“Y” +/- audible

Loudspeaker. Amplifier. Steel tube. Parametric equaliser.
Ground element : 130,5 cm
High element : adaptable to the space

Sound in itself having rarely been worked on in the field of design, the
idea was to construct an object that might be included in our daily
space, our "home sweet home", as for instance halogen floor-lamps
transformed the nocturnal atmosphere of our homes in the mid-eighties.

The device is the following : two loudspeakers, mounted on tubes, like
halogen floor-lamps, are fixed vertically opposite each other. One to
the ceiling , and the other rests on the floor. One loudspeaker is used
as such, the other is used as a microphone.
The distance between the two loudspeakers varies according to the
acoustic space in which they are placed. “Y” +/- audible may be hidden,
allowing the freeest possible interpretation of the object’s
auto-generated sound by the user.
The amplification of the acoustic space and it’s interior and exterior
artefacts is modified by the phenomenon of feedback generated by the
opposition of the two membranes.
The space is acoustically modified by the variation of a frequency, or
note "Y", that will be more or less audible depending on the atmospheric
pressure and natural decibel level of this space. By approaching one’s
hands, or objects that may reflect or absorb the sound emitted by the
loudspeaker, a psycho-acoustic game is created (in the low-medium
frequency range). Sound shapes and masses become apparent.

Following on from the work of such composers as Erik Satie ("Musique
D’Ameublement"), or Brian Eno ("Music for Airports"), “Y” +/- audible is
part of a reflexion on the relationships that exist between sound and
the social space, to which each historical period supplies a different
context. Although the phenomenon of feedback is inscribed in a technical
and aesthetical dimension that was born in the technology of the
twentieth century, the project was inspired by a process dating back to
the Middle Ages, called the "wind harp".
The Wind Harp was found in houses in the form of strings of animal gut
tautened between the two vertical elements of a window frame. These
strings were tuned, and vibrated in reaction to the quantity of air that
moved between the inside and outside of the room. This would generate a
note "Y" or a chord "X" (a "drone"). The space was thus bathed in a
sonic variation, whose use might be compared by analogy to the use of
scents and incense.

exhibition
2002
LMX phase *3* School of Fine-Arts Le Mans . France
2001
LMX phase *2* Frac Paca Marseille . France