Tension
Tension is a performance in which a steel cable is played in a church with motorized magnets and by a instrumentalist. The technological setup of Tension consists of a steel cable tightened to tune the steel cable and hung upfive meters above the audience with ratchet straps on the church pillars. At one end a computer-controlled motor with powerful N52 neodymium magnets is placed to attract and repel the steel cable, generating vibrations and therefore sound. At the other end is a double coil to pick up the sound which is fed back into the computer where it is processed with distinctive signal processing. The sound is then played throughout the space with the use of a 24-channel sound system. The movements of the magnets, sound pick-up, and processing are done by the same computer in a single, custom Max/MSP patch and spatialised with the 4DSOUND software. The steel cable symbolises the relationship between the church and nightlife, which have an exciting unexpected resemblance: the ritual nature of both worlds is an interesting parallel. Every space has its resonant frequency, which is another important part that binds the steel cable to the church. We incorporated the resonant frequency of the church at which we performed into the composition, by processing or tuning the steel cable to this frequency.
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