VARIATION
2017
Speakers, Microphones, Electronics
Variation is a site-specific sound installation in the lobby of Berwick Hall. The piece sonically activates the lobby by altering sound that happens in the adjacent rehearsal space. When the rehearsal space is active, microphones mounted in the ceiling pickup realtime audio that is then sent to custom software. The software shifts and collages the rehearsal space sound before broadcasting it back through the speaker sculpture into the lobby. The result is a time stretched, pitch shifted echo of whatever sounds are unfolding in the rehearsal space. When the rehearsal space is silent, the piece diverges from its realtime interpretation and instead draws from the history of the festival by referencing past Oregon Bach Festival performances as source material. Variation explores notions of representation, alteration, and extension by engaging the musical possibilities of architectural space.