Augmented Aural Collective is a project founded and coordinated by Daria Redkina, drawing on collective artistic practice of various musicians and sound artists who utilize unconventional spaces as an instruments. The project explores site-specificity as a determining factor for artistic interventions and employs various formats, including improvisation, sound installation, and psychoacoustic research to unveil historical and cultural narratives.
Since 2020 the group have engaged with acoustic territories of one particular site in East Berlin – a relic of military past built in 1918, an architectural heritage, protected by Denkmalschutz but left to decay. A sequence of dome-like structures provide a stage and an instrument at once. High concrete ceilings swirling upwards and hollow, porous flooring below embody psychoacoustic phenomena through natural resonances.
An artistic intervention gave a new purpose to a building, and a new significance to the practice of spatial sound focusing on site-specificity. Extensive sound recordings were done using ambisonics technology.
A hidden monumental space is being preserved through sonic documentation, to become a monumental sound archived and performed as a new digital simulation of the site.
Sonic Space – March 2021
The CONCEPT
The space in its pure form is to be considered our instrument.
The space is a resonating body.
From the perspective of the space – we are the players , exciting its body from within – receiving its response and thereof responding to it.
From our perspective it is a site specific intervention to be considered as a ritual.
Any situation within the space is determined by the aura of the building, the knowledge of its history or our choice to dissociate with this knowledge.
Processes of perception and improvisation are to be determined by the chemistry between the players and synergy of musical ideas which, in turn, are determined by the reverb time and the vastness of performance space.
The dome-shaped form of the building projects the circular form to be considered as the outline of our stage.
Circular movement of sound around the centre of stage is taken as an initial idea for experimentation.
Position of ambisonic recording equipment in the centre of stage (below the dome) will be the reference point of choreography for the players.
The concept of a logarithmic spiral is to be considered as one of the techniques for temporal structure of the ritual – where movement from centre to the circumference of the hall is proportional to tempo and duration of the sounds played.
Basically – the closer to center = the stronger the echo = the longer the silence.
Pattern instructions which describe visually the potential movements and actions of performers within a given space :
Black DOT – starting position of each performer.
Starting TIME of each performer will be discussed before each act.
Duration of each act will be determined by the cycle of movements within the space.
Sonic Space – March 2021
4 participants interact with each other and with the space.
A corporeal movement through space following circular or otherwise specified trajectories , while playing chosen sound sources.
A choice of sound objects / instruments will be provided for participants to select from. Instructions and spatial drawings will be proposed and discussed prior to each act, in order to maintain structure and coordination of every piece.
The first point of reference – choreography around the space.
Second – the time form, determined by the reverberation time of the space , the players’ breath and the preferred movement within the space.
The musical decisions will be left to chance operations – choice made by the player , prior to or during the performance.
Listening and responding to the space and to each other is the key.
Acoustic attributes to consider :
Center of dome = strongest echo – more amplification (volume) – longer reverb time
Circumference of dome = less echo – less amplification – shorter reverb time Therefore corporeal and sonic response of the player:
Center of dome = slow motion – lower volume – short duration
Circumference of dome = acceleration / fast motion – higher volume – long duration
Featured in art magazine Florilegio (Sept 2021)
https://www.florilegio.org/coddiwomple/zoya-zerkalski-supermoon/