Sonic symphony

SÖLEN KIRATLI AND AKSHAY CADAMBI’S HIVE

Hive

Art in the 21st century can look a lot less like part of a continuum, and more like a representation of the wide-ranging interests of artists living in a technical universe. A digital component is a likely aspect of new work. But for Sölen Kıratlı and Akshay Cadambi, whose Currents installation, Hive, includes a floating “organism” designed to communicate solely through sound waves, other influences include field recordings in nature, software engineering, architecture, the German concept of umwelt — roughly translated as “individual perception in any particular environment” — rock music, and an obsession with bats.

Kıratlı and Cadambi, who met as graduate students in the Media Arts and Technology (MAT) program at the University of California - Santa Barbara, also bring different backgrounds to the art-making process. Cadambi works as a software engineer in the audio industry, creating products for phones and laptops. He plays guitar in an informal rock band with friends, and is interested, artistically, in electronic music and the idea of spatial sound. “Spatial sound uses space as an element of composition,” he said. “It’s the intersection between where sounds come from and how they move.”

Kıratlı has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Istanbul Technical University and a master’s in architecture from the University of Southern California. She is working toward a PhD in the interdisciplinary MAT program at UCSB, where her research combines computer science, music, and visual arts. “In architecture, we design and fabricate,” she said. “We are interested in space, materials, and action — the human experience of these objects is also part of the work. The parallel with Hive is that once we decided how it was going to work, sonically, we had to decide what it was going to look like.”

The object the artists came up with for Hive is made out of plastic fabricated partially by 3D printer. It is light enough for one person to hold, Cadambi said, and is embedded with speakers, microphones, and ultrasound sensors that respond to movement and sound. It is also sensitive to how many people are around it. “The audience is feeding sound,” he said.

“Whistle, clap, sing,” Kıratlı said. “Walk around it, wave your arms, come close to it.” The object will respond differently based on these sonic inputs, she said. Bats, who fly around in the dark and use echolocation to guide them, also serve as inspiration for the object. “Their ears are hornlike. They can barely see. Even their nostrils are designed to process sound waves.” The hornlike chambers on Hive work like individual speakers. “We used field recordings of frogs, crickets, and the swarming sounds of bees, which were processed and altered electronically.” These sounds may not be recognizable, but the organic nature of the piece is intended to be evident. “Frogs in a pond will start vocalizing at the same time to confuse predators. This is spatial sound designed for survival. In humans, ascending tones often indicate pain, and descending sound, pleasure,” she said. In Hive, the audience can cause the object to react in an idle, curious, or fight-orflight mode. Four speakers stationed around the room offer environmental sounds as a background. “They create the ecology of the piece,” she said.

“Frogs in a pond will start vocalizing at the same time to confuse predators. This is spatial sound designed for survival. In humans, ascending tones often indicate pain, and descending sound, pleasure.” — artist Sölen Kıratlı

Sölen Kıratlı and Akshay Cadambi: HIVE, 2016, interactive new media installation