From August 30th-October 12th, the David Winton Bell Gallery will be holding an exhibit on Audible Spaces.
Audible Spaces presents three sound installations that encourage participants to explore the subtleties of listening. Tristan Perich, Zarouhie Abdalian, and [The User] have each created immersive environments using seemingly uniform sounds that dissolve into tonal, tactile, and temporal variations as participants engage with them.
Perich’s Microtonal Wall(2011), on view in the Cohen Gallery at the Granoff Center, demonstrates the extraordinary complexity that can be generated using only the most basic electronic tools. Drone like from a distance, this 25 ft long sound field of 1-bit noise dissolves into 1500 unique frequencies.
Abdalian’s In Unison (2014) draws attention to each individual’s singularly embodied experience of listening. Eight parametric speakers embedded in the Bell Gallery’s ceiling project sonic avenues of the same frequency that disrupt binaural hearing as they reverberate throughout. Twelve glass vessels, each filled with enough water to produce the same tone, also populate the gallery. In their conspicuous silence they make visible the horizon of sound, as each participant explores her own phenomenological limits.
[The User]’sCoincidence Engine One: Universal People’s Republic Time (2008) makes the entropy of time audible. This amphitheater-like space filled with thousands of ticking clocks provokes questions about homogeny, loss, and the spaces of public address. Unified by a shared economy of means, all three projects prompt participants to consider the dynamic relationship between sound, space, and personal subjectivity, while addressing a distinct set of historical, social, and sonic concerns.
About the David Winton Bell Gallery: The David Winton Bell Gallery is Brown University’s contemporary art gallery and home to an important part of the university’s permanent art collection. Founded in 1971, the Gallery is named in memory of David Winton Bell, a member of the Brown University class of 1954. The Bell Gallery maintains a permanent collection of more than 5,000 works of art, dating from the 16th century to the present, with particularly rich holdings in contemporary art and works on paper.
The Bell Gallery is open Monday-Friday from 11am-4pm, and Saturday-Sunday from 1pm-4pm.
Featured photo from The College Hill Independent.
