The audio walk “ending places,” performed in cooperation with multimedia artist, performer, curator, and educator Thai Tai Pham as part of the radio.rituals collective and the program shifting realities – sonic imagination, took participants on a guided journey through the soundscape of Vienna’s district “Ottakring.”
“How do we get from one place to the next as we move through the city? What do these places sound like? Where do places begin when they need to end? How can we listen to their transitions and memories?
The radio.rituals collective presents the sound walk ≫ending places≪. (…). Can we sonically relocate or delocate places? Can we expand them through imagination? Can we blend them together until singular locations disappear completely? And then, in how many places can we be at the same time?”
– Thai Tai Pham
The performance setup consisted of an ultradirectional microphone (carried by Thai Tai Pham) and a mixing station with a stereo omnidirectional microphone pair (carried by Cosmo SchĂĽppel). The audio was broadcast over a short distance via a (pirate radio) FM transmitter to participants, who were able to listen using FM receivers (mobile pocket radios) and headphones.
The sounds captured by the microphones were mixed and EQed (manipulation of frequency bands) to isolate individual sounds, focus on specific aspects of the soundscape, or capture it as a whole. At the same time, sounds were recorded and played back at later stages of the walk. These subtle manipulations of the soundscape led to a broadening of the acoustic spaces through which the listeners moved.
Exhibited at shifting realities Group Exhibition, Garage Grande, Vienna Austria.
Curated and Organized by Highbrow Institute and Zoe Köbrunner.
Photo credits: Theo Bartenberger
Part of shifting realities – sonic imagination (funded by Kreativfonds of Bauhaus Universität Weimar).
