Chelsea Leventhal

Depths

Site-specific sound installation with three speakers and three motorized spools. Presented during the group exhibition "Son a tous les Etages" organized by the department for Experimental Radio, Bauhaus Universität Weimar. Musée Réattu in Arles, France.
2010
In this installation, small moving sound sources are used to explore the particular acoustic of the well, which is 80 centimeters wide and over 5 meters deep. Three spools are motorized to lower small speakers several meters into the well and then pull them back to the surface in an infinite loop. The listener can hear the signals wane as the speakers disappear into the well, and then grow in strength as they rise to the surface. Simultaneously, the depth and shape of the chamber affect the filtering and resonance, processing the sound naturally and dynamically. The sound material includes texts, sustained tones, and white noise in short impulses. These clicks function to facilitate the localization of the speakers even when they cannot be seen, allowing the listener to directly experience the acoustic effects of depth and distance.