rowena easton

Machines for Singing was a site-specific architectural sound installation, which 'plugged in' to a building to record the sub/supersonic life of its fabric. Real time audio streams were processed, to create a symphony from the dynamic interplay of environmental forces with structural elements, and experienced live as the building’s own music. It made audible that which we would not otherwise hear and allowed the public to collaborate in the composition.

The different structural and social character of a building gives each a unique set of voices. Each building has several (normally inaudible) voices: Created by, for example, ground born vibration or the expansion and contraction of materials, and even a special voice, which may be something peculiar to that structure. A steel and glass tower in a central city location will have a different set of voices to a stone castle in an extreme marine environment.

Machines for Singing was a winner of the Arts Council’s Art Plus Development Award 2005 and Art Plus 2006, and an Axisweb Nominated Project. A pilot was installed at the Attenborough Centre in Brighton for Architecture Week 06, and used as the regional launch for Architecture Week South East. It was presented at the Performing Places Seminar 2006 in Helsinki; for Tuned City at Sound Constructions, Programm, Berlin in 2008; and at the Theatre Noise Conference, Central School of Speech and Drama, London in 2009.

Funders, supporters and partners:
Arts Council England, B+W Bowers and Wilkins, Brüel and Kjær, Conran & Partners, Earshot, Mantracourt, Millimetre, Sound Solutions