LO-10: 1935 by Florian Hecker

“What do machines hear that humans cannot?”

• 

For this week’s Looking Outwards, I looked up several artists and composers who work with sound as a part of their artwork. For all these artists I came across, sound is material to experiment with and create artistic expression. While several sound artists Rie Nakajima build objects as a part of the installation that create sound effects the audience can experience. Sound artists design sound for different spaces and environments which determines the quality and style of sound art.  

• 

While reflecting on the differences between electronic music and sound art, I learnt that many sound artists use environments and physical objects to make sounds. But computer music is unique in that sense. I research the computer musician Florian Hecker – specifically with his work 1935. I chose this work, because it does justice to expressing the medium it is creating in the overall effect of the sound.

1935 by Florian Hecker:

The final project is a soundscape that varies in modulation as different data is used as input.

In the description of this video, it describes how the sound itself embodies the listening behavior of machines.He exhibits how different sound generated by adding different inputs to the computer can show measures of abstraction and scales of resolution. He also tends to personify machines and asks, “What do machines hear that humans cannot?”. He therefore truly create an effect of a different type of non-human listening, and that computers listen differently than us.

Florian Hecker is a media artist who is affiliated to Edinburgh College of Art, the MIT art program and also showcases his work and installations at leading art galleries.

Blog link: http://florianhecker.blogspot.com/