Questions

• How can a symbolic acoustic line be drawn between two distant locations?
• Could we linearize the acoustics of the two places creating the illusion of a single, infinite line of sound into which
both sites get trapped?.
• Supposing such a fragile acoustic construction could be realized, could it be physically disturbed by visitors at each
location?, in which way?.
• How could this disturbance provoke the "entanglement" of visitors with their own sonic perception not only locally but also remotely with visitors at the other location?
• Finally, how could we create a sonic experience that is physical, in which our body takes as a central role as our ears?


Environment

• One of the goals of the piece was to create a continuous "place", a linear environment across the city. For this purpose, we had to first transform the “void” space of the art gallery: the aseptic "white cube”.
• Furthermore, we had to deal with its inexistent sonic environment, transforming it into an identifiable soundscape.
• Therefore, creating a continuous visual and sonic environment that would span across the two sites, was one of our main tasks for the piece.


Double ambiguity

• As in Borges' story -were Scharlach and Lönnrot could be thought as being the same character- the two sites are the two faces of a same environment, conforming a singular "place" that can be inhabited at both sites.
• Rather than attempting to differentiate the two sites, our attempt was to create a uniform visual and sonic environment out of two complementary spaces and sounds.
• More explicitly: our goal was to create a subtle double ambiguity between the sonic and visual components of the sites, rather than representing a pedagogical A/B setting.

Stream

• The natural metaphor of a stream could be used to describe the acoustic environment of the installation.
• A sound stream transects the two galleries diagonally.
• Locally, the particles of the stream travel from one corner of the room to the other, where they get captured and sent over to the other site.
• This conforms the stasis of the sound environment


Perturbation

• People visiting the environment alter its stasis only if they bathe into the sound stream crossing the room.
• When the stream is perturbed, the sonic flux is partially or totally interrupted, and its particles spread around the space (not unlike what happens when we interfere a narrow but powerful stream of water).



Acoustic shadow

• A local perturbation of the stream produces one remotely, changing the acoustic conditions of the other site.
• Remotely, the local flux interruption is perceived as an "acoustic shadow": a ghostlike acousmatic presence.


Tele-absence

• By exploring the acoustic space of one site, people transform the acoustic environment of the piece both locally and remotely.
• They get channeled away through sound.
• The piece explores the concept of "tele-absense" (rather than tele-presence), using a virtual acoustic channel to telematically project the disembodied presence of participants between the two sites.


Multi-layered complexity

• Entanglement is a complex multi-layered environment.
• Entering the site, people need to adapt to its darkness, while doing so they have to rely mostly on their ears to make their initial explorations of the space.
• As the visual environment reveals itself dynamically, several aspects of the sonic environment also do so, depending on how much participants block the sound stream and for how long.
• There is an exchange of sound happening locally: particles forming the sonic stream out of the canal (or tube) spread around the place with body blockage, as the ones coming from the other gallery (first floating inorganically around the room) get attracted into the canal, opening a focused acoustic window into the other site.


Multi-layered complexity (cont.)

• Remotely, these interactions are reflected as sonic interruptions of the sound stream which also transform its texture.
• Only if the sound stream is broken simultaneously at both sites a new layer of the installation reveals itself, which emphasizes the acoustic time delay between the two locations (approx. 7”).

Final comments

• Entanglement presents an enigmatic, composite, autonomous environment which never reveals itself completely (as you can never concurrently see the two sides of the moon).
• The piece attempts to challenge the concept of "tele-presence" introducing the one of “tele-absence”. It creates a channel of communication between the two sites which requires the use of your body and your ears (not your voice, it is not Skype).
• Finally, there is a subtle dialectical relation between the extremely physical local experience of sound and the remote disembodied tele-absence of participants. While locally their body gets trapped among the particles of the sound stream, remotely only the acoustic contour of their body -built out of the same spread particles- gets cast as a shadow.