StructureSonica
Using the formal language of the building’s architecture as its foundation StructureSonica is the sonification of a set buildings within the Warehouse Precinct in central Dunedin.
Their interior surfaces are used as diaphragms that can catch the whispers of their material substance and their structural displacements is logged via electrical sensing equipment. A language that is codified in architecture’s guttural groans and moans, creaking bone sounds of their inner forms and substance, is captured, giving them voice.
Space is sheered from the structural bones of the building and discarded in favour of their material vibration. A profile of architecture, mechanical engineering and environmental forces is reconstructed via sound recording and synthesis. Through the digital the scale of the building shifts from one that is bound to the human register to one that is spatially and temporally apart from our senses and understanding. A sense of the inner structural system of the building emerges and this will be queried as to the future of these buildings.
The area the project focuses on, the Warehouse Precinct, is an area know for its industry and commerce but one that also has a subversive side of band practice spaces, venues and raves. This area is currently undergoing regeneration. With this in mind a range of buildings from abandoned to fully renovated have been chosen to be recorded and become part of the acoustic profile of the neighbourhood.
