Since 1995, Wollscheid has been working on the idea of a portable unit, the SOUND_BOX, able to monitor and record sounds from an environment, transform them according to a flexible compositional program and re-play them in real time, thus reworking sound in order to re-sound space.
SOUND_BOX was born with the conceptual intention of creating a sound void inside a non-delimited space, an intention which was technically unfeasible with current instruments; Wollscheid has therefore re-elaborated this idea into the construction of an object, capable of picking up and transform the actual sounds of an environment, generating a range of sounds stacked to the ones it receives and processes. The recent development of a new micro-IC has allowed the SOUND_BOX to be realized in a portable format, thus making it technically feasible according to the artist’s original idea. SOUND_BOX has been developed in collaboration with Dirk Witschke, who curated the C++ programming, and Thomas Baumgart, who conceived and designed the hardware.
SOUND_BOX is to raise people’s awareness of their environment, through the object’s influences on the space. Yesterday I met him in Rome, to do a little (audiovideo)interview where he briefly describes it:
Achim Wollscheid is a media artist whose work over the past 20 years has been at the forefront of experimental music. He has performed and presented installation projects internationally. His work in sound has led to an interest in the relation between sound, light and architectural space, which he pursues through public, interactive and electronic projects. He is a founding member of SELEKTION. The first edition of the SOUND_BOX is now displayed in RAM – Rome until October 31st.
