Please listen with headphones correctly aligned.

Close is a multi-screen video projection installation by Iain Mott that blurs the separation between viewer and subject by means of 3-dimensional sound. The viewer wears headphones and hears sound from the perspective of the subject - an effect achieved through binaural recording methods. Close portrays a haircut as a kind of death. The hairdresser, in a gradual erasure of the subjects features, removes hair and eyebrows with scissors and razors. The viewer inhabits the body of the subject as if watching his or her own disappearance. The shared ritualistic experience explores territories of death and loss.

Produced with the assistance of Arts Victoria and the CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences. This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Videotaped at CSIRO Building Construction and Engineering, Melbourne. Offline edit at Open Channel - online edit at Fine Cut.

Binaural recording for headphone listening. Please listen with headphones correctly orientated.

Para ouvir com fones de ouvido. Certifique-se de que os fones estejam orientados corretamente.

Composition by Iain Mott.

A voice means this: there is a living person,
throat, chest, feelings, who sends into the air this voice,
different from all other voices.
A voice involves the throat, saliva, infancy, the patina of experienced life,
the mind’s intentions, the pleasure of giving a personal form to sound waves.
— Italo Calvino

Acoustic theatre for headphones of Italo Calvino's story A King Listens (Um Rei à Escuta in Portuguese) by the Laboratório de Performance e Teatro do Vazio (LPTV), research and extension group of the Instituto de Artes (IdA) of the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), linked to the Decanato de Extensão (DEX) and to the Departamento de Artes Cênicas, UnB.

Actors/voices:

Déborah Soares
Felipe Fernandes
Rogério Luiz

Direction, audio production and sound design:

Iain Mott

Binaural processing and mixing performed with the Soundscape Renderer (SSR), Puredata, Ardour 3, Jconvolver and the Jack Audio Connection Kit.

References

CALVINO, Italo. Um Rei à Escuta. In: Nilson Moulin (Trad.); Sob o Sol-Jaguar [Sotto il sole giaguaro, 1986]. p.57–89. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995.

* See also more complete version in Portugues:

Spatial-acoustic research on the cerrado from the perspective of the performing arts

Professor responsible: Dr. Iain David Mott
Departamento de Artes Cênicas (CEN)
Universidade de Brasília (UnB)

Project approved by the MCTI/CNPq in the Edital Universal Nº 14/2013.

Objectives

To study the acoustics and soundscape of the landforms and vegetation types of the national park Chapada dos Veadeiros and produce virtual acoustic environments from the investigations with applications in the performing arts. The project will emphasise the human voice in particular and its integration with the soundscape of the cerrado. Raw data from the field research will be used in the creation of new artworks and made available on the Internet to encourage dialogue between disciplines and new research. More generally, the project intends to feature the cerrado from an audio perspective. The project will welcome the participation of the public from the regional town of Alto Paraíso and will form part of the activities of research and extension of the collective Audiocena, part of the Laboratório de Performance e Teatro do Vazio (LPTV), of UnB. Cerrado Ambisônico will produce works of theatrical installation and radiophonic art, contributing to the education of undergraduate students of Artes Cênicas at the Universidade de Brasília from a interdisciplinary perspective.

Methodology

The approach of the Canadian derived movement of acoustic ecology will be the conceptual base of the project, examining the acoustic elements of a designated place as a dynamic system of information exchanges. Impulse response measurements will be made to facilitate the simulation of the acoustics of the environment by way of an associated process of convolution. Moreover, the techniques of ambisonic recording and binaural recording will enable the reproduction of soundscapes and their acoustics on headphones or multichannel systems of loudspeakers.

* Ambisonic Cerrado. Cerrado is the general term for the savana-like vegetation of central Brazil. The cerrado is extensive, occupying an estimated 2 million km² of land and has great biodiversity.

With Ludger Solbach at the International Computer Music Conference, Hong Kong, 1996.