Leeway Jeroen Uyttendaele 2013

Leeway explores an intersection between the physical space and the acoustic space or the imaginative space versus the real. The installation consists of four suspended, resonating plates. Two springverbs, four modulating lightbulbs and a graphite drawing. Steelplates and springs are mostly used by soundrecording studios and in guitare amps to create artificial reverb and thus a sense of space in sound and music. Leeway is inspired by this technique with a difference that the steelplates are resonators, rather then reverberators. The plates also create physical boundaries and thus a sense of ‘physical’ space. The springverbs, which are also suspended in the same arrangement, act as the main reverberators. Every plate is accompanied with a modulating lightbulb which illuminates synchronous with the sound it is producing. Besides the plates, springverbs and lightbulbs a graphite drawing is integrated as an electronic component (see ‘Ground’) into the whole arrangement. The drawing is a visual interpretation of the spatial arrangement of the installation. In the version showed above the shadow -which is produced by placing the lightbulbs right behind the plates and spingverbs- is overdrawn and used as the interface. The audience is invited to alter the sound by changing the position of the contacts on the drawing. This interactive component functions as a means for the spectator to be a more active listener and explorer of the work.