The blue-colored installations depict moments of the three-day interdisciplinary environment “Occupying Space”. The installation “Handeln (Lonely Church)” was only perceptible for the viewers in this state. The blue coloring is part of the light installation “Der Drang zum Luminösen” by Julius Schmiedel. It is shown here to give an objective impression of the received spatial environment of the installation “Handeln (Lonely Church)”. “Handeln (Lonely Church)” was developed for the overground part of the Church of St. John XXIII in Sülz, Cologne. The installation consists of 16 tactile sound transducers, which were glued onto the church window glass in regular intervals. These transducers use the antique church window glass as a membrane and cause it to vibrate – the architecture becomes a sound source and is audible both in the church interior and in the urban space. The church interior and the speakers positioned in it were recreated virtually by software. Therefore, the sound can be moved from speaker to speaker in relation to the physical space, resulting in the authentic impression of a surround experience. The sound source is the American military march “Military Escort” by Henry Fillmore, which has been slowed down to a tenth of its original speed using a time stretch. When the method of time-stretching is used to slow a piece of music down as heavily as in this case, it generally produces artifacts and the phenomenon of “reverberation” – something new is created. Lossless time-stretches are between 130 and 200 % and the factor of 1000 % chosen for “Handeln (Lonely Church)” is designed to produce exactly this “new creation”. A second group of speakers consists of four fixed speakers, which are part of the church inventory and are normally used during mass. These are arranged in a circle in the center of the church and directed towards the exterior walls. A coherent second sound source has been created for them: classical drum rolls by the drummer Lukas Schäfer, succinctly and seemingly without context permeating the quiet atmosphere of the slowed-down march.

contributors:
Sabrina Baumann - design
Dr. Georg Imdahl - Introduction
Dr. habil. Christopher Dell - text about sound
Benedict Wahlbrink - text about architecture
Baukunstarchiv NRW - reproduced plans

edit.: Moritz Riesenbeck | Softcover, 124 pages | 22 × 28 cm, de/en | 

ISBN 978-3-86206-957-6 | April 2022

https://www.verlag-kettler.de/de/buecher/moritz-riesenbeck/