The latest sound installation by Florian Hecker – titled Event, Stream, Object – introduces a new dimension to the art of sound. An intersection of space, sound, and sophisticated technology, the exhibit challenges one’s ability to “describe what we hear, when, where and from whom it is heard.”
The temporary installation is open through August 22, 2010 at MMK, Frankfurt’s museum of modern art, which commissioned the exhibit.
As part of MMK’s exhibit Radical Conceptual, Hecker’s Event, Stream, Object creates an unusual listening environment to manipulate one’s perception of sound, with his multilayered composition supported by eight Meyer Sound MM-4XP loudspeakers, each conveying a sequence of synthetic sounds.
The miniature loudspeakers are suspended from the ceiling, with bent reflectors in front of the them to emphasize the way sounds rebound and are diverted, thus heightening the complexity of the experience.
“In my works, I have to place sound sources at distinct positions, where seeing them becomes a crucial aspect for the multimodal experience of these pieces,” says Hecker. “Event, Stream, Object dramatizes an uncoupling of sound sources in the space and the locations from which we perceive them to come.”
Event, Stream, Object offers an unpredictable visitor experience, and also serves as an educational experiment for the artist. “At certain moments one isn’t so sure any longer where a sound comes from,” says Hecker. “I’m interested in this exact moment where different models of auditory perception, the event, the stream and the auditory object interfere.”
Having used the Meyer Sound MM-4XP loudspeaker in the remarkable architectural pavilion The Morning Line, as well as in his recent solo shows at the Chisenhale Gallery in London and IKON Gallery in Birmingham, Hecker is familiar with the power and tight control of these four-inch-square loudspeakers.
“With the MM-4XP and MM-4XPD directional loudspeakers I found the perfect models with highly directional as well as more omnidirectional sound fields and an incredible compact design,” says Hecker. “It’s exciting to work with them in this space.”
Dr. Susanne Gaensheimer, director of MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, says: “Florian Hecker is one of the most innovative artists of the present, because in his work, he combines the areas of fine art, music and performance in order to break down the barriers between them and open up new forms of expression and means of perception in space and time.”
