Qube Assemblage for Art in Motion, Montréal
Intermedia and Audio Art, Multi-Channel Sound, Fine Arts
Signe 2008
Audio artist / composer - Steve Heimbecker
Max MSP software - Simon Laroche and Etienne Grenier.
Announced May 27, Linz, Austria.
Honorary Mention in Digital Musics,
Prix Ars Electronica 2009
Signe is a composition created from the wind data of the Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003) generating sine waves, shown above in video format (see PARAVENT 2006) + 16 typed stories Heimbecker recorded on a 1946 Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter + all 88 key tones sampled by Heimbecker of a grand piano + WACM wind data spatially diffusing all of the elements of Signe through the 64 channel Turbulence Sound Matrix speaker array.
Summary
Signe is an audio art composition created by Steve Heimbecker specifically for his Turbulence Sound Matrix (2008). Signe is created with 3 audible layers of sound (wind generated sine waves, a 1946 Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter, a grand piano), all augmented by a 4th layer, the flowing wave patterns of the wind. Simple enough in conception, but unbelievably complex in reality. Signe fully engages the sonic potential of the Turbulence Sound Matrix, to create an audio art composition that is in constant motion, morphing itself through time and space at very high resolution - riding the waves of the air and the wind, completely immersing us in the 64 channel speaker array of the TSM, creating a mesmerizing and completely hypnotic fabric of sound that is in short, a completely new listening experience.
Signe is an audio art composition created by Steve Heimbecker specifically for his Turbulence Sound Matrix (2008). Signe is created with 3 audible layers of sound (wind generated sine waves, a 1946 Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter, a grand piano), all augmented by a 4th layer, the flowing wave patterns of the wind. Simple enough in conception, but unbelievably complex in reality. Signe fully engages the sonic potential of the Turbulence Sound Matrix, to create an audio art composition that is in constant motion, morphing itself through time and space at very high resolution - riding the waves of the air and the wind, completely immersing us in the 64 channel speaker array of the TSM, creating a mesmerizing and completely hypnotic fabric of sound that is in short, a completely new listening experience.
Context
Steve Heimbecker, within the concept of sculpting sound, has been creating multi channel surround sound compositions for sound systems of his own making since the early 1990's. He has developed special field recording and production techniques to create densely woven fabrics of sound that transform time and space and completely immerse the listener.
Heimbecker's multi channel compositions have typically been presented on the standard sound diffusion system technologies; 4 channel, 8 channel, and DVD 5.1 surround sound, until now. Heimbecker over a period of 5 years, has designed and created his most ambitious project ever, a 64 channel, 3200 watt sound system called the Turbulence Sound Matrix. In addition to the unique system hardware, the TSM implements specially designed software that uses 64 channel data recordings of wind patterns from the Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003) to diffuse any sound source through the TSM speaker array.
About the composition
Signe is the first mutil channel sound composition Steve Heimbecker has created for the Turbulence Sound Matrix. Signe is composed by weaving together 4 primary layers of sonic representation and diffusion, all of which are asymmetrically looped so that the composition will never repeat itself, continuously playing for hours or weeks if desired, and all affected by the flowing wave patterns of the wind.
The layers
1) The first layer is sound is generated by the changing amplitude values of the wind data recordings. This data is converted in real time into 64 channels of variable sine waves moving between the mid and mid-low frequency range of the human ear.
2) The next layer is nearly the same. Using a 2nd wind data recording, the generated sound from #1 is diffused though out the 64 channel TSM following the amplitude / air movements of the wind. The combination of 1 and 2 make the generated sine waves flow throughout the TSM system, literally riding the wind.
3) Heimbecker has recorded 16 different times, the sound of a black, circa 1946, Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter - the same typewriter that reportedly was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway's and many other writers. For each recording, Heimbecker types out a 9 to 10 minute story about the building of the Turbulence Sound Matrix. These stories are a combination of TSM project details, project successes, and frustrations, and too, some of Heimbecker's daydreams about the TSM. But these stories remain obscured, coded by the fact that the only documentation of each story is the sound of Heimbecker typing... nothing was actually written down on paper. These 16 "stories" are diffused throughout the TSM by a 3rd wind data recording.
4) Partly stemming from the inheritance of a family piano 1 year ago, Heimbecker has become fascinated by the sound of pianos. For Signe he has sampled and mapped all 88 notes of a grand piano he recorded in 2007 at the Art of Immersive Soundscape - University of Regina, to a 4th wind data recording. So here, as a new twist on the Aeolian Harp, it is the wind that "tickles the ivories" for the composition.
The only thing left to do now is to hear it, see it, and experience it!
Steve Heimbecker, within the concept of sculpting sound, has been creating multi channel surround sound compositions for sound systems of his own making since the early 1990's. He has developed special field recording and production techniques to create densely woven fabrics of sound that transform time and space and completely immerse the listener.
Heimbecker's multi channel compositions have typically been presented on the standard sound diffusion system technologies; 4 channel, 8 channel, and DVD 5.1 surround sound, until now. Heimbecker over a period of 5 years, has designed and created his most ambitious project ever, a 64 channel, 3200 watt sound system called the Turbulence Sound Matrix. In addition to the unique system hardware, the TSM implements specially designed software that uses 64 channel data recordings of wind patterns from the Wind Array Cascade Machine (2003) to diffuse any sound source through the TSM speaker array.
About the composition
Signe is the first mutil channel sound composition Steve Heimbecker has created for the Turbulence Sound Matrix. Signe is composed by weaving together 4 primary layers of sonic representation and diffusion, all of which are asymmetrically looped so that the composition will never repeat itself, continuously playing for hours or weeks if desired, and all affected by the flowing wave patterns of the wind.
The layers
1) The first layer is sound is generated by the changing amplitude values of the wind data recordings. This data is converted in real time into 64 channels of variable sine waves moving between the mid and mid-low frequency range of the human ear.
2) The next layer is nearly the same. Using a 2nd wind data recording, the generated sound from #1 is diffused though out the 64 channel TSM following the amplitude / air movements of the wind. The combination of 1 and 2 make the generated sine waves flow throughout the TSM system, literally riding the wind.
3) Heimbecker has recorded 16 different times, the sound of a black, circa 1946, Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter - the same typewriter that reportedly was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway's and many other writers. For each recording, Heimbecker types out a 9 to 10 minute story about the building of the Turbulence Sound Matrix. These stories are a combination of TSM project details, project successes, and frustrations, and too, some of Heimbecker's daydreams about the TSM. But these stories remain obscured, coded by the fact that the only documentation of each story is the sound of Heimbecker typing... nothing was actually written down on paper. These 16 "stories" are diffused throughout the TSM by a 3rd wind data recording.
4) Partly stemming from the inheritance of a family piano 1 year ago, Heimbecker has become fascinated by the sound of pianos. For Signe he has sampled and mapped all 88 notes of a grand piano he recorded in 2007 at the Art of Immersive Soundscape - University of Regina, to a 4th wind data recording. So here, as a new twist on the Aeolian Harp, it is the wind that "tickles the ivories" for the composition.
The only thing left to do now is to hear it, see it, and experience it!