At first glance it is not much that meets the eye, you might even think you’ve reached the end of the exhibition and turn around. And no one can blame you, the visual component of Jesper Norda’s piece “The Centre of Silence” is a nondescript and completely empty room. If you decide to stay inside the room however, you will soon start to become comfortable in the silence and emptiness. This is an appreciated contrast to the outside world with its never ending bombardment of the senses. Just as you’ve settled down in the room in its present state a voice begins talking to you from above, and what it is saying transforms the room and all the empty space that surrounds you. But there are no physical alterations made to the space. Instead the transformation applies to what you consciously perceive, the result of processing visual and audial input through the body’s sensory system and your mind. But to say that the change is not real is hard to argue.
Sound is the critical part of the piece and it’s constituted of an audio loop where a voice reads a factual description of the room, its dimensions and the properties of air, sound and silence. In this audio loop is also embedded periods of silence, static sound tones and white noise in between each part of the descriptive monologue. Through the factual description the voice reads out, it transforms the emptiness of the room into a massive body of air molecules. It pushes what is so known and ubiquitous to us into conscious thought, resulting in a relative hyper-awareness of the empty that feels pervasive in its ambiguous heightened state; it’s both novel and familiar. The silence in the empty room becomes an embodied and astonishing phenomena as the piece allows for ample contemplation in between the parts of the monologue. It’s by the same means the static tone and especially the white noise that concludes the audio loop obtain their impact on the listener. There is a deliberately immediate transition from monologue to silence/sound/noise that deprives the viewer of any chance to prepare, this becomes a rousing component of an otherwise uniformly slow paced piece.
The artist, Jesper Norda, is a Swedish visual artist who began his artistic explorations in music and even studied to become a composer before changing focus. His background shines through in much of his work as it often ties back to music and sound, so also here in “The Centre of Silence”. The piece is meant to explore the properties of silence and how bodily and spatial awareness affect the sensory experience mediated through sound and silence. The original work is owned by Kalmar Konstmuseum and because the piece is dependent on the room it is displayed in the version currently on display in the New Media Gallery (NMG) in New Westminster is a version tailor made for that venue.
The technology of the work is rather common. There are speakers recessed in the ceiling of the room. These speakers play back the recorded audio loop into the otherwise empty room that is evenly lit up by standard ambient light fixtures. In the original installation the room had windows that where covered over with white paper to only let dim light through. At the NMG the room has two glass doors at the back, these remain uncovered. As “The Centre of Silence” is part of NMG’s four piece exhibition around the properties and experiences of sound there is sound interference from pieces in adjacent rooms at the gallery, which is unfortunate as Norda’s piece is of a subtle nature.
Tracing the artist’s previous work he seems intrigued by, maybe even obsessed with, the special state that is silence. In interviews Norda has described how he emphasizes exactitude in his works[1], this is certainly felt in the minimalist and precise “The Centre of Silence”. The stripped down implementation is part of what enables a listener to abstract the room, its volume, the air and the sounds experienced. The artist’s naturalist adherence becomes clear through the voice’s description of hearing as a balancing act between both sides of your ear drums while they are being “exposed to a frantic rain-like racket created by millions upon millions of air molecules” [1]. The monologue is also loaded with metaphors to the natural world. These are repeatedly relating to water, like in the form of rain in the just quoted passage, but also in the comparison of ear drums to calm water surfaces. This seemingly innocent relation between air and water, substances of radically different weights, established through the monologue serves well in the cause to give the emptiness of the room a body.
Standing in the room after hearing the scientific description of the noise and its propagation through space is a slightly uncomfortable experience. This sensation is triggered by the abruptness with which the white noise cuts off the monologue, there is no time to brace oneself. This is of course highly deliberate in its execution, but I’m contemplating if it might create an unwanted shift of focus away from the silence and towards the noise. After enduring the noise there is not much more than relief left of the sensation of silence; gone is the beautiful embodied mass of air delicately embracing you. Through its chaotic assault, given weight and velocity by the monologue, the white noise overpowers your impressions and etches itself into your memory as the primary take-away. Norda proposes an interesting question in the monologue, is white noise and its molecular chaos the opposite of a tone or the opposite of silence? Experiencing the alleviating sensory relief of the silence following the white noise as the audio loop concludes makes me lean towards the latter answer, but the scientific description presented gives weight to the former. It is through questions like this, and others found in the imaginative and abstract thoughts awakened within while experiencing the piece, that Norda achieves his goal of conceptualizing sound and silence.
- Norda, J and Haglund, M. Jesper Norda Portfolio p 2-5. [internet] [accessed 2016-01-29] Available from http://www.jespernorda.com/pdf/jespernorda_portfolio.pdf
The following manuscript is quoted from the artist’s portfolio, found in reference [1]
THE CENTRE OF SILENCE – SCRIPT
1/3 VOICE: At this moment, you are standing in a room measuring 16 meters and 29 centimeters wide, by 14 meters deep, by 3 meters and 85 centimeters in height. My voice travels through the air as waves of sound. The room is full of air molecules. 78 percent of these are nitrogen and the remaining 22 percent are mainly oxygen. They are all shaped like very tiny dumbbells and are moving uncontrollably through the room with a speed of approximately 1000 miles per hour. Together they weigh just about 1 ton or 1000 kilos. In a few moments I shall stop talking, and then there will be silence for a while. Your eardrums will then be exposed to a frantic rain-like racket created by millions upon millions of air molecules; collectively exerting a pressure of over eleven tons per square meter. However, the rain on both sides of your eardrum will be exactly the same pressure, the eardrum will be in a state of perfect balance. It is not moving, it remains still. A thin membrane in a perfect surface, as undisturbed water.
SOUND: one minute of silence
2/3 VOICE: At this moment, you are standing in a room measuring 16 meters and 29 centimeters wide, by 14 meters deep, by 3 meters and 85 centimeters in height. The room is full of air molecules. 78 percent of these are nitrogen and the remaining 22 percent are mainly oxygen. They are all shaped like very tiny dumbbells and are moving uncontrollably through the room with a speed of approximately 1000 miles per hour. Together they weigh just about 1 ton or 1000 kilos. Shortly, you will hear a tone. The previously chaotic movement of the air molecules will become totally regular. The molecules form a kind of net wherein the mesh becomes slightly finer every third meter. Every third meter the molecules oscillate in a group, the density increases, then decreases again. The temperature is higher in these clusters. This produces a change of air pressure and you will hear a tone. After a few moments the tone will fade suddenly, giving way to silence again. Your eardrums will then be exposed to a frantic rain-like racket created by millions upon millions of air molecules; collectively exerting a pressure of over eleven tons per square meter. However, the rain on both sides of your eardrum will be exactly the same pressure. The eardrum will be in a state of perfect balance. It is not moving, it remains still. A thin membrane in a perfect surface, as undisturbed water.
SOUND: sinus wave (220 kHz) sounding for one minute, followed by one minute of silence
3/3 VOICE: White noise is the opposite of a tone. It has all frequencies at the same time, all frequencies your ear can catch are perceived by your eardrum simultaneously. Nothing remains of the regular molecular movement when a tone is heard. Instead, there is molecular chaos, where each and every molecule is moving uncontrollably through the room with a speed of approximately 1000 miles per hour. Together they weigh just about 1 ton or 1000 kilos. White noise can also be an opposite of silence, at least from the perspective of perception. For the balance between the outside and the inside of your eardrum, is no more. Soon a white noise will be heard, a strong mass movement, It will expose your eardrums to a frantic rain like racket created by the millions upon millions of air molecules; collectively exerting a pressure of over eleven tons per square meter. Subsequently the noise will fade, giving way to silence. The molecular activity which is penetrated trough your mouth and nose, to the cavities of your cranium and soft tissue, and found its way to your inner ear, equalizes the pressure on both sides of your eardrum. It is not moving, it remains still. A thin membrane in a perfect surface, as undisturbed water: The centre of silence.
SOUND: white noise sounding for one minute, followed by one minute of silence
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