Concert 2

INFRASOUND Friday July 11, 7.00pm

Scott Arford, Randy H.Y. Yau), Lawrence English (Philip Samartzis, Machina aux Rock, Bruce Mowson, Randy H.Y. Yau (San Francisco).
Venue: RMIT University underground carpark
meet at Kaleide Theatre RMIT, 360 Swanston St
$8/$5 Concession

Media enquiries: Owen McKern 03 9925 3086, owen.mckern@rmit.edu.au
For information contact: Nat Bates or Bruce Mowson 03 9925 2239

Email: info@liquidarchitecture.org.au

back to Liquid Architecture 4 site

Randy H.Y.Yau and Scott Arford.
Arford founded 7Hz, a warehouse/performance
space that has featured Francisco Lopez,
Kit Clayton, Blechdom from Blectum, Zbignew Karkowski,
The Haters, Mayuko Hino, John Duncan and Scot Jenerik.
Yau serves as Curatorial Director of
23five Incorporated, a San Francisco based
non-profit sonic arts advocacy group
that has presented Sensorband, Douglas Kahn,
Carl Stone, Antimatter, Bob Ostertag
and Achim Wollschied.

Interview below

Bruce Mowson's interview with Scott Arford and Randy H.Y.Yau, July 2003

1 Could you tell me a bit more about your interest in affecting people physically? It sounds like your performances practically attack people at a molecular level.

Attack is, perhaps, a bit too aggressive a word to explain our performances. The subversive introduction of physical experience through slow conditioning and build-up is how we articulate a performance. Sound is the carrier device, but aesthetically, it is unimportant. The goal is to produce a physical reaction (via sound and pressure) in the space, objects in the space, and people occupying the space. The physiological and psychological side effects of this physical interaction are of great interest to us, but we do not attempt to direct or control what they might be.

2 Infrasound is a bit of a black magic zone of sound. Many people have come across it glancingly, from the infamous brown note, to the sick building phenomenon, to rumoured military weapons research. Have you or Scott researched the history surrounding it? If so, were there particular things that grabbed your attention?

We have spent a lot of time reading about infrasound and its effects and are quite drawn to the "black magic zone" of it. It is fortunate that a large body of writing about infrasound contains a lot of mythology, speculation, secrecy and wonder! Its physiological and psychological effects are not well understood which leaves a lot open for interpretation. Science has not yet spoiled its beauty. Vic Tandy has written some very interesting papers suggesting that low frequency standing waves are, in some instances, responsible for hauntings, uneasy feelings of being watched, and other paranormal experiences. There is a large network of researchers - people like Charlie Plyler at ELFRAD - operating entirely outside of the academic network of universities and public funding institutions who are studying low frequency waves as they propagate through the earth. This type of research applies to a lot of different kind of natural and manmade phenomena such as earthquake precursor research, earth - sun interactions, nuclear testing, and the potential existence of gravity waves.

3 In Melbourne, the performance is in a concrete underground carpark. Do you have an interest in unusual sites, and any interesting experiences in them in the past?

Every site has a unique acoustical signature which is probably the single greatest variable in our catalog of performances. In a sense, we generate an acoustic map of the space. These cartography techniques employed vary little from space to space, it is only the space that changes. Thus the variation from performance to performance can be used as a method to compare the relative differences between spaces.

For Liquid Architecture 4, given the materiality and location of the concrete underground carpark, we are particularly interested in the autonomous reflections of the space and how the topography of the space will react with infrasonic waves.

4 Both you and Scott seem to have been deeply involved in electronic music/art/stuff in SF, and have worked with an amazing variety of performers and ideas. Is there a particular event or work that come to mind as being important to either of you, or having had an impact on your work?

SA: NORCAL Noise Fest '95 was a very important event for me. It was where I met many close friends and future collaborators.

RY: Yes. NORCAL Noise Fest '95 brought together a lot of artists and collaborators. But 7hz, as a venue and a collective, really spawned an attitude that has influenced so much of the Bay Area's sonic arts.

5 Randy - In some liner notes, I've seen a photo of you performing Ð it looks pretty intense, like electrocution or something like that. Could you say a bit about what your interested in achieving, either for yourself or the audience, through your performance?

With my solo performances, particularly the "Mega-Mouth" piece, it is really about physicality. Physicality carries so many definitions, so when I am describing physicality in this context, I am really talking about the body in space. In this piece, all sounds are entirely generated and sculpted from feedback. I am essentially trying to control something that is quite random, like a beast. Through the slightest or most extreme movements, I am able to control tones and frequencies. This then becomes a direct physical challenge for me. So this particular performance metaphorically becomes a kind of battle for power between performer and sound. And the goal is to bring that power as close as possible to the audience.

Infrasound
by Scott Arford and Randy H.Y. Yau

"There is nothing else but sound, all that exists is vibration." - Zbigniew Karkowski

Hear with your body. This is not about music. This is not about performance or the performer. The goal is sound and the explicit translation of sound into physical force. The goal is internal and external realization. It is about provoking new modes of perceiving and experiencing one's own body - triggering variable and autonomous psycho-physiological response. It is about the total acoustic sense of space - observing sound to measure the capacity of architecture. It is about the phenomenon of resonance or sympathetic vibration - all things working in one continuum. Realization: 03/2001.