Students become source of musical experiment
Students passing through the Doudna Fine Arts Center became a part of a unique musical experiment.
Bradley Decker, an instructor of music composition and theory, set up an audio installation that captured the vibrations from the noises within the concourse.
As people passed over the catwalks located on the second floor and over the Red Room microphones picked up the sounds they created.
This resulted in the creation of ambient sound that was played live within the concourse throughout the experiment.
“The microphones pick up vibrations that I can manipulate,” Decker said.
To create the experiment, Decker used a computer program called Max MSP, a program created by Cycling 74.
“I can alter any kind of signal, data or audio to produce different kinds of results,” Decker said.
The alterations include different looping effects, granular effects, synthesis effects, and delays.
Decker watched for individuals to pass over the catwalks to alter the vibrations to create different textures of sound.
Decker based the idea off of Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” that was recorded in 1978.
“I wanted to attempt the same thing in this building with a lot of the catwalks,” Decker said.
Eno began using the term “Ambient music” to describe this kind of sound that has become a trend over the last 25 years.
In the liner notes for “Music for Airports,” Eno defined ambiance as an atmosphere or a surrounding influence: a tint.
“Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting,” Eno stated in the liner notes for the album.
Ambient music has become more popular over the last 25 years, Decker said.
In Decker’s experiment, some of the sound was prerecorded to create a composite texture to the sound.
“The composite piece is not meant to be listened to. It is simply there to add to the texture,” Decker said.
Decker had his audio installation set up from noon to 2 p.m. Monday and 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday.
As people would talk, laugh and walk the vibrations could be heard around the corridor.
“It’s nice to be a part of the outside world and it’s interesting to get out of the studio,” Decker said.
Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942
