5/2 kl17: opening of tristan perich (US): interval studies

on february 5th tristan perich (NYC) is opening his exhibit “interval studies” in mikrogalleriet.

below is the artists statement:

tristan perich: “interval studies”

300 small speakers drape the walls in linear and planar clusters, each emitting tones tuned microtonally to span distinct frequency intervals. these dense clusters of sound sources are the subject of a series of musical compositions, continuing perich’s investigations into the foundations of electronic sound. each speaker, emitting a single, primitive 1-bit tone, becomes a microscopic voice in the total composition, substituting individual pitch for larger sonic masses.

1-bit waveforms are the simplest possible digital manifestation of sound. on and off pulses of electricity, produced by hand-programmed microchips and routed directly to audio speakers, cause the speaker membrane to vibrate and produce extremely raw tones. data creates sound without intervening components such as digital-analogue converters, creating a direct link between the abstract and the physical. interested in the aural aesthetic and the concepts behind 1-bit audio, perich first explored the medium in 1-bit music, a 40-minute “album” of electronic music programmed onto a microchip and packaged inside a standard cd jewel case with a headphone jack mounted through the side (its followup will be released this fall). these stereophonic compositions treated each headphone speaker as a discrete audio source. working with microchip/speaker pairs as individual instruments, perich began composing for ensembles of traditional classical instruments accompanied by 1-bit speakers on stage, such as “active field,” for ten violins and ten-channel 1-bit music.

“interval studies” is full-on assault on this idea, implementing clusters of hundreds of small speakers. by tuning them precisely, perich aims to work with electronic sound on the microscopic level. the series of compositions for the instrument will be scored geometrically and algorithmically to create hundred-part pieces of music. the resulting modular art work can be comfortably installed on a gallery wall. his recent work, “impulse manifold,” has been realized as a self-contained 15-channel audio panel, whose design could be multiplied to create the speaker clusters: each 12″ square circuit board is synchronized by a master chip. most technical details have been satisfied by that project, and the construction of the wall is mostly reduced to the iterative task of soldering together many, many speakers onto molded boards. perich is no stranger to working at scale, from daisy-chaning video generators to create an 18 television installation, to installing 1,300 fiber optic wires (approx. 2 miles) to create a low-resolution 3-d display.

this exhibition is supported by the danish arts council committee for visual art and cph air