Novnain was a sound installation created for Ars Subterranea's inaugural event, An Exhibit on Underground New York, which was held inside the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Brooklyn. This was the first art presentation about this city's underground that was held in an actual underground location. For this event, we created a soundscape that represented the history of that space. Building upon the software from the Mata Hari event, we designed and built a 10-channel, 5 computer, networked cluster for controlling sound samples in space. The speakers were spaced along the tunnel so that the sound filled the tunnel and allowed us to create the feeling of motion. The installation was performed live using a wide array of train sound samples, from whistles to clackity-clacking to the sounds of mechanisms operating.
Novnain was intended to be interactive, but so much time was spend on the set up of the tunnel that none was left to develop the interactive portion before the show opened. Besides the programming of the sound software, we had to install lighting and electrical wiring, figure out how to network over long distances while working in very inhospitable conditions. A single manhole on one end of the half mile tunnel was the only entrance.
The software and the music was written by Hans-Christoph Steiner and Josh Steiner
Video excerpt of the sound installation:
Audio excerpts of the sound installation:
The Ars Subterranea event itself got quite a bit of press, which it available on that website. Here are some of the articles that specifically mention Novnain:
Starting with what we built for the Dark Passage event The Lost Head of Mata Hati, we further developed the software to allow more freedom of control and composition. This lead to much more elaborate compositions. It is free software released under the GNU GPL and is programmed in Pd. It has been replaced by the next generation of the same idea, called atorat.
Download CVS tarball: novnain.tar.gz
View CVS: http://cvs.at.or.at/viewcvs.cgi/novnain/
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