Eunomos Installation Series

Eunomos

The majority of sonic artworks present sounds produced by the artist as the primary sonic and artistic subject of the work. The Eunomos installation takes a different approach by offering the in-situ sonic environment, in its sonically unaltered form, as the artistic subject. The installation consists of the placement of a multitude of independent, environmentally aware electronic artifacts, which provide illuminated visual feedback through the actuation of RGB LEDs based on the unique sonic perspective each unit develops throughout the installation period. For NIME, the artist proposes to edit video documentation of the Eunomos pop-up installations conducted in multiple countries to form a reel for each day of the conference to be played on repeat with the accompanying audio recordings.

When exhibited in-situ, the Eunomos installation is facilitated by Speculātors electronic creatures (see accompanying images). In the installations, Speculātors are suspended from features in the environment fully exposed to environmental conditions — juxtaposing the electronic with the natural. The placement of Speculātors, along with their exposed clear acrylic visual aesthetic, hints at both the fragility of the soundscape they are augmenting and their vulnerability to natural forces. Through real-time feedback concerning the amplitude and spectral content of the soundscape from different physical perspectives, the Eunomos installation provides a unique, holistic view of the sonic environment where viewers can simultaneously perceive several sonic perspectives through feedback provided by the Speculātor electronic creatures.

Installation Description

The installation proposal took place on two levels. The first was the in-situ installations conducted before the conference, while the second was the exhibition of the in-situ documentation at the conference. This discussion first covers the in-situ installations and the documentation gathering process before discussing the conference exhibition strategy.

For the in-situ installations, the work's subject is the sonic environment present at the time of installation, not the non-intrusive soundscape augmentations provided by the Speculātor devices. The feedback provided by the Speculātors, presented in the form of RGB LED lighting, highlights music-like components in the sonic environment to focus the attention of visitors on the sounds present. This approach effectively uses the Speculātors as tools, or attention conduits, to serve the soundscape through their visual augmentations.

The Speculātor artifacts are independent units that develop a unique perspective of the sonic environment due to their location in space and their analysis (or interpretation) of the soundscape. Through this process, units respond primarily to the sounds they perceive as most salient (determined by the relative loudness and spectral content of sounds)— in opposition to a coordinated feedback approach where all units utilize a single input source that only provides a single sonic perspective.

To mine for sonic content of interest, the Speculātors use an auto-calibration routine that adjusts the brightness and color range of its visual augmentations according to the features present in the sonic environment. Through this process, the units mirror changes in the soundscape's relative spectral and amplitude content to provide feedback tailored to the soundscape's peculiarities.

The work is installed following a soundscape-specific exhibition methodology where the installation location is chosen at the time of install based on the location's sonic qualities. One usual downside to this ad-hoc pop-up installation methodology is that few people can experience the artwork apart from the artist for most exhibits. Due to this concern, most installations conducted to date have been documented by the facilitator for digital distribution. This NIME exhibition proposal provides an installation format that allows people to experience the work without physically being present at the initial time of installation while maintaining the spirit of the work, which focuses on natural soundscapes (as opposed to urban or rural soundscapes).

For each day of the conference, the artist will provide a video reel edited together from documentation collected from Eunomos pop-up exhibits that take place in a particular region. The reel is to be played on repeat for the day, to be replaced on the next day with a new reel featuring installations from a new region. The footage will include a combination of the Speculātor units installed in-situ and components of the installation and uninstallation process to best capture the entire exhibition experience. The footage is proposed to be projected within a dedicated room accompanied by audio enforcement to allow NIME physical participants to experience the Eunomos installation without attending an in-situ exhibit physically. If a dedicated room with a projector and sound reinforcement is not available for the work, an alternative scaledback "shared-room" approach is also provided as an alternative.