Voice of the Tank (work in progress)
Proposal for an installation at The Tank Center for Sonic Arts
Conceived of and developed by Neal Johnson and Alan Watts.
Project Description
Overview
Like all material objects, whether animate or inanimate, The Tank resonates. Wind, human voices, objects thrown or dust blown against its walls. All of these stimulants excite its material structure. The degree to which these vibrations are audible depends on the amount and direction of energy applied to the Tank’s surface. The metal plates welded together to form the Tank’s structure combine to create an enormous, ready made surface for purposeful application of enough energy to excite the material and amplify the rarely heard “voice of the Tank”.
The idea to resonate the Tank is not new. Past experiments using transducers or performance/play striking the tank with solid objects have demonstrated the compelling effect of stimulation of the Tank’s wall and floor with sonic energy. Recent site-specific installation and performance by composer and performer Christian Carrière has advanced an understanding of the value of scaling up the ability to excite the tank into audible resonant states.
This design seeks to go further than past efforts and achieve a large-scale, permanent installation of equipment engineered specifically to resonate the Tank in useful and interesting ways. A primary goal is that the resulting infrastructure can be implemented, maintained, and utilized in perpetuity by contributors of Tank performances and recordings.
Components
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Arduino
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Solenoids
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Transducers
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Max
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Ableton Live
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Synthesized and recorded sounds and effects
photos by Neal Johnson
