Soundman at SONICA (2017), Ljubljana (SI)
Soundman (2017) is an acoustic sculpture based on the principle of sound reflection and it’s assembled with readymade elements: a satellite dish, polished as a mirror surface, reflecting the whispering sounds of a polyethylene tube, that dances to an airflow generated by a small ventilator. This assemblage generates an unpredictable composition of sound and image which the visitor can experience from various points of view.
The title of Soundman refers to ‘Soundman-cyclus’ (1981-1990), a series of installations and music theater pieces by Dick Raaijmakers (1930-2013). Raaijmakers was a Hague-based pioneer composer of electronic music, media artist, theater maker and theorist. ‘Soundman-cyclus’ in turn was inspired by ‘Night Owls’, the first sound film with American comedians Laurel & Hardy from 1930. In the film Laurel & Hardy are two burglars trying to enter a house in the middle of the night. Almost all sounds they produce while trying to pass the obstacles, are explicitly followed by a ‘…shhh!…’ Particularly for their first sound film Laurel & Hardy left a large part of the twenty-minute costly soundtrack deliberately unused –
a sublime interpretation of sound in film history.
In this context Soundman is a semiotic prolongation of Raaijmakers’ pieces, in its effort to dramatise the perception of sound and light phenomena.
Night Owls (1930), by Laurel and Hardy
Night Owls (1930), by Laurel and Hardy