Robin Minard, Hanns Holger Rutz, Ludger Hennig, Robert Rehnig
VICE VERSA
A project of SeaM Weimar
2nd June 2007 - 22nd July 2007
back to the season

The studio for electro-acoustic music (SeaM) Weimar – under the direction of the Canadian sound artist Robin Minard – opens the 2007 season of the singuhr sound gallery. “VICE VERSA” is a sound installation in two unusual spaces: the large and small reservoirs. In their spatially specific installation, the group of artists explores the contrasting dimensions of the two underground vaults.

At the centre of the installation is a long steel chord has been vertically stretched through the floater tower of the large reservoir, with transducers causing it to make sounds. The chord’s reverberations are electro-acoustically processed and spectrally broken up by a loudspeaker installation in the four concentric rings of the large reservoir. The specific reverberation and echo features of the barrel vaults – the reverberation times can be up to 18 seconds! – cause the sound to spatially fan out at a distance of almost 40 meters. 
In the small reservoir, the visitor encounters steel plates that horizontally hover over the ground. These are also made to vibrate with the help of transducers. In terms of sound, though, this room contrasts greatly from the large reservoir. The visitor embarks on an open constellation: monochrome hissing fills the room and is reflected and bundled by the resonating steel plates. The reservoir becomes a labyrinth-like sound space, which only the visitor’s movements inducing the reverberations.