How Does Space Shape Sound?

Answers to the question can take many forms, from the technical through to the poetic and the phenomenological. Terms like sound and space are seemingly quite simple, in their everyday usage, yet when we begin to look past their conventional definitions, things start to get complicated. We find it difficult to talk about one without the other, and questions arise as to the workings of, and potentials in, that relationship. Certainly, in a strictly physical sense, sound and space cannot be separated; sound, as mechanical vibration, needs room to unfold, and matter to modulate. This means that an acoustic experience is, by its very definition, a spatial one as well. And yet, there is always more to it. Saturday’s first panel was asked to think through the many ways that space and sound are contingent upon one another, and how artists have both learned from, and learned to manipulate, that dynamic. We asked Jesse Stewart what sonic perspectives he derives from his physical surroundings when choosing locations for his recording? We learned from Gordon Monahan how to transform an abandoned brick factory into a massive musical instrument. And we probed just what Barry Blesser means when he tells us “spaces speaks” and asks: “are you listening?”