Josef Reiter :
Minoritenkirche Sounding

The installation revolves around the intensive experience of the individual acoustics of the Minoritenkirche space. It is a study of the tonal character of the space, its unmistakable quality, perceived in the individual resonance of the space, the characteristic emphasis and weaknesses in the range of frequencies due to its proportions and properties as a hall are in the foreground, the concrete space is analysed as a volume with its own resonance and made to emit sounds. minoritenkirche sounding continues to probe the relationships between sound/space and architecture from earlier work, e.g. in the Prunksaal of the Austrian National Library by Fischer von Erlach, or the Wittgenstein House in Vienna. An acoustic analysis, the Minoritenkirche's acoustic fingerprint forms the basis and the starting point for minoritenkirche sounding. Electronic sound material is mixed with recorded samples of acoustic instruments, both in the studio and directly in situ – in this case the double-bass, and bass or contrabass clarinet. By precise positioning of the speakers the space is made to generate sound in a slow process of exploring the boundaries of its own resonance. The result is the production of a walk-in, continually changing sound continuum with no repetitions – sounds that permeate everything in a particular space while reflecting the space that contains them.
(Josef Reiter)