Disrupted Architecture: Reimagining Buildings through Sound

(Short paper)

Keywords: Sound Art, Architecture, Interactive Art, Installation, Composition, Music Concrete.

This paper discusses work which changes our perceptions of the built environment, and uses as examples two sound installations, Machines for Singing (2006) and Torch Song (2011), which are designed to make audible hidden forces and events within the fabric of a building and to disrupt our preconceived ideas of architecture. Continuing a long lineage of soundart works which engage with architectural space, the pieces stream sounds collected from around a building to a listening point. By hearing the effect of human and environmental forces on the sounds (Machines for Singing) or controlling them via a custom-made interface (Torch Song), visitors gain a renewed understanding of the forces at play within the structures around them. evolutionaryart.co.uk