Adam Basanta: “A Room Listening to Itself”

In “A Room Listening to Itself”, sound is produced exclusively through amplification techniques which “make audible” the physical relationships between microphones, reclaimed speaker cones, and the space’s surrounding acoustic environment. Using the acoustic phenomena of tuned microphone feedback alongside recursive amplification networks, the church of Ulldecona’s medieval castle is turned into a giant resonator that amplifies both acoustic activity and inactivity as a product of spatial relationships. Custom-built computer software constantly re-calibrates the room to ever-changing acoustic situations, aiming for a sonic equilibrium that remains out of reach. And as gallery visitors walk through the room, they inadvertently modify its acoustic properties by both creating and absorbing sound, modifying the audible relationship between microphone, speaker and acoustic space with their footsteps, muted conversations, or sound-making directly into particular microphones. In this sense, visitors become part of a feedback loop, both attending to and participating in the relationships found in the space as they move through it.

Adam Basanta (b. 1985) is an artist, composer, and performer of experimental music. Born in Tel-Aviv (ISR) and raised in Vancouver (CAN), he currently lives and works in Montreal (CAN). His installation and sculptural works have been recently exhibited in galleries and institutions including New Media Gallery (Canada), VItra Design Museum (Germany), National Art Centre Tokyo (Japó) or The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe (US). His work has been awarded several international prizes, including the Japan Media Arts Prize (2016) and the Aesthetica Art Prize (2017)

Timetable:
24, 25, 26, 30, 31 August, 17:00h – 20:30h | 1 -2 September, 11:00 – 14:00 & 17:00h – 20:30h

With the support of