HVL001 – TIEFDRUCKGEBIET – The original sub-bass concert for tuned cars at THE BIG PICTURE 2012

a HEAVYLISTENING experience by Carl Schilde & Anselm Venezian Nehls

Prepare yourself for a multi-sensory experience at this year’s Ars electronica Festival! Usually a symbol for urban individuality, here twelve tuned cars form an orchestra, collectively creating a wave-field that is rather felt than heard. Each car uses a massive subwoofer to play extremely low sine tones of slightly different frequencies, derived from the dimensions of the cars and the performance space. When these tones merge, beats, amplifications, and cancellations occur, resulting in slowly pulsating sub-sonic rhythms. These effects can differ immensely depending on the listener’s location. Get close to a car to feel its individual vibration, or explore the space to fully experience the TIEFDRUCKGEBIET (low pressure area).

“As we understand the concept behind the festival theme, it’s very much about being open minded and connecting themes and ideas that you’d normally say belong to different spheres, allowing for a broader perspective on the world” says Anselm.

TIEFDRUCKGEBIET won the first price at 48h Neukölln Festival 2011 in Berlin. This time around it takes full advantage of the unique acoustic properties of Lentos Art Museum, so you won’t be able to hear it like this again ever. The concert is conducted live by the artists through a radio link.
For this concert Carl and Anselm are working with a local car tuning club, the award-winning Sound Masters, and present their cars and their powerful audio systems in an unusual context. They create complex music from the simple sub-bass tones they normally use only for measuring loudness levels. The composition is derived from the resonance frequencies of the cars as well as the dimensions of the free space below LENTOS Art Museum.
“ As you can see, the project completely merges two very different scenes into something new, both musically as well as on a cultural level. And the beauty is that it’s a mutual thing: both us, as well as the performers have to look beyond their usual contexts to make this happen” –  Anselm Venezian Nehls.

For more information on projects by HEAVYLISTENING see: http://heavylistening.org/heavylistening-ars-electronica-2012

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