Untitled (30 Meter später)

Untitled (30 Meter später) (2016)

reel to reel tape recorders, microphones, loudspeakers, magnetic tape loops; dimensions variable

Two tape recorders are located at distant points in the exhibition space. A magnetic tape loop connects the two devices. One of the devices is equipped with a microphone and records all the locally occurring acoustic events on the magnetic tape. The tape moves at constant a speed of 19 cm/s to the other machine where it is played back through a loudspeaker. The delay of playback is thus determined by the exact distance between the two devices. This setup produces a spatio-temporal separation of an acoustic event, its medium state and its manifestation. When manifestations of acoustic events come to our awareness they always already belong to the past, since they are separated from their original body and place of occurrence. This however creates the impression of an actual dissociation of cause and effect, as if an interaction with the echo could take place.

The installation Untitled (30 Meter später) consists of several instances of this very setup. Whereas the magnetic tape loops actually divide the space along their lines and embody an intervention to the exhibition, the visual presence of the work itself is rather subtle. This subtleness is also represented in the resulting sound environment which is nonetheless fairly complex in its structure. While crosstalk between loudspeakers and microphones leads to an interplay between the different instances, the result is an audible palimpsest of several spatial and temporal levels.