Sounds of a Community: An Interactive Sound Installation (2001 - 2003)
© 2003 Bob Gluck

'Sounds of a Community' invites visitors to interact with sculptural electronic instruments, most in the form of Jewish ritual objects. The sculptural objects can be played as musical instruments. Visitors to the installations can creatively shape how collections of sounds change and are experienced, to create musical compositions. The sound collages produced draw mostly from on-site recordings from the life of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation in Woodstock, New York. Participants find themselves asking: "is it ritual or is it musical performance" and in fact, it is both.

The premiere showing of the installation showing took place in a large rectangular space. At four corners were situated the four sculptural instruments: eShawl, eFloor, eHarvest, and eChant. In an antechamber, was a listening station, in which several people simultaneously listen to an electroacoustic soundscape composition (also composed from sounds previously recorded on site), through specially designed 'Sound Pillows'.

New sound sculptures were added in 2002, and a few of the original pieces were redesigned. New pieces included eMenorah and two new eShawls ('eTallit' 1 and 2); plus an additional listening station, eSabbathTable.

An introductory narrative explanation, mp3

Comments from participants (pdf).
[Back to top of page]

eShawl
eChant
eHarvest
eFloor
eMenorah
Listening Stations, Soundscapes

eShawl

eShawl was redesigned in 2002. There are now two eShawls, each called 'eTallit'. Both are identical in design, and they are worn over the head, in which a yarmulka has been placed. The yarmulka, which contains tilt sensors, fit comfortably upon the head. The eTallit is then draped over the shoulders. eTallit1 plays the sounds of eShawl, which are shaped by swaying forward and back, and from side to side. eTallit2 plays sounds similar to those of eFloor, which are shaped by holding postures leaning forward and to the sides at varying angles. Refer to 'eFloor', below, for sound examples.

A narrative explanation, mp3

Above is the eShawl in performance.

This is what the redesigned eShawls look like.

A brief Quicktime movie

eChant

A narrative explanation, mp3

On the surface is an abstract collage of images from a Medieval mystical prayerbook. The sounds are voices singing a call and response chant that precedes sections of biblical readings in Jewish worship. Various layers of these sounds are embedded in different sections of the image, to be selected by the participant, who can also evoke solo voice chanting of the text itself by pressing down on the pointer. The participant begins a musical phrase by touching one of the printed words. When the pointer moves through certain sections of the text, the sounds are digitally processed in ways that alter the nature and size of the group. A graphic tablet is enbedded in the book, and its interface was written with Max/MSP. The pointer, constructed from balsa wood strips, in the shape of a hexagon, covers a graphics stylus.

Sound examples, mp3

A brief Quicktime movie

eHarvest

A narrative explanation, mp3

On the right is a closeup of the upper part of eHarvest. The microphone may be seen behind the body. On the left is a closeup of the sound-generating wooden dowels.

Sound examples, mp3

Here is a brief Quicktime movie

Here is a second short Quicktime movie

[Back to list of installation instruments]
[Back to top of page]

eFloor

... an Interactive 4 x 4 foot floor tracks movement to create real-time quad sonic environment ...

When you slowly and meditatively explore this raised surface, eFloor senses where you are standing and how often you have been in each place. It responds by creating textures of varying sound densities, from solo singing voices, to as many as 11 massed voices in quadraphonic sound.

12 piezo sensors are embedded in the floor beneath you, functioning as external drum heads on an Octapad, sending data to a Max/MSP interface.

A narrative explanation, mp3

Above is eFloor in performance. Below is the software interface.

On the left we look beneath the carpeting. On the right is the bottom level; the piezo sensors are attached inside the rim of the metal pie plates.

Sound examples, mp3

A brief Quicktime movie

[Back to list of installation instruments]
[Back to top of page]

eMenorah

An interactive instrument modeled upon a Hannukah menorah. There are eight 'candles' that can be lightly tapped with a 'match', and a ninth that starts and stops the sounds. When you tap - starting from the right - you will hear phrases from a Hannukah song 'Mi Yemalel' (Who Can Retell ...), but often in changing sequences and in varying numbers of voices. The fugal qualities continually change, depending upon which 'candle' you tap, and by choices continally made by algorithms in the interactive software. The conception, design, and painting were a collaboration with my daughter, and the voices are those of family members.

Above: eMenorah and some detail of the wiring that you do not normally see.

Here is a short Quicktime movie

Sound example, mp3

[Back to list of installation instruments]
[Back to top of page]

Listening Stations

Soundscape and Sound Pillows

The electroacoustic soundscape composition 'Woodstock Soundscape' (composed from sounds previously recorded on site) may be heard within these special 'sound pillows'. They are comfortable cushions within which headphones are embedded. Lying on the floor, one places their head into the pillows ...

Above, listeners relax while enjoying the sounds.

Below, note the head-shaped indentation in the pillow, where the headphones rest.

Soundscape sound example, mp3

eSabbathTable (2002)

Added in 2002, a listening station in the form of a Sabbath dinner table. Sitting on the table are sculptures based upon traditional ritual objects and foods: a pair of candlesticks, a kiddush cup (wine goblet), a dinner plate, a hallah (braided bread), and flower vase. Embedded within each object is a speaker through which one may listen to family history narratives about the immigrant generation early in the 20th century. These are from a 1980 interview with the my late great-aunt Jennie Dressner, at whose table my family often ate Sabbath dinners and celebrated Passover seders. Also included are two sections from my 1998 work, 'Scene / Seen in Shul' that draw upon sounds of prayer.

Listening to eSabbathTable objects:

Hold your computer monitor to your ear, look at these images, and listen to several of the mp3 sound clips, and you can imagine your own eSabbathTable!

****** story1 ****** story2 ****** story3 ****** story4 ****** story5 ****** story6 ******

eSabbathTable with its wiring visible.

[Back to list of installation instruments]
[Back to top of page] [return to home page]