| Listening to the mind at play | ||
|---|---|---|
| Contextual map | Visual reference | Generative process |
| Artists A - Z | Artwork A - Z | Key content |
| Audience participation | Social setting | Research process |
| Title: |
| Gastarbyter |
| Artist(s): |
| Bruce Gilchrist |
| Brief description of the work: |
| Audience members experience frequencies through light, audible and sub-sonic sound, and vibration. |
| Materials, dimensions, duration: |
| Metal chair with rubber headrest, arms and legs, light and sound |
| Location (venue & dates, public/ private): |
| Gastarbyter was on show at the ICA, London in May 1998 |
| Audience information (size, mode of participation): |
| Audience members could book a 10-minute solo session to explore light and sound in a darkened theatre space |
| Other information (reviews, collaborators, funders): |
| Jo Joelson: lighting technology responsive to specific audio frequencies; Dugal Mckinnon: integrated sound score. |
| Floorplan, scheme: |
photo by Mark Pinder
|
| Visual/ audio-visual reference: |
photo by Mark Pinder
|
| Key theme(s): |
| Intense engagement with a body, immersive play, |
| Further context: |
|
"... when the music begins and the chair starts quivering... Four neon tubes spring into life, triggered by the varying pitches of the enveloping soundscape. Flowing red lines zip on and off, occasionally turning blue, as the neon hits a pocket of mercury. A low revving hum sends a brief tingle up one leg, a couple of deep bongs and your buttocks get a delicate pummelling, then a sustained vibro-massage of the lower back... Reverberations travel up and down the body. Lights and chair-sensors react in harmony with the shifting electronic noise, jiggle to a few short percussive tones, then surf down a long, mesmerising gong until you are literally inhabiting the interior landscape of the sound. Suddenly, there is a change of tempo: the neon dances frantically and your whole body buzzes with vibration. This is probably how it feels to be a bluebottle frazzling on a kebab-shop insect-o-cutor. In our increasingly visual culture, we are usually cut off from our proprioceptive powers "... "feel the sound" ... from a review by Judith Palmer (The Independent) "WELCOME TO THE PLEASURE ZONE" |