Pefect Fifth

walk-in sound installation @minus20degree biennal

The installation Perfect Fifth is made up of two snow caves, in each of which an audio-feedback is created through a microphone and a loudspeaker. The sound of the feedback oscillates in the natural frequency of the snow cave, whereby there is a direct analogy between the size of the resonance chambers and the pitch, so that an interval of a pure fifth can be tuned by adjusting the size ratio difference of the two chambers. By the natural compression of the snow and by melting, the interval changes and is getting out of tune during the time of the biennial. The work takes inspiration of the minimal composition 160 #7 by La Monte-Young, which comes with a very simple score: “hold the interval of a perfect fifth a very long time”.

thanks to the whole team of m20d, Lukas Kobel and Florain Kläger for video- and photo documentation, Phillip Walschebauer for consultations on igloo-building and Peter Plessas for his help in acoustic queries.