Enclosure

Enclosure, Hoxton Gallery, London, UK, 2011
Confined, NEST, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2012

A project by Sebastian Kite & Will Laslett

Enclosure is an immersive sound and light installation, whereby the audience interact with a specifically composed sound score in a quadraphonic configuration in the spatial volume it inhabits.

The installation consists of four suspended pyramidal volumes, arranged concentrically around the central node of a room. Each volume serves to emit sound and light towards the centre in a manner in which inner and outer spatial areas are defined and separated. The installation is the only source of light in the space. Standing at the node, the participants are blinded by light and drawn to its heat, focusing their perception towards sound. The participant is encapsulated in a parallel temporal experience.

Enclosure is designed not as a passive listening experience, but a piece that engages the whole body in a choreographed experience of sound, light and heat. The projected sounds pass from one volume to the next, creating an ever evolving sound field. Standing in the path of the panning sounds a kinaesthetic sensation passes through the human body. In Enclosure, the projected sounds react directly with the spatial environment. The sound is affected by the space as well as by bodies within it. The acoustic signal is dry, with the knowledge that the inherent physicality of various rooms will create natural reverberations and acoustic anomalies.

This work was originally designed for a former war bunker, where it caused incidental momentary breezes in the air. This effect at the centre of the room was created by the inward facing loudspeakers. Bass tones produced vibrating air currents whereas mid-to-high frequencies would produce delicate flutters. The quadraphonic nature of Enclosure thus became more vivid, making possible for the listener to distinguish the orientation and conversation between the independent sources of sound.

Specification

Dimensions: L=6m, W=6m, H=2.5m
Media: 4x pyramidal steel frames, 8x 400w light, 5.1 surround sound, tensile cable, custom software and electronics