study for an installative and electroaccoustic audio feedback system

In September 2020 I realized a study for an installative and electroaccoustic audio feedback system. For this I chose a remarkable sounding room with lots reverberation at Leipzig’s Institut für Zukunft where I also work as a sound technician. My attempt was to turn a problem of sound engineering into the key element of a compositional technique and a musical experience. Further the installation should be autonomous and work without any external input – hence creating its musical output of seemingly nothing: silence.

Besides using a stereo microphone and loudspeakers as the main „instruments“ I integrated a computer as a DSP-unit into the feedback circuit. Mechanisms of „control“ were applied such as compression, delay etc . Several „variations“ of the original signal were added back into feedback system using effects like pitch and frequency shifting etc. . Latter were significantly contributing to the final audible result in the space resembling choral and sacral atmospheres. The creation of this work was subsidized by the „Denkzeit“ scholarship by the cultural foundation of the Free State of Saxony.

Originally the work was planned as an open and participative performance, where guests and me would “play” the sound and the feedback just by moving and wandering in the room. Because of covid restrictions this idea couldn’t be realised.