Maryanne Amacher Last changed: 2009/02/07 23:49
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''''%Jérôme Joy%'''' '=[Notes de lecture]=' !!Maryanne Amacher (1943 - ...) ---- * (excerpt of Background Noise, Perspectives on Sound Art, Brandon Labelle, 2006 - page 170) Her projects mirror much of Neuhaus's strategies, from early works using telephone lines to relocate live sounds from one location to another, to music performances staged across a dispersed environment, and to her interest in sound phenomena and the activation of heightened listening experiences. Amacher's work articulates the driving force behind much sound installation. Through working with technology and extended systems of sound amplification, her focus is led to a deeper concern for architecture and geographic location. Started in 1967 and ending in 1980, her ''City Links'' series consisted of installing microphones at given locations and feeding these sounds to another, distant location to create ''synchronicities of different places''. From the Buffalo Airport to Boston Harbor, the City Links series exposed to Amacher the ''tone of place'' : '' In regular music, you don't have any models to learn about spatial aspects because usually the performers are on stage or the music's on a record and you don't really hear things far away and you don't hear things close-up and you don't hear nothings and you don't hear things appearing and disappearing and all these kinds of shapes that emerge from this.'' Broadcasting using FM transmission or through 15kc telephone link, AMacher could listen to the distant and the proximate, the sound environment as a complex spatial event in which and then something comes through, acoustic shapes dancing, a sonic play of various characters. One such installation work lasted for three years and consisted of a microphone installed at Pier 6 in Boston Harbor and fed directly to her studio at MIT. Over the course of its installation, Amacher lived with the sounds of Boston Harbor, hearing all its rhythms and voices, the tone of the place, which Amacher identified as hovering around a low F-sharp, or 92 Hz. ''It could have been coming from anything and I wasn't making a scientific analysis to know exactly what was producing this tone, bat that was the tone of this space, really; the color of it.'' The tone of the place led Amacher to develop and elaborate her installation works into expansive sound environments specifically drawing upon architectural space. (her series of works ''Music for Sound_Joined Rooms'' started from 1980). * In 1967, she created City Links: Buffalo, a 28 hour piece using 5 microphones in different parts of the city, broadcast live by radio station WBFO. Her pieces are almost exclusively site specific, the psychoacoustic illusions she creates being determined by the acoustics of the architecture. * An innovator in exploring sonic telepresence, Amacher has pioneered the use of telecommunication in sound installations. She is known internationally for her dramatic architectural staging of music and sound. Her work includes three series of multimedia installations produced in the United States, Europe and Japan: "City Links," "Music for Sound Joined Rooms" and "Mini-Sound Series." * Her numerous works have explored the interface between the acoustic properties of specific spaces and the perceptions of those who pass through them, whilst her experiments in 'sonic telepresence' have composed the aural geographies of dispersed spaces into evolving, networked soundscapes. Here Maryanne will combine her interest in sound in space with an interrogation of the possibilities opened by new media, suggesting that we now face unprecedented potential for creating 'multidimensional immersive aural architectures' - whilst never forgetting how sonic space may be both transformative and enjoyed. * A composer of vast, space-specific sonic panoramas at crushingly loud volumes, Amacher defies containment and commodification. * As the possibilities of all-sound music of the future were to Cage, the possibilities of all-time music are to me. In theory, years, weeks, days minutes, seconds will be possible. it's more like the time in life when something appears and disappears and maybe you don't hear it again for a half hour, you may not hear it for an hour. Suddenly a boat appears after five hours and it gets closer and closer, you know, and makes an approach. It's time like that because we have the means now to do that. * I'm interested in making a very different situation for people. From the very beginning, I wanted to do experiential work. I was working with electronic means, therefore I could sit and observe various things. (...) I wanted to create a kind of music where the listener actually has vivid experiences of contributing this other sonic dimension to the music—the music that their ears are making. I've become very involved with situations like that. My approach is more like in science. This is not to say that music is not emotional and everything else. I sit and listen and I hear things, then I discover how I can expand them or increase them and try to understand them. I think of them as perceptual geographies actually. "Ways of Hearing"—how we hear things far away; how we hear things close. How suddenly in your head there almost is sound, continuing and continuing. It's particularly effective after very strong sections with enormously long fades, but it has to be done in such a way that the sonic shapes are lingering in your mind afterwards. (...) I actually do think of it more as an aural architecture. I think of it quite literally in terms of architecture itself. When I'm able to have the opportunity to make a large installation, I learn the acoustics of the place, and I can work in more than one room: I may have 6, I may have 4, I may have 7 rooms, or the entire structure. All of that began not because I had a fixed notion. Really it began because I hated loudspeakers. I was working in electronic media, so it was quite a contradictory thing. I was always interested in the spatial aspects of sound. I discovered that maybe if I put the speaker in there (points to the kitchen)—the way that you heard it from another room became much more rewarding. I could make a virtual meta-space, so you wouldn't get the sense of these (gestures to a nearby loudspeaker) boxes. it's like a sonic choreography. I have to think of the scenario, otherwise everyone would just walk around and the experience would not be vivid. Usually on a large work, I work there for three weeks. It's like creating a narrative. I realized that there were sonic characters and they could appear and interact with each other. It's very interesting how people walk in a main space. How do they know something is part of the composition? Maybe you pass out something and half the people don't read it. I might have something in a distant room that draws them to it. I'm always performing between these rooms. I still maintain that I like the intensity of this directness of performing, even though the installation is all the work that went in beforehand. I'm very interested in what are called second order effects in psychoacoustics, which are not the ear phenomena when you tune very close—when you do it with unison it has to be binaural or else you just get beats—but when the beats disappear and you get closer and closer to the 3rd or the 5th or whatever interval and it turns into a shape. I've always been very preoccupied with these different shapes, and of course I have particular frequencies I like, too. But it's the shapes, when it gets really slow and huge, and you're not hearing the beats but it is a beat frequency that's producing the shape. It's something that I've experienced, again, only because I work experientially. (Extremities: Maryanne Amacher in Conversation with Frank J. Oteri - The Problem with Recordings Published: May 1, 2004 - http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2460 ) * My first work was doing more or less pure installation work with these City Links pieces in which I brought in remote sounds. I had microphones in different remote environments and brought up those sounds in the gallery or museum or wherever. It also involved performance. The sound was alive and it came through high quality telephone lines—people always thought I was playing a cassette. It was just hard for them to realize at that time that this was actually live sound. It was also very interesting to have more than one location and the kind of simultaneous synchronic things that would happen. You know, there are no laws. (Extremities: Maryanne Amacher in Conversation with Frank J. Oteri - The Problem with Recordings Published: May 1, 2004 - Friday, April 16, 2004—4-5 p.m. Kingston, New York - http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2460 ) et http://www.newmusicbox.org/61/interview_amacher.pdf ---- http://archive.futuresonic.com/sensesonic/archive/MARYANNE/maillist.html * From: maryanne-list(at)futuresonic.com * Subject: SenseSonic Session 5 :: Maryanne Amacher * Date: 13 July 1999 SENSESONIC SESSION 5 :: MARYANNE AMACHER <maryanne-list(at)futuresonic.com> COMPOSING "PERCEPTUAL GEOGRAPHIES" FOR NEW MEDIA It is with special pleasure that we welcome Maryanne Amacher to Session 5 of the SenseSonic digest. Described as 'the best kept secret in American New Music' by The Wire (March 99), Maryanne studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to compose works with John Cage and Merce Cunningham in the 1970s. Her numerous works have explored the interface between the acoustic properties of specific spaces and the perceptions of those who pass through them, whilst her experiments in 'sonic telepresence' have composed the aural geographies of dispersed spaces into evolving, networked soundscapes. Here Maryanne will combine her interest in sound in space with an interrogation of the possibilities opened by new media, suggesting that we now face unprecedented potential for creating 'multidimensional immersive aural architectures' - whilst never forgetting how sonic space may be both transformative and enjoyed. Send comments and questions for Maryanne and other subscribers to the SenseSonic list to maryanne-list@futuresonic.com. *************************************************************** Today media exist which begin to match the range and subtlety of our perceptual modes. As a result of recent advances in multisensorial and immersive technologies, new visual and aural experiences are being explored, some unlike any past experiences, particularly those being created for converging media and telepresence platforms. As immersive technologies expand and grow to mirror the sensitivity of our responsive energies, will sound art delve consciously into these expanded sensitivites? Consider two basic examples resulting from advances in digital audio technologies: dynamic range and spatial dimension. Much of the music circulating the world is still based on the limited capacity of the recording technology available for Lp records having a dynamic range of 40db, compared to digital's 120db. With today's "technologies of presence" we are able to experience multidimensional immersive aural architectures in which sonic imaging is perceived from many different spatial orientations, in large public spaces, and in homes with emerging multispeaker systems. Hardware is no longer the problem. (Although I really wish loudspeakers could rise out of their mechancial souls!) The real need is to explore new ways in which intelligent interfaces can be created which respond, enhance, and communicate with sonic perceptual information being processed by the listener, in addition to sonic information produced acoustically. It is important to fully realize, that with the experiential nature of current technologies we are able for the first time to effectively distinguish between acoustic information and perceptual information, and consciously create for these dimensions. "CREATING PRESENCE," Part 1 of this session will address the mapping of "perceptual geographies" for new media: exploring scenarios and vocabularies for staging multidimensional sonic worlds, and possibilities for individualizing sonic imaging for listeners and for spaces. "Creating Presence" is in response to Drew's questions: >Are spatial effects and distributed sound destined to remain the preserve of isolated art installations, or might they have a place in the venue and PA design of tomorrow? > D.H. will explore the grey area between club and installation, considering the extent to which innovations devised primarily for art installations can work in a club context. I believe that many of the spatial applications now used mainly in art installations can have exciting larger lives in many different situations. Perhaps one of the problems is that often the isolated art installation is not created as a compelling, transformative experience! There may be a real appreciable lack of "presence" in this world, so that people have little to respond or interact with. Experience is abstract, synaptic modulations totally weak! And this certainly has much to do with how perceptual information is presented. It is very hard to resist good compelling beats, perceptually. They are on target and there are no questions of their direct neural effects! They create a really vivid world that everyone enters, with full sensorial presence. I map "perceptual geographies" in the immersive aural architectures I create because I want to target certain specific spatial effects with the kind of compelling unquestionable, sensorial focus that emerges in a beat environment. WAYS OF HEARING -- how we locate, sense and feel sonic events -- are the specific factors which characterize experience in immersive sonic environments; how we particularize acoustic information to construct distinct transformative experiences. HOW CERTAIN SOUNDS ARE TO BE PERCEIVED IN AN IMMERSIVE SONIC ENVIRONMENT IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE SOUNDS THEMSELVES. What perceptual modes they trigger - where and how they will exist for the listener. In creating 3D Music-Image Worlds, ways of hearing become as important in shaping an aural architecture as the acoustic information: such as frequencies, tone colors, and rhythms: "Will certain sounds be locatable, seem miles away, feel close, pulsate vertically above our head, vibrate an elbow, suddenly appear in the space, dramatically disappear as though without a sound? Do we perceive the sound in the room, in our head, a great distance away: do we experience all three dimensions clearly at the same time? In the room, does the sound drift, float, fall like rain? Does it make such a clear shape in the air we seem to "see it" in front of our eyes? Is there no sound in the room at all, but we continue to hear "after-sound" as our mind is processing sonic events perceived minutes ago? Do we experience sonic imaging very near, moving beside (outside and around) one ear only: "feel" patterns as they in fact, do originate and develop quite specifically inside, within our ears.....?" Taking VR (virtual reality) and telepresence as points of departure, it is interesting to consider cross-sensory explorations between stereo visual imaging and auditory dimension. After images. Thresholds. Physiological resonances. Acoustic spaces of felt sound phenomena, experienced either subliminally, or making recognizably direct physical resonances to the body. Composite mental images of immersion in space, as in stereo vision; direct physiological experience of an acoustic space, as distinguished from the perception of an acoustic space, aurally, as "image." The next installment of "Creating Presence" will discuss the staging of some specific SONIC SHAPES and MOVEMENTS, and how they may appear in both foreground and background structures. In the meantime pick up your copy of J.G. Ballard's "Vermillion Sands" and enter what may be the first virtual world with total "presence" maintained through each of the incredible stories. And imagine constructing a sonic equivalent, that is as vividly and totally present, even though the Episodes may change over time. "Tone of Place" is indelibly alive, penetrating sensorially from all perspectives. How does he do this? Years ago I lived with these stories. And I realize now how much they influenced the development of my concept for the "Mini-Sound Series" which I create. I returned to Ballard the other day when the "sonic curtain" came up in Drew's session. I always loved the wonderful "Sound Sweep" where the little guy with the "sonovac" cleans all embedded sound, including ultrasonic and takes it to the sonic dump. It was wonderful to again read Ballard's descriptions of "ultrasonic spaces" and the atmospheres created by these inaudible musics which are perceived, but not heard. Hopefully we might have time to discuss such ultrasonic tonal inlays later in the discussion. Maryanne Amacher SELECTIVE BIOGRAPHY In my first sound works I developed the idea of sonic telepresence, pioneering the use of telecommunication in sound installations. While a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1972-76) I developed a number of projects for solo and group shows in collaboration with the visual artists Scott Fisher, Luis Frangella, and the architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg. This was a very interesting time, especially because of our ideas about what has since become known as virtual reality, telepresence technologies, and the internet. In the telelink installations for "CITY-LINKS" 1-22 (1967- ) the sounds from one or more remote environment (in a city, or in several cities) are transmitted in real-time to the exhibition space, as an ongoing sonic environment. I create the "CITY-LINKS" installations using real-time telelinks, transmitting the sounds from microphones which I place at the remote locations. I introduced the concept of an environment-oriented spatial sound sculpture (created by combining and modulating several remote sound environments) in solo and group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974) and the Walker Arts Center, "Projected Images," Minneapolis. (1974) The adventure is in receiving live sonic spaces from more than one location at the same time - the tower, the ocean, the abandoned mill. Remote sounding environments enter our local spaces and become part of our rooms. I was particularly interested in the experience of "syncronicity" - hearing spaces distant from each other at the same time--which we do not experience in our lives. For over three years I received live sound from a microphone which I installed on a window overlooking the ocean at the New England Fish Exchange, Pier 6 Boston Harbor. Dedicated 15kc telelinks provided continuous transmission of the BOSTON HARBOR sound environment to mixing facilities at my studio. These continuous transmissions gave me the opportunity to experience live incoming patterns over time. Time corresponds here to life of the space, to sense of being there. Approach and disappearances of sounding shapes. My work is best represented in the three series of multimedia installations produced in the United States, Europe, and Japan: the sonic telepresence series, "CITY LINKS" 1-22 (1967- ); the architecturally staged "MUSIC FOR SOUND JOINED ROOMS" (1980- ) and the "MINI-SOUND SERIES" (1985- ) a new multimedia form which I create, that is unique in its use of architecture and serialized narrative. In these major works I adopt the mini series television format in order to develop a more involving narrative context, a serialized narrative to be continued in consecutive episodes, as distinguished from an ongoing installation. The evolving Scenarios of the "Mini-Sound Series" build one upon the other over a period of several days or weeks. The six part "SOUND HOUSE," my first "Mini-Sound Series" was produced during a three month residency at the Capp Street Project in San Francisco (Novl6-Dec22 1985). "THE MUSIC ROOMS" was produced by the DAAD gallery in Berlin, and staged over a four week period (Feb19-Mar15 1987); "STOLEN SOULS" commissioned by INKA Digital Arts Amsterdam, was presented in De Beurs van Berlage Amsterdam (May20-24 1988); "202l THE LIFE PEOPLE" commissioned by the Ars Electronic Festival, was presented in the Brucknerhaus, Linz Austrria (Sept13-16 1989); and "THE BIAURALS" commissioned by The Electrical Matter, an electronic arts festival was presented at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, Pa. (Sept11-22 1990.) In "MUSIC FOR SOUND JOINED ROOMS" and "MINI-SOUND SERIES" I use the architectural features of a building to customize sound, visual, and spatial elements, creating intense and dramatic sound experiences. I produce these works in location-based installations that are built from "structure borne" sound (sound traveling through walls, floors, rooms, corridors) which acousticians distinguish from the "airborne" sound experienced with conventional loudspeaker placements. An entire building or series of rooms provides a stage for the sonic and visual sets of my installations. Immersive aural architectures are constructed, linking the main audience space sonically with adjoining rooms through specially designed multiple loudspeaker configurations, creating the effect that sounds originate from specific locations and heights rather than from the loudspeakers. The idea is to create an atmosphere similar to the drama of entering a cinematic closeup, a form of "sonic theater" in which architecture magnifies the expressive dimensions of the work. The audience enters the set and walks into the "world" of the story, exploring multi-perceptual viewpoints. As they move through new scenes being created by the "Sound Characters," they discover clues to the story distributed throughout the rooms. Places of "thematic focus" are selected to create the scenes - rooms, corridors, walls, doorways, balconies, stairways. In some episodes sound sweeps through the rooms; in others, chords, and tonalities are intricately joined between the rooms; in still others a particular sound shape is emphasized to animate sonic imaging in a distant room. Together with the architectural staging of projected visual environments, I am able to construct multi-dimensional environment-oriented experiences, anticipating virtual immersion environments. Rooms, walls, and corridors that sing. Architecture especially articulates sonic imaging in "structure borne" sound, magnifying color and spatial presence as the sound shapes interact with the structural characteristics of the rooms before reaching the listener. The rooms themselves become speakers, producing sound which is felt throughout the body as well as heard. In two recent installations I had the opportunity to produce "Music For Sound Joined Rooms" in remarkable architectures with unique acoustical characteristics: the Kunsthalle-Krems in Austria (1995;) and the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima Japan (1992.) I created distinct sonic worlds that could only be articulated through architecture. The Kunsthalle-Krems Minioritenkirche is a large expansive space that was originally part of a monastery that was built in the 11th century. I produced my work, "A Step Into It, Imagining 1001 Years" in the six areas of the Kunsthalle: the main hall; the altar spaces (one at a high elevation approached by a tall stairway;) the two antechambers adjoining the high altar; and the crypt. A space of expanded seeing and hearing enfolded throughout the Church, linking sonic interactions and visual imaging in six thematic locations. Aural events appeared larger than life; as though many miles away; inside the listener. For "Synaptic Island" which I produced at the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima, I created very discrete placements of sound, emphasizing distinct characteristics in four adjoining rooms. Special layering of sonic imaging was developed; areas of intense sonic pressure; others very ethereal. Staged at specific locations and heights, these sonic areas became tactile in presence, existing as "things in themselves." To produce the location-based installations for my major works, intensive acoustic and auditory research in the space is required. Usually a residency of one month is needed for my investigations, depending on the size of the space and the number of rooms. During this period I discover special acoustic features of each room, exploring how they interact sonically with each other, and develop the aural imaging and spatial characteristics of the installation. Creating the detailed sound design is very much like scripting a sonic choreography. Recent projects include the creation of major works: a String Quartet with an electroacoustic installation commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund to be premiered in 1999; two new installation works produced in 1998 for the Kunstmuseum Bern, "Taktalos" Festival (March 1998); and for "Tunnel Vision" in the three story Maastunnel, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Sept 1998). Visiting Artist at Bard College (July 1998) and at the Art Institute of Chicago (April 1999). The Two Part Multimedia Narrative, "A Step Into It, Imagining 1001 Years," commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture and Siemens Kultur Program was produced in the Kunsthalle-Krems, Austria. (Feb-Mar 1995) "The Reference Room" a telelink installation using the "CITY-LINKS" format was produced for the Rosekrans Residency at Mills College. (1993) The Four Part Multimedia Narrative, "Synaptic Island" was commissioned by the Japanese government and produced at the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima Japan. (Apr-May 1992) I was invited to give the John Spencer Camp Lecture at Wesleyan University. (Nov 7 1995) Participation in the two week Symposium, "Tuned Matters Into Sound," Krems-Vienna with La Monte Young, Bernhard Leitner, James Tenney, and Georg Friedrich Haas at the Museum of Modern Art, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna. (Feb20-Mar5 1995) 3-D sonic architectures, commissioned by the Matshushita Electric Company were designed and produced for the 750 programmable loudspeakers in Panasonic Hall, Tokyo. (1991) CD recordings were released on the Tzadik label, "Sound Characters" (Making The Third Ear) ( Feb 99;) and on the Asphodel Sombient Triology: "The Throne Of Drones" (May 95) "The Swarm Of Drones" (Oct 95) and "The Storm Of Drones" (Aug 96) ---- 13 july 1999 Maryanne wrote: >It is very hard to resist good compelling beats, perceptually. They are on >target and there are no questions of their direct neural effects! They >create a really vivid world that everyone enters, with full sensorial >presence. I map "perceptual geographies" in the immersive aural >architectures I create because I want to target certain specific spatial >effects with the kind of compelling unquestionable, sensorial focus that >emerges in a beat environment. Drew replies: >David Toop suggested that the club aesthetic of a single, overpowering >soundfield leaves little room for the kinds of spatial effects considered >in SenseSonic. And Andrew Deakin asked if anyone had experience of how >sound diffusion and spatialisation could work with powerful amplification. >In your view, what are the best ways to combine the kinds of strategies >found in sound installations or sonic art (such as sound spatialisation) >with a beat environment? Drew, I will not write much now since I only have about 1/2 hour before the bell rings The second installment of "Creating Presence" will give some specific examples based on the description of your recent club event. I believe such sound designs can be effective even in the club aesthetic of a single, overpowering soundfield. A new approach to the situation is what is exciting to me, with many possibilities. But more about this later. Andrew asked if anyone had experience of how sound diffusion and spatialisation could work with powerful amplification. The architectural staging of my works in "MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS" and "MINI SOUND SERIES" is certainly an example, and Naut Humon's wonderful system for Sound Traffic Control events. These are two different approaches to creating multidimensional sonic environments and should be discussed in more detail. In short: in my work is location-based, I create spatial relations by staging the sound architecturally, throughout a number of rooms and usually in large spaces. I am specifically using architecture - "the spaces the sound sounds in" - to develop experiences that can only be realized through architecture. (More specifics about this later) Sound Traffic Control is a completely designed portable system ready to go anywhere; the spatial parameters are designed and developed at the Compound in San Francisco. The following is an excerpt by Peter Watrous describing an experience of powerful amplification in one of my performances, using one room only. "....at times the room seemed literally filled with sound -- sound became tactile..she used immense volume to make sound feel liquid, all-enveloping, as if it were pouring into ears, between fingers and through hair. Ms Amacher layered her noises -- buzzing tones wrapped in sandstorm textures, ........into an apocalyptic, terrifying landscape. ..About one-quarter of the way through the show, Ms Amacher, calmly but theatrically adjusting the knobs on her control panel, made the music sound as if 1,000 cicadas had settled on the inside of the ear; the music sprang from inside a listener's head - an unusual experience. Suddenly music became dangerous, violating the body. Experiencing this discomforting penetration, the audience merged as if it shared a catstrophe, passengers on a plane that narrowly missed crashing. In a sense her music is similar to bass-heavy reggae sound systems or a high-volume Sonic Youth concert - the extreme of volume and intensity make the experience communal,a shared natural event. But this sense of physical danger is tied into something else MA, a long time electyronic and environmental music experimentalist, is getting at: by having the audience walk around the room and having music erupt from all sides, she readjusted the traditional relatiions of power between performer and audience. And by by walking around, the source materials changed as a listener's relationshipo to various speakers changed,....." ----
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Maryanne Amacher

Last changed: 2009/02/07 23:49

Show source / Syntax / History

''''%Jérôme Joy%''''

'=[Notes de lecture]='
!!Maryanne Amacher (1943 - ...)

----
* (excerpt of Background Noise, Perspectives on Sound Art, Brandon Labelle, 2006 - page 170)
Her projects mirror much of Neuhaus's strategies, from early works using telephone lines to relocate live sounds from one location to another, to music performances staged across a dispersed environment, and to her interest in sound phenomena and the activation of heightened listening experiences. Amacher's work articulates the driving force behind much sound installation. Through working with technology and extended systems of sound amplification, her focus is led to a deeper concern for architecture and geographic location. Started in 1967 and ending in 1980, her ''City Links'' series consisted of installing microphones at given locations and feeding these sounds to another, distant location to create ''synchronicities of different places''. From the Buffalo Airport to Boston Harbor, the City Links series exposed to Amacher the ''tone of place'' : '' In regular music, you don't have any models to learn about spatial aspects because usually the performers are on stage or the music's on a record and you don't really hear things far away and you don't hear things close-up and you don't hear nothings and you don't hear things appearing and disappearing and all these kinds of shapes that emerge from this.'' Broadcasting using FM transmission or through 15kc telephone link, AMacher could listen to the distant and the proximate, the sound environment as a complex spatial event in which and then something comes through, acoustic shapes dancing, a sonic play of various characters. One such installation work lasted for three years and consisted of a microphone installed at Pier 6 in Boston Harbor and fed directly to her studio at MIT. Over the course of its installation, Amacher lived with the sounds of Boston Harbor, hearing all its rhythms and voices, the tone of the place, which Amacher identified as hovering around a low F-sharp, or 92 Hz. ''It could have been coming from anything and I wasn't making a scientific analysis to know exactly what was producing this tone, bat that was the tone of this space, really; the color of it.'' The tone of the place led Amacher to develop and elaborate her installation works into expansive sound environments specifically drawing upon architectural space. (her series of works ''Music for Sound_Joined Rooms'' started from 1980).

* In 1967, she created City Links: Buffalo, a 28 hour piece using 5 microphones in different parts of the city, broadcast live by radio station WBFO. Her pieces are almost exclusively site specific, the psychoacoustic illusions she creates being determined by the acoustics of the architecture.

* An innovator in exploring sonic telepresence, Amacher has pioneered the use of telecommunication in sound installations. She is known internationally for her dramatic architectural staging of music and sound. Her work includes three series of multimedia installations produced in the United States, Europe and Japan: "City Links," "Music for Sound Joined Rooms" and "Mini-Sound Series."

* Her numerous works have explored the interface between the acoustic properties of specific spaces and the perceptions of those who pass through them, whilst her experiments in 'sonic telepresence' have composed the aural geographies of dispersed spaces into evolving, networked soundscapes. Here Maryanne will combine her interest in sound in space with an interrogation of the possibilities opened by new media, suggesting that we now face unprecedented potential for creating 'multidimensional immersive aural architectures' - whilst never forgetting how sonic space may be both transformative and enjoyed.

* A composer of vast, space-specific sonic panoramas at crushingly loud volumes, Amacher defies containment and commodification.

* As the possibilities of all-sound music of the future were to Cage, the possibilities of all-time music are to me. In theory, years, weeks, days minutes, seconds will be possible. it's more like the time in life when something appears and disappears and maybe you don't hear it again for a half hour, you may not hear it for an hour. Suddenly a boat appears after five hours and it gets closer and closer, you know, and makes an approach. It's time like that because we have the means now to do that.

* I'm interested in making a very different situation for people. From the very beginning, I wanted to do experiential work. I was working with electronic means, therefore I could sit and observe various things. (...) I wanted to create a kind of music where the listener actually has vivid experiences of contributing this other sonic dimension to the music—the music that their ears are making. I've become very involved with situations like that. My approach is more like in science. This is not to say that music is not emotional and everything else. I sit and listen and I hear things, then I discover how I can expand them or increase them and try to understand them. I think of them as perceptual geographies actually. "Ways of Hearing"—how we hear things far away; how we hear things close. How suddenly in your head there almost is sound, continuing and continuing. It's particularly effective after very strong sections with enormously long fades, but it has to be done in such a way that the sonic shapes are lingering in your mind afterwards. (...) I actually do think of it more as an aural architecture. I think of it quite literally in terms of architecture itself. When I'm able to have the opportunity to make a large installation, I learn the acoustics of the place, and I can work in more than one room: I may have 6, I may have 4, I may have 7 rooms, or the entire structure. All of that began not because I had a fixed notion. Really it began because I hated loudspeakers. I was working in electronic media, so it was quite a contradictory thing. I was always interested in the spatial aspects of sound. I discovered that maybe if I put the speaker in there (points to the kitchen)—the way that you heard it from another room became much more rewarding. I could make a virtual meta-space, so you wouldn't get the sense of these (gestures to a nearby loudspeaker) boxes.  it's like a sonic choreography. I have to think of the scenario, otherwise everyone would just walk around and the experience would not be vivid. Usually on a large work, I work there for three weeks. It's like creating a narrative. I realized that there were sonic characters and they could appear and interact with each other. It's very interesting how people walk in a main space. How do they know something is part of the composition? Maybe you pass out something and half the people don't read it. I might have something in a distant room that draws them to it. I'm always performing between these rooms. I still maintain that I like the intensity of this directness of performing, even though the installation is all the work that went in beforehand. I'm very interested in what are called second order effects in psychoacoustics, which are not the ear phenomena when you tune very close—when you do it with unison it has to be binaural or else you just get beats—but when the beats disappear and you get closer and closer to the 3rd or the 5th or whatever interval and it turns into a shape. I've always been very preoccupied with these different shapes, and of course I have particular frequencies I like, too. But it's the shapes, when it gets really slow and huge, and you're not hearing the beats but it is a beat frequency that's producing the shape. It's something that I've experienced, again, only because I work experientially. (Extremities: Maryanne Amacher in Conversation with Frank J. Oteri - The Problem with Recordings Published: May 1, 2004 - http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2460 )
* My first work was doing more or less pure installation work with these City Links pieces in which I brought in remote sounds. I had microphones in different remote environments and brought up those sounds in the gallery or museum or wherever. It also involved performance. The sound was alive and it came through high quality telephone lines—people always thought I was playing a cassette. It was just hard for them to realize at that time that this was actually live sound. It was also very interesting to have more than one location and the kind of simultaneous synchronic things that would happen. You know, there are no laws. (Extremities: Maryanne Amacher in Conversation with Frank J. Oteri - The Problem with Recordings Published: May 1, 2004 - Friday, April 16, 2004—4-5 p.m. Kingston, New York - http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2460 ) et http://www.newmusicbox.org/61/interview_amacher.pdf

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http://archive.futuresonic.com/sensesonic/archive/MARYANNE/maillist.html

*  From: maryanne-list(at)futuresonic.com
    * Subject: SenseSonic Session 5 :: Maryanne Amacher
    * Date: 13 July 1999

SENSESONIC SESSION 5 :: MARYANNE AMACHER

<maryanne-list(at)futuresonic.com>

COMPOSING "PERCEPTUAL GEOGRAPHIES" FOR NEW MEDIA

It is with special pleasure that we welcome Maryanne Amacher to Session 5
of the SenseSonic digest. Described as 'the best kept secret in American
New Music' by The Wire (March 99), Maryanne studied with Karlheinz
Stockhausen at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to compose
works with John Cage and Merce Cunningham in the 1970s. Her numerous works
have explored the interface between the acoustic properties of specific
spaces and the perceptions of those who pass through them, whilst her
experiments in 'sonic telepresence' have composed the aural geographies of
dispersed spaces into evolving, networked soundscapes. Here Maryanne will
combine her interest in sound in space with an interrogation of the
possibilities opened by new media, suggesting that we now face
unprecedented potential for creating 'multidimensional immersive aural
architectures' - whilst never forgetting how sonic space may be both
transformative and enjoyed.

Send comments and questions for Maryanne and other subscribers
to the SenseSonic list to maryanne-list@futuresonic.com.

***************************************************************
Today media exist which begin to match the range and subtlety of our
perceptual modes. As a result of recent advances in multisensorial and
immersive technologies, new visual and aural experiences are being
explored, some unlike any past experiences, particularly those being
created for converging media and telepresence platforms.

As immersive technologies expand and grow to mirror the sensitivity of our
responsive energies, will sound art delve consciously into these expanded
sensitivites? Consider two basic examples resulting from advances in
digital audio technologies: dynamic range and spatial dimension. Much of
the music circulating the world is still based on the limited capacity of
the recording technology available for Lp records having a dynamic range of
40db, compared to digital's 120db. With today's "technologies of presence"
we are able to experience multidimensional immersive aural architectures in
which sonic imaging is perceived from many different spatial orientations,
in large public spaces, and in homes with emerging multispeaker systems.
Hardware is no longer the problem. (Although I really wish loudspeakers
could rise out of their mechancial souls!)

The real need is to explore new ways in which intelligent interfaces can be
created which respond, enhance, and communicate with sonic perceptual
information being processed by the listener, in addition to sonic
information produced acoustically. It is important to fully realize, that
with the experiential nature of current technologies we are able for the
first time to effectively distinguish between acoustic information and
perceptual information, and consciously create for these dimensions.

"CREATING PRESENCE," Part 1 of this session will address the mapping of
"perceptual geographies" for new media: exploring scenarios and
vocabularies for staging multidimensional sonic worlds, and possibilities
for individualizing sonic imaging for listeners and for spaces.

"Creating Presence" is in response to Drew's questions:
>Are spatial effects and distributed sound destined to remain the preserve
of isolated art installations, or might they have a place in the venue and
PA design of tomorrow?
> D.H. will explore the grey area between club and installation,
considering the extent to which innovations devised primarily for art
installations can work in a club context.

I believe that many of the spatial applications now used mainly in art
installations can have exciting larger lives in many different situations.
Perhaps one of the problems is that often the isolated art installation is
not created as a compelling, transformative experience! There may be a real
appreciable lack of "presence" in this world, so that people have little to
respond or interact with. Experience is abstract, synaptic modulations
totally weak!

And this certainly has much to do with how perceptual information is
presented. It is very hard to resist good compelling beats, perceptually.
They are on target and there are no questions of their direct neural
effects! They create a really vivid world that everyone enters, with full
sensorial presence. I map "perceptual geographies" in the immersive aural
architectures I create because I want to target certain specific spatial
effects with the kind of compelling unquestionable, sensorial focus that
emerges in a beat environment. WAYS OF HEARING -- how we locate, sense and
feel sonic events -- are the specific factors which characterize experience
in immersive sonic environments; how we particularize acoustic information
to construct distinct transformative experiences. HOW CERTAIN SOUNDS ARE TO
BE PERCEIVED IN AN IMMERSIVE SONIC ENVIRONMENT IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE
SOUNDS THEMSELVES. What perceptual modes they trigger - where and how they
will exist for the listener. In creating 3D Music-Image Worlds, ways of
hearing become as important in shaping an aural architecture as the
acoustic information: such as frequencies, tone colors, and rhythms:

"Will certain sounds be locatable, seem miles away, feel close, pulsate
vertically above our head, vibrate an elbow, suddenly appear in the space,
dramatically disappear as though without a sound? Do we perceive the sound
in the room, in our head, a great distance away: do we experience all three
dimensions clearly at the same time? In the room, does the sound drift,
float, fall like rain? Does it make such a clear shape in the air we seem
to "see it" in front of our eyes? Is there no sound in the room at all, but
we continue to hear "after-sound" as our mind is processing sonic events
perceived minutes ago? Do we experience sonic imaging very near, moving
beside (outside and around) one ear only: "feel" patterns as they in fact,
do originate and develop quite specifically inside, within our ears.....?"

Taking VR (virtual reality) and telepresence as points of departure, it is
interesting to consider cross-sensory explorations between stereo visual
imaging and auditory dimension. After images. Thresholds. Physiological
resonances. Acoustic spaces of felt sound phenomena, experienced either
subliminally, or making recognizably direct physical resonances to the
body. Composite mental images of immersion in space, as in stereo vision;
direct physiological experience of an acoustic space, as distinguished from
the perception of an acoustic space, aurally, as "image."

The next installment of "Creating Presence" will discuss the staging of
some specific SONIC SHAPES and MOVEMENTS, and how they may appear in both
foreground and background structures.

In the meantime pick up your copy of J.G. Ballard's "Vermillion Sands" and
enter what may be the first virtual world with total "presence" maintained
through each of the incredible stories. And imagine constructing a sonic
equivalent, that is as vividly and totally present, even though the
Episodes may change over time. "Tone of Place" is indelibly alive,
penetrating sensorially from all perspectives. How does he do this? Years
ago I lived with these stories. And I realize now how much they influenced
the development of my concept for the "Mini-Sound Series" which I create.

I returned to Ballard the other day when the "sonic curtain" came up in
Drew's session. I always loved the wonderful "Sound Sweep" where the little
guy with the "sonovac" cleans all embedded sound, including ultrasonic and
takes it to the sonic dump. It was wonderful to again read Ballard's
descriptions of "ultrasonic spaces" and the atmospheres created by these
inaudible musics which are perceived, but not heard. Hopefully we might
have time to discuss such ultrasonic tonal inlays later in the discussion.

Maryanne Amacher

SELECTIVE BIOGRAPHY

In my first sound works I developed the idea of sonic telepresence,
pioneering the use of telecommunication in sound installations. While a
Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (1972-76) I developed a number of projects for solo and group
shows in collaboration with the visual artists Scott Fisher, Luis
Frangella, and the architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg. This was a very
interesting time, especially because of our ideas about what has since
become known as virtual reality, telepresence technologies, and the
internet. In the telelink installations for "CITY-LINKS" 1-22 (1967- ) the
sounds from one or more remote environment (in a city, or in several
cities) are transmitted in real-time to the exhibition space, as an ongoing
sonic environment. I create the "CITY-LINKS" installations using real-time
telelinks, transmitting the sounds from microphones which I place at the
remote locations. I introduced the concept of an environment-oriented
spatial sound sculpture (created by combining and modulating several remote
sound environments) in solo and group shows at the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago (1974) and the Walker Arts Center, "Projected Images,"
Minneapolis. (1974) The adventure is in receiving live sonic spaces from
more than one location at the same time - the tower, the ocean, the
abandoned mill. Remote sounding environments enter our local spaces and
become part of our rooms. I was particularly interested in the experience
of "syncronicity" - hearing spaces distant from each other at the same
time--which we do not experience in our lives.

For over three years I received live sound from a microphone which I
installed on a window overlooking the ocean at the New England Fish
Exchange, Pier 6 Boston Harbor. Dedicated 15kc telelinks provided
continuous transmission of the BOSTON HARBOR sound environment to mixing
facilities at my studio. These continuous transmissions gave me the
opportunity to experience live incoming patterns over time. Time
corresponds here to life of the space, to sense of being there. Approach
and disappearances of sounding shapes.

My work is best represented in the three series of multimedia installations
produced in the United States, Europe, and Japan: the sonic telepresence
series, "CITY LINKS" 1-22 (1967- ); the architecturally staged "MUSIC FOR
SOUND JOINED ROOMS" (1980- ) and the "MINI-SOUND SERIES" (1985- ) a new
multimedia form which I create, that is unique in its use of architecture
and serialized narrative. In these major works I adopt the mini series
television format in order to develop a more involving narrative context, a
serialized narrative to be continued in consecutive episodes, as
distinguished from an ongoing installation. The evolving Scenarios of the
"Mini-Sound Series" build one upon the other over a period of several days
or weeks. The six part "SOUND HOUSE," my first "Mini-Sound Series" was
produced during a three month residency at the Capp Street Project in San
Francisco (Novl6-Dec22 1985). "THE MUSIC ROOMS" was produced by the DAAD
gallery in Berlin, and staged over a four week period (Feb19-Mar15 1987);
"STOLEN SOULS" commissioned by INKA Digital Arts Amsterdam, was presented
in De Beurs van Berlage Amsterdam (May20-24 1988); "202l THE LIFE PEOPLE"
commissioned by the Ars Electronic Festival, was presented in the
Brucknerhaus, Linz Austrria (Sept13-16 1989); and "THE BIAURALS"
commissioned by The Electrical Matter, an electronic arts festival was
presented at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, Pa. (Sept11-22
1990.)

In "MUSIC FOR SOUND JOINED ROOMS" and "MINI-SOUND SERIES" I use the
architectural features of a building to customize sound, visual, and
spatial elements, creating intense and dramatic sound experiences. I
produce these works in location-based installations that are built from
"structure borne" sound (sound traveling through walls, floors, rooms,
corridors) which acousticians distinguish from the "airborne" sound
experienced with conventional loudspeaker placements. An entire building or
series of rooms provides a stage for the sonic and visual sets of my
installations. Immersive aural architectures are constructed, linking the
main audience space sonically with adjoining rooms through specially
designed multiple loudspeaker configurations, creating the effect that
sounds originate from specific locations and heights rather than from the
loudspeakers. The idea is to create an atmosphere similar to the drama of
entering a cinematic closeup, a form of "sonic theater" in which
architecture magnifies the expressive dimensions of the work.

The audience enters the set and walks into the "world" of the story,
exploring multi-perceptual viewpoints. As they move through new scenes
being created by the "Sound Characters," they discover clues to the story
distributed throughout the rooms. Places of "thematic focus" are selected
to create the scenes - rooms, corridors, walls, doorways, balconies,
stairways. In some episodes sound sweeps through the rooms; in others,
chords, and tonalities are intricately joined between the rooms; in still
others a particular sound shape is emphasized to animate sonic imaging in a
distant room. Together with the architectural staging of projected visual
environments, I am able to construct multi-dimensional environment-oriented
experiences, anticipating virtual immersion environments. Rooms, walls, and
corridors that sing. Architecture especially articulates sonic imaging in
"structure borne" sound, magnifying color and spatial presence as the sound
shapes interact with the structural characteristics of the rooms before
reaching the listener. The rooms themselves become speakers, producing
sound which is felt throughout the body as well as heard.

In two recent installations I had the opportunity to produce "Music For
Sound Joined Rooms" in remarkable architectures with unique acoustical
characteristics: the Kunsthalle-Krems in Austria (1995;) and the 21st
Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima Japan (1992.) I created
distinct sonic worlds that could only be articulated through architecture.
The Kunsthalle-Krems Minioritenkirche is a large expansive space that was
originally part of a monastery that was built in the 11th century. I
produced my work, "A Step Into It, Imagining 1001 Years" in the six areas
of the Kunsthalle: the main hall; the altar spaces (one at a high elevation
approached by a tall stairway;) the two antechambers adjoining the high
altar; and the crypt. A space of expanded seeing and hearing enfolded
throughout the Church, linking sonic interactions and visual imaging in six
thematic locations. Aural events appeared larger than life; as though many
miles away; inside the listener. For "Synaptic Island" which I produced at
the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima, I created very
discrete placements of sound, emphasizing distinct characteristics in four
adjoining rooms. Special layering of sonic imaging was developed; areas of
intense sonic pressure; others very ethereal. Staged at specific locations
and heights, these sonic areas became tactile in presence, existing as
"things in themselves."

To produce the location-based installations for my major works, intensive
acoustic and auditory research in the space is required. Usually a
residency of one month is needed for my investigations, depending on the
size of the space and the number of rooms. During this period I discover
special acoustic features of each room, exploring how they interact
sonically with each other, and develop the aural imaging and spatial
characteristics of the installation. Creating the detailed sound design is
very much like scripting a sonic choreography.

Recent projects include the creation of major works: a String Quartet with
an electroacoustic installation commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet
and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund to be premiered in 1999; two new
installation works produced in 1998 for the Kunstmuseum Bern, "Taktalos"
Festival (March 1998); and for "Tunnel Vision" in the three story
Maastunnel, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Sept 1998). Visiting Artist at Bard
College (July 1998) and at the Art Institute of Chicago (April 1999). The
Two Part Multimedia Narrative, "A Step Into It, Imagining 1001 Years,"
commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture and Siemens Kultur
Program was produced in the Kunsthalle-Krems, Austria. (Feb-Mar 1995) "The
Reference Room" a telelink installation using the "CITY-LINKS" format was
produced for the Rosekrans Residency at Mills College. (1993) The Four Part
Multimedia Narrative, "Synaptic Island" was commissioned by the Japanese
government and produced at the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in
Tokushima Japan. (Apr-May 1992) I was invited to give the John Spencer Camp
Lecture at Wesleyan University. (Nov 7 1995) Participation in the two week
Symposium, "Tuned Matters Into Sound," Krems-Vienna with La Monte Young,
Bernhard Leitner, James Tenney, and Georg Friedrich Haas at the Museum of
Modern Art, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna. (Feb20-Mar5 1995) 3-D sonic
architectures, commissioned by the Matshushita Electric Company were
designed and produced for the 750 programmable loudspeakers in Panasonic
Hall, Tokyo. (1991) CD recordings were released on the Tzadik label,
"Sound Characters" (Making The Third Ear) ( Feb 99;) and on the Asphodel
Sombient Triology: "The Throne Of Drones" (May 95) "The Swarm Of Drones"
(Oct 95) and "The Storm Of Drones" (Aug 96)

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13 july 1999

Maryanne wrote:
>It is very hard to resist good compelling beats, perceptually. They are on
>target and there are no questions of their direct neural effects! They
>create a really vivid world that everyone enters, with full sensorial
>presence. I map "perceptual geographies" in the immersive aural
>architectures I create because I want to target certain specific spatial
>effects with the kind of compelling unquestionable, sensorial focus that
>emerges in a beat environment.

Drew replies:
>David Toop suggested that the club aesthetic of a single, overpowering
>soundfield leaves little room for the kinds of spatial effects considered
>in SenseSonic. And Andrew Deakin asked if anyone had experience of how
>sound diffusion and spatialisation could work with powerful amplification.
>In your view, what are the best ways to combine the kinds of strategies
>found in sound installations or sonic art (such as sound spatialisation)
>with a beat environment?
 
Drew,
I will not write much now since I only have about 1/2 hour before the bell 
rings  The second installment of "Creating Presence" will give some specific 
examples based on the description of your recent club event. I believe such 
sound designs can be effective even in the club aesthetic of a single, 
overpowering soundfield.   A new approach to the situation is what is 
exciting to me, with many possibilities. But more about this later.

Andrew asked if anyone had experience of how sound diffusion and 
spatialisation could work with powerful amplification.  The architectural 
staging of my works in  "MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS" and "MINI SOUND 
SERIES"  is certainly an example, and Naut Humon's wonderful system for Sound 
Traffic Control events.
These are two different approaches to creating multidimensional sonic 
environments and should be discussed in more detail.  In short: in my work is 
location-based,  I create spatial relations by staging the sound 
architecturally, throughout a number of rooms and usually in large spaces.  I 
am specifically using architecture - "the spaces the sound sounds in" - to 
develop experiences that can only be realized through architecture. (More 
specifics about this later)  Sound Traffic Control is a completely designed 
portable system ready to go anywhere; the spatial parameters are designed and 
developed at the Compound in San Francisco.

The following is an excerpt by Peter Watrous describing an experience of 
powerful amplification in one of my performances, using one room only.
"....at times the room seemed literally filled with sound -- sound became 
tactile..she used immense volume to make sound feel liquid, all-enveloping, 
as if it were pouring into ears, between fingers and through hair.  Ms 
Amacher layered her noises -- buzzing tones wrapped in sandstorm textures, 
........into an apocalyptic, terrifying landscape. ..About one-quarter of the 
way through the show, Ms Amacher, calmly but theatrically adjusting the knobs 
on her control panel, made the music sound as if 1,000 cicadas had settled on 
the inside of the ear; the music sprang from inside a listener's head - an 
unusual experience.  Suddenly music became dangerous, violating the body.  
Experiencing this discomforting penetration, the audience merged as if it 
shared a catstrophe, passengers on a plane that narrowly missed crashing.  In 
a sense her music is similar to bass-heavy reggae sound systems or a 
high-volume Sonic Youth concert - the extreme of volume and intensity make 
the experience communal,a shared natural event.   But this sense of physical 
danger is tied into something else MA, a long time electyronic and 
environmental music experimentalist, is getting at: by having the audience 
walk around the room and having music erupt from all sides, she readjusted 
the traditional relatiions of power between performer and audience.  And by 
by walking around, the source materials changed as a listener's relationshipo 
to various speakers changed,....."

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Show source / Syntax / History