en face - Computergesteuerte Klanginstallation

Stilbeschreibung:

I consider the sound installation as an important alternative to the temporal and spatial constraints of perceiving music in concert halls. Aesthetic concepts such as indeterminacy, openness and ambiguity find their adequate expression more likely in the relaxed environment of an installation than in the traditional concert situation. The possibility to occupy different spatial and temporal position while exploring an installation allows the listener to take more actively part in the listening process. This constellation matches with my intention to shift the attention in my compositional work from the construction of final processes towards a disposition of possible situations. The listener's freedom to move around in the space structured by the installation allows for a confrontation with music which shows similarities to the way visual art is perceived. In reaction to what is heard, the listener may change his or her position in order to focus the listening on certain aspects - an approach similar to reading a painting.
But en face does not have a visual component since it is concerned only with the act of listening. The only relationship with visual art can be seen in the way the sound material is projected or displayed. Even the seemingly paradoxical possibility to influence the temporal structure of music is part of the concept of installations: There is no beginning and no end and every part carries characteristics of a whole, which never appears as such - remains imaginary. Sense does not emerge after a complete presentation of the parts but is already seizable in the fragments. But it will be blurred by other fragments, in order to reappear again on another level through the relationships linking the fragments. The resulting ambiguity which constantly gives rise to new interpretations of the allusions presented, shows the absurdity of all attempts to gain a state of clearness and security. en face uses synthetic sound material as well as transformed natural sounds, in order to blur the source of the sound and the conditions of its production. This adds yet another level of possible interpretation. It is thus the immaterial characteristic of synthetic sound material which is the basis for the composition of ambiguity.

 

Gerhard Eckel (1993)

Auftrag:

Symposium Interface II der Mediale 1993 (Hamburg)

Uraufführung:
Hamburg

Veranstaltende Organisation: Mediale - Festival für neue Medien

Aufnahme:
1997 Titel: Eckel Gerhard, HdA Dokumente 1/97