Resonating Sculpture in the series Playing the Building
Reni Hofmüller, Jogi Hofmüller, Christian Lammer, Patrick Strasser, et al.
musikprotokoll 2012
October 4th, 2012, 6.30pm - 7.30pm local time Graz (or: UTC 4.30pm - 5.30pm)
at Lichtschwert, Opernring, Graz
October 7th, 2012, 11.03pm Ö1 Kunstradio

Click here for uploading audio files for Resonating Sculpture successfull QSOs, active on 4.10.2012, http://hofos.at/rs/

Beschreibung in deutscher Sprache

Playing the Building is based on the idea that every object has its own oscillations which only have to be audible; usually metalic structures on buildings, or the building itself, like at the small water power plant in Unterzeiring, in the north of Styria.

In Resonating Sculpture research of materiality stays with the question what objects can be used for additionally to their original use. The change or appropriation happens temporarily in the function and not in the shape (or Gestalt). The sculpture transforms into an antenna for sending and receiving electromagnetic waves. The shape defines, how these waves can travel.
A composition is sent on a journey definded by the sculpture as antenna, will be hread/received on most different places in the world, possibly changed and then sent back. The composition sent out on the 4th of october uses the electromagnetic waves present during the performance time. The material sent back will be used to compose a new piece that will be broadcast in Kunstradio Ö1, ORF (Austrian state radio). The whole piece is not reproduceble as it happens under the influence of the current weather situtaion, including the ionosphere.



The material of the sculpture
Each material has its own specific quality of oscillation, and this defines the character of the transmitted sound.

The weather
The weather - on the transmitter side as well as on the reciever side - influences the composition; rain, clouds, wind play along.

Time, more precisely: daytime
The ionosphere is the space of reflection in which the waves move. The solar radiation defines the constituency of the ionosphere, this means the quantity of ions and therefore the propagation conditions and the socalled critical frequency, f0. This state of the atmosphere therefore defines where certain waves get reflected and consequently can be received again on earth.

The ionosphere has a daily cycle; for the time of the concert we expect to experience the socalled greyline effect when the upper bands start closing and the lower bands are not open yet. Therefore the best propagation conditions will be found in the 40m band (approx. 7MHz). In the close surroundings in Graz the best will be to use a UKW-band; there it will be possible to connect also to several relais stations, and thereby expand the receiving capacity in the neighborhood.

The satellite setup will be equipped with antennas in the 2m and 70cm band. In these bands a lot of ham radio and science satellites are around, so that we can expect some interesting receiving materials there.

We are also going to use Echolink, to connect a ham radio station with the internet, in order to get in touch with even more ham radio people.

The waves
The composition works with electromagnetic waves, that are here anyways, present, aboard. Antennas and receivers make it possible to hear these waves, interferences, oscillations. These devices are the babelfish, the intergalactic translator into another frequency spectrum. In radio contacts these waves are, what you do _not_ want, they are disturbances, overlappings, noise. The are not mistakes, but stil they are not, what ones tries to achieve. Only with my decision to use these sounds that exist already, without my doing, and to send them our on the carries signal, makes them the core transmission. "Only" the strength, the intensity of this sound make the difference to the surrounding overlappings.
It is the by-product, ot the shadow, that transforms to the center.

In this case, I am therefore not focusing on the mistake, the error, although in error, mistake and failure there is much to be found.
"It is failure that guides evolution; perfection offers no incentive for improvement." Colson Whitehead (1999)
This time it is about the surrounding, the context. It is about the suspension of the dichotomy of success and failure. The whole is interesting. It is not the earth on the one side and the universe on the other, "out there". As Carl Sagan said, "We are made of star stuff." It is about the interference.

The receiving antenna does not differenciate between artificially generated electromagnetic waves produced by humans and those found in nature. It picks up and passes on, has its own small part in the change of sound due to its materiality and its interaction with its environment. So the history of origins plays no role, both types have repercusions in the presence. That is the raw material of the piece Resonating Sculpture.

Musical structure
The used free software quisk enables me to choose via mouse click, with the movement, between different filters that each have their own technical and therefore sound quality. The inner structure of the software is - differing from reality - built in steps. Different because it fragments the floating frequencies into single parts. Different positions, somehow in a way perspectives on the existing waves. So the piece is built on the change of position. The composition's character in steps is due to the used tool.

The performance on the 4th of October will be realized with the sounds and noises I chose.
With the recordings and answers I get from ham radio people around the world, I will create the composition for the live radio show at Kunstradio Ö1 ORF on 7th of October 2012.

Reni Hofmüller, Graz, Summer 2012

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think, one would like to be somewhere else. John Cage, Silence. (S. 22/S.24, Suhrkamp, translated by Ernst Jandl to German, re-translated to English by Reni Hofmüller)