Acousmatic Sound in Multimedia Installations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of acousmatic sound in installations – an actively expanding
artistic phenomenon of contemporary culture formed within the framework of conceptualism in
the 1960s. Its purpose is to show by means of specific examples the diversity of construction of
acousmatic objects and their functions within the framework of a multimedia type of installations,
to show work with various kinds of sound material – verbal, noise-generated and musical, to
reveal the dynamics in the construction of such installation objects and the specificity of their
impact on the listener and viewer. Installation is an art pertaining to the environment based on
the idea of the relationship between the artistic object and the context. This phenomenon, which
is synthetic in its nature, has been formed at the crossroads of various types of arts and artistic
practices. Sound realities have also provided significant material for the creation of installationbased
works of art. The path of incorporating music into installations stemmed from simple
ornamentations of the installation space, capable of enhancing the aspect of suggestion, for the
sake of comprehending the object-related essence of the sound realities. This process has been
greatly stimulated by the development of computer technologies. With the emergence of the
phenomenon of multimedia installations, sound has acquired an illusory object outline, adapting
itself into the installations’ art space, along with physical realities and visual color and light objects.
In these new conditions the principle of acousmatic sound has clearly demonstrated itself, having
enhanced the performative essence of the phenomenon by means of actively involving the viewer
into the process of mastering the media art space. Virtually any sound production, including the
human voice, can become the physical foundation for artistic installations. Acousmatic voices
are a type of material widely used in the installations of Heiner Goebbels, in which acousmatic
speech is shown as a kind of verbal-sound magic, the suggestion of which makes the viewer
produce his own semantic meaning on the basis of what he has heard, which demonstrates the
essence of the installation as a space of interpretation. Musical installations may be categorized
into the interactive types and those in which the audience remains the passive recipient, while
being exposed to powerful audio or audio-visual impact. The examples of this kind can be found
in the works by Volkmar Klien, Marian Mentrup, Daniel Tage and Robert Henke, among others.
The multifunctionality of acousmatic sound objects in the space of multimedia installations has
been revealed by the analysis of the aforementioned examples.

Keywords: multimedia installations, computer music, acousmatic sound, suggestive possibilities
of music, spatial art.