and the impact on your body and the architecture of the building that they produce during the regular public rehearsals, performances and concerts that take place this month in Bergen (full list of events over here.) If you are hearing-impaired however, you might be able to have a go at them.

Here’s a presentation of some of the instruments:

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

The True Laptop Quartet is a set of four tactile instruments that use metallic found objects, transducer speakers and old microphones to create feedback sounds. The objects are placed onto the lap of the performer who feels the sound in his/her hands or body through the vibrations of metal. 

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

The T1 is a MIDI keyboard. The sounds it produces can be heard in a tactile way. This controller easily connects to any type of musical software to play and process sounds the player chooses. It can also be used as a speaker that allows to perceive up to 5 sounds in the fingers and the palm of the hand.

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

The Sub-ink, developed by Julia Alsarraf, is a set of four units with a single subwoofer each on which the performer sits in contact with the sound. By touching a drawing the musician previously prepares using conductive ink, he or she plays a basic synthesizer in rhythmic or melodic ways. The Sub-Ink is a modular instrument that can be used to control other device such as computers and synthesizers, and to connect and synchronize musicians with different hearing abilities.

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

33 Soft Cells is a touch sampler made out of 33 touch sensitive textile panels, each with a distinctive texture or pattern. The instrument can be connected to different computer software and types of sound, and playing it relies on the sense of touch.

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

The 0.9 is a networked group of nine Meyer subwoofers speakers encased by 3 platforms on which performers stand. It has a gestural interface inspired by sign language and is similar to a Theremin. Through specific hands and finger movements, the player produces ultra-low-frequency sounds that are physically felt, perhaps even before they are heard. The instrument allows to play with resonance frequencies of the space where it’s being performed. The space and its architecture therefore become conductors of sound, and the audience can perceive the instrument through them.

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN II. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016. Sentralbadet, Bergen. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

4 Iterations on Drums, is a set of percussion tables that focus on conducting sound through solid materials such as metal and wood rather than air. The sound produced is felt in the hands of the player before reaching the ears. Initially imagined by Thierry Madiot, the design of these tables was enhanced by students at the Nordahl Grieg high-school in Bergen.

More images, this time in b&w:

Tarek Atoui, Deaf Session, Sentralbadet. Documentation Shot, Bergen Assembly 2016 Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Tarek Atoui / WITHIN I, Sentralbadet. Performance, Bergen Assembly 2016 Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Tarek Atoui’s contribution to the Bergen Assembly remains open to visitors until 1 October 2016. Performances, workshops, open rehearsals of WITHIN are scheduled to take place in the coming days: On the 21st, 23rd, 25th and 30th of September.
The rest of the Bergen Assembly triennial continues in various venues around Bergen, Norway until 9 December, 2016.

Previously: Infinite Ear. On the practices of un- or para-hearing.
Also part of the Bergen Assembly: Bergen Assembly: The End of Oil, the end of the world as we knew it.

2Comments

Add yours

1

Within: Instruments that challenge the way we u... on September 17, 2016 at 6:52 am

[…] Over the past seven years, Atoui has researched the relationships between sound, vibrations, instruments and the body, starting with how the deaf perceive sound. He challenges, expands and revises … […]
2

Because sometimes all you need is bats – We Make Money Not Art on September 26, 2016 at 4:10 pm

[…] part of the Bergen Assembly triennial: Infinite Ear. On the practices of un- or para-hearing and Within: Instruments that challenge the way we understand hearing. The End of Oil, the end of the world as we knew […]

Share this: