Jana Winderen

Interactive audio installation, for the exhibition The Idea of North, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Canada. 12th January - 26th February 2006.

In Hard Rain a camera is used to track the movement of people through the space, in which Winderen has positioned a number of trigger points. The triggered sounds in Hard Rain are field recordings of nature, such as rain, wind, and sounds from the sea. Winderen has entered these pre recorded sounds into a computer, determining the effects of the sounds through filters and other processes, thereby creating sounds that reference the sublime in nature through their distortion. These sounds are further distorted and made disharmonic as people move and gesture under the spotlights, actually determining the composition of the sounds. When there are no people in the space the sounds revert to recognisable background natural sounds, such as the gentle lapping of waves. A bench is placed at one end of the walls in the space, inviting people to sit and contemplate the soundscape. The technical equipment for Hard Rain is installed as a relief on the walls in the space and includes an LCD screen that displays a spectrogram of the sound as it changes according to visitors' interactions.

Coding by Jørgen Larsson. Thanks to Kalle Grude, Office of Contemporary Art, Norwegian Embassy in Canada.

https://www.oca.no
https://www.norway.no

Photos by Sym Corrigan