Hautepierre, Strasbourg - Les Ensembles 2.2

Le Chant des Immeubles #1 : Hautepierre

SONIC ARTS .

7+ years old

Duration : 20 – 30 min

A soundwalk created from the amplification of the acoustics and unique frequencies of buildings.

In the Hautepierre district, the songs are also accompanied by texts, made up of extracts from recorded interviews with the residents, in which they talk about their relationship to the building, what they see through the window, their dream place to live, the place they may abandon one day… in order to compose an unheard-of symphony of the built environment.

The creation

Every place has a unique identity. The materials and density of the building, its function, its location and its history give it particular characteristics. It therefore logically has its own unique acoustics and resonance frequencies.

To amplify these unique songs, Gaëtan Gromer has designed software that updates the recording technique developed by the composer Alvin Lucier in 1969.

As he approaches a building, it begins to ‘sing’ in its unique voice. When close to several buildings, they sing in chorus. The listener’s journey thus instantly recomposes the buildings’ symphony.

The artists

Gaëtan Gromer leads a creative activity at a crossroads between composition, performance and multimedia installation. He uses the astonishing power of suggestion and immersion of sound to deliver a certain view of the world, a particular point of hearing, to ‘tell’ with sound. He is one of the winners of the Imagina Atlantica 2012 European Digital Arts Prize in Angoulême and wrote the music for Samuel Henry’s Juste l’embrasser, which won the SABAM prize at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in 2008.