Ars Electronica Garden Espoo/Helsinki
REMOTE / DISPLACED
Äänen Lumo (FI), Aalto University (FI), quietSpeaker (FI)
remote/displaced is an immersive audiovisual concept album by quietSpeaker based around a physical place: Öljysäiliö 468, a vast, decommissioned and repurposed oil tank by the sea of East Helsinki.
The acoustics of this place are extremely peculiar due to its shape and materials, with long reverberation times, shimmering echoes and immersive radiating patterns. In addition, it is an almost magical site for a modern times sonic ritual, due to its appearances of a relic of fossil fuel culture, its position by the shore, and its nature, in- between a closed industrial space not meant for humans and a shell open to the surrounding land- and soundscapes, that constantly filter and reverberate in its open cavity.
The project takes the shape of a collection of brief immersive audio-visual visits to this special remote place, exploring ways to listen to the encounter between sound, technology, space and landscape, as it emerges like a precarious ecosystem, where the boundaries between natural and artificial get constantly renegotiated and deformed by technology.
In-between physical and virtual space, the brass instruments, an array of recycled sonic devices, the light, the wind and the sea waves, filtering through the holes on the metallic reverberant surfaces, transform one another.
remote/displaced was originally presented to Ars Electronica 2020 festival, with the
360° video experiences accessible through a virtual reconstruction of the Silo, realised in the social VR platform Mozilla Hubs. There the audience could use a wide array of technologies, from VR goggles to mobile phones or personal computers, both remotely and in situ during the festival.
Remote / Displaced
01- Apparition, 1:47
02 - Reflections, 3:17
03 - Pulse, 4:40
04 - Nocturne, 4:27
05 - No sleep, 2:04
Project Credits / Acknowledgements
Äänen Lumo (Charm of Sound)
quietSpeaker (Andrea Mancianti and Roberto Fusco)
Aalto University Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics
Aalto University Department of Media
Concept, composition and electronics: Andrea Mancianti
Visuals and 3D animation: Roberto Fusco
VR and immersive audio production: Sebastian Schlecht
VR and immersive audio engineer: Nils Meyer-Kahlen
Sound Engineer: Thomas McKenzie
Musicians: Henriikka Teerikangas, Inka Pärssinen, Sauli Saarinen, Max Silfverberg, Mikko Marttila.
Production: Äänen Lumo, quietSpeaker, Aalto University
Supported by: Kone Foundation, Taike (Arts Promotion Centre Finland) and The City of Helsinki