martin bonadeo | texts

Basically, my idea was to work with the soundspace of the campus. Since my arrival to L.A. I've been impressed by the amount of people talking to their cell phones in many languages, probably to different cities, states, countries and continents around the world. In other words, they are here physically, but an important part of their audition and attention is in another place, far from here. They are experiencing what Adriana de Souza e Silva, a Brazilian visiting scholar at D|MA UCLA, call hybrid space: A kind of perception in which the ear (in the case of the phone) is connected to a different space that the rest of the body. This hybrid space is incomplete, people are continuously experiencing the isolation and connection of one of their ears to sound in a different place. This description is in a way very similar to the notion of a laboratory in the scientific field: The idea of creating a space of (apparent) isolation of one variable to prove a hypothesis.
Minsky says that “many people feel offended when their minds are linked to computer programs or machines”, but further, we are not conscious that every day more and more spaces of our lives are invaded by this limited and binary way of thinking. Our experience of reality is modified all the time by these simple and incomplete representations. From bidimensional perspective to virtual reality our senses are perceiving artificial representations and reproductions of real sensations in hybrid mental conceptual worlds.
One curious example about this artificiality is UCLA's campus carillon: A “sound clock”. The Powell Library Building's chimes are produced by a carillon, an eight-octave organ-like instrument which is kept in a basement room in Schoenberg Hall, -situated two blocks from the library- . The carillon sends the tones through electronic bellrods and solenoids, which then travel through cables in underground steam tunnels across to Powell. During the 1999 summer, the carillon equipment was replaced and a new digitalized system updated all the recording and playing equipment.
It is very strange noticing that there’s no visual reference for the bells that announce every hour the time, but its even more strange finding out that the origin of the chimes are speakers instead of bells. These bells can be heard from almost any place in the campus -depending on some variables like the wind-, but sometimes we don’t hear them or to be more specific we don’t pay attention to them -this sound is part of the environment, it fades into background, as Weiner's ubiquity idea. But probably, if these speakers work together with the art piece I’m proposing, changing their sound (adding entropy to the UCLA's sound system), people will start paying attention to this new “noise”.
In conclusion, the idea is to develop some daily sonifications that represent the behavior of the wind –based on data actualized by the UCLA's weather department- and play them through the digital carillon/speakers system. I want to relate people that is living here and walking through the campus to a representation of an important part of their actual soundspace: the wind.

natural music translated to carillon
by narges zohoury THE DAILY BRUIN 11/23/2004

Inspired by wind, Martin Bonadeo composes tunes played from Powell.

As the clock strikes 5 p.m. and three minutes of music begin to play, the sun is setting, the sky is orange and many students are ending their day on campus. Martin Bonadeo marks this end by letting the wind speak to the campus. The foreign scholar sits in a small room in the basement of Schoenberg Hall playing the carillon that is heard throughout the campus. For eight days, the pre-recorded pieces that are typically heard on campus are replaced by Bonadeo's pieces based on wind activity from the previous day. His last day playing will be Wednesday.

The room consists of the carillon – a piano-like instrument with two rows of keys – two chairs and a computerized unit that controls the clock. The room is so small that the chairs had to be readjusted for the door to close.

Before playing, 29-year-old Bonadeo downloads recorded measurements of the day's winds and practices the piece for 30 minutes. The direction and speed of the wind indicate the notes played and how many key strikes are made. The wind measurements he uses are taken from Santa Monica airport because the area is known to have similar wind patterns as UCLA.Bonadeo had to listen to wind-chimes for hours to find the notes to correctly represent the wind.

In the three-minute piece, each hour of the day is represented through eight seconds of music. Calm hours are represented as eight seconds of silence and more windy hours can sometimes be a "mess," Bonadeo said.

"My experience is completely different than people who are hearing it," he said, referring to his perspective from the tiny room and that he will never get to experience what it's like to hear the music on campus. For those on campus, the experience differs depending on the listener's location because some notes can't be heard in parts that are far from the speakers at the top of Powell library. Bonadeo emphasized that the scenery of the location also changes the listener's experience.

"Each person has a unique experience with the piece, including me," he said, comparing it to being on a radio show where the program is being broadcast from an "ugly room with mics."

Bonadeo came to UCLA from Argentina last spring and has since been working with UCLA's Hyper Media studio on developing a number of projects using his grant from UCLA. He has been trying since last April to obtain permission to play the carillon, which is used for special occasions only.

As a part of his exploration into sound as a form of communication, Bonadeo got the opportunity to play the carillon for eight days.

Jeff Richmond, a senior electronics technician with the music department, handles most inquiries regarding the carillon and said a case like Bonadeo's in which someone other than Music department graduate advisor Mary Crawford, the designated carillonneur, gets to play the carillon has never been done before.

Richmond explained the carillon is programmed to play songs at random and the only time it's played live is by special request and for special occasions.

According to "UCLA on the Move," a book capturing UCLA's history, the bells first rang in March of 1939 and the system has since been replaced by the carillon.

Bonadeo decided to dedicate his time to this project when he noticed that most people on campus are often preoccupied with cell phones and outside problems and "are not here completely." He explained that he saw this project as a good opportunity to connect people to where they are.

He also appreciates the timing of the carillon project; the music is played at the end of each day.

"What I'm playing is the wind from the last 24 hours. At 5 (p.m.) the day is closing, and I'm playing the sound of that day," he said. "This piece has a relation with sun and cycles."

Bonadeo sees UCLA as the perfect outlet for this form of public art because there is such a large congregation of people from different places gathered here.

"For those moments, everyone is connected," he said.

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