The piece is the first artistic derivative of a research project exploring haptic feedback interfaces based on ultrasonic pressure waves. The main idea that motivated the approach was rather utopian and envisioned an interface that would allow a musician to mould and shape some instance (abstraction) of a sound with his bare hands. While changing the shape of this – preferably immaterial – object the musician would experience its new shape and hear its acoustic appearance. A prototype instrument utilizing 97 ultrasonic transducers, one ultrasonic receiver and a mixing board was implemented for a very specific use – within the composition Sonic Beams /Acoustic Shadows utilizing a “no-input mixing board” audio aesthetics.
Produced by: IRZU – Institute for Sonic Arts Research, Ljubljana
Miha Ciglar (SI)
Miha Ciglar is a composer and sound artist currently studying at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria. Originally from Maribor, Slovenia, Ciglar now lives and works in Western Europe. Since 2001 he has performed his own compositions for saxophone, guitar, vibraphone, double bass, electro-acoustical performances, interactive dance performances, computer music and audiovisual installations at many art festivals all around the world.
His work has strong conceptual fundaments and points away from expressive values of common aesthetic ideals. A subject of high concern and priority is the problem of absolute awareness of sonic perception which is directly connected with the question of existential legitimacy of sound art. Ciglars compositional approach and attitude towards technological solutions are very similar and rooted in a revaluation of existent ‘material’, resulting in its preliminary decomposition, in order to absorb its originally suggestive character for an employment in the further process of creation.