Vienna Unground - Bill B. Wintermute
a) Cut-Up: "unground"
The inability to remember is usually associated with the paralytic symptoms of memory holes; Crypt(-ion), non-place, holey space, crack or column, formations with a degenerate whole, hidden folds or eclaves, ( ) hole complex, hidden writing, chaining mechanisms, transposition, transmission and encryption. A plot hole, the fractured symbol, does not operate on behalf of absence, but registers and conveys the activities of a sub-surface life; a concept that leaves room for fractures, silence, not least improbability, plot holes – transformations and repetitions, which in turn are re-transmitted and repeated through compulsive behavior – are psychosomatic indications of at least one more plot, encrypted transmissions, such as a flood of desires and fears, introducing gaps, discontinuous tunnels and porous spaces in the chronological sphere of memory, thus making it more prone to time lapses, abruptly schizophrenic catabases (personalitypulverizing blackouts, descents free from the hegemony of solid and void), and loss of wholeness. Every element of the external world which attracts the attention of the human being is received (eaten, physiologically, juridically, or intellectually appropriated) or split off (excreted) with the utmost brutality; densely populating itself in the holes it burrows through and digs out, a complex that "behaves like an open wound" and infects the entire psyche. For every inconsistency or anomaly visible on the ground, there is a buried shizoid consistency; the effect is produced simulatenously by two causes, two polar human impulses, with two different logics, that of excretion and appropriation: ciphering generates desire and desire generates ciphering, the line of emergene (the nemat-function) directs itself in accordance with the resistance to emergence. >>Where there is a prohibition, there must be a desire<< (the dynamism of emergence) for things that are placed under the >embargo of impossibility< to develop a >>peculiar magical power<< (the degree of porosity). The course of emergence in any medium to the formation of that medium, comparable to >>with electrically charged objects<<, the more agitated the line of emergence becomes, the more convoluted and complex the host medium must be. Such a 'charge' is equally tempting and frightening; one must enjoy and at the same time give it up, in this sense, memory holes are not accessible for the subject and its integrated self but that which is exterior to the subject and has no self (no one); unveil and re-encrypt its effect is to deterriorate the primary unified plot or remobilize the so-called central theme and its authority as a mere armature or primary substance for holding things together. The exclusion of the heterogeneous elements from the homogeneous realm of consciousness therefore has a formal similarity – structure and function alike – with the exclusion of elements as in the dynamism of emergence and formation in porous earth, which describes the psychoanalysis as unconscious and by censorship will be kept away of conscious I. This is the pattern that the crypt sets and that pulsates in the dots and dashes that it sends out. A process set up anywhere reverberates everywhere. Listening to repetition frequencies, following patterns of variations.
Superficially dynamic plot or the grounded theme (which can register itself as plot holes) by overlapping them with the surface (superficially dynamic plot) or the grounded theme. The craving for the return of catastrophe creates a need for repetition, memory gaps, with their space-time lapses, function as a ( )hole complex through which nether entities seep through, rush towards our world; Memory gaps are the instruments of their homecoming. The difficulties that confront the detection of unconscious forms of existence are similar to those that prevent the recognition of heterogeneous forms: Every hole is more footprint, prowling underneath – lust and the law.
The past as a static chronological horizon intrinsically tends to sedentarize all kinds of activities in itself, or to make itself the stabilizing ground of activities in present or future: The past belongs to the Divine and tradition – prohibitions in the name of God, prohibitions of certain pictures, Prohibitions of certain content – there are many prohibitions, but the two most important ones are incest and death. Memory as a playground of agitated activities in the past which break the organizational consistency of the past in regard to present and future. Once you've come across these patterns, they go into flesh and blood over utilizing every plot hole, all problematics, every suspicious obscurity or repulsive wrongness as a new plot with a tentacled and autonomous mobility, repeat themselves endlessly, the main plot is the map or the concentration blueprint of
plot holes (the other plots).
( )hole complex
b) technical processing:
- transmission of the audio file "Arnold Schoenberg, A Survivor From Warsaw" on tape
- the tape is buried for two months, then dug up / exhumed
- then inserted in a mixture of different detergents for several days
- finally disturbed with a magnetic-field & warmed up with fire
- afterwards the tape was redigitized; while playing back there were disturbances in between, creating gaps & distortions
- from these parts, the starting material was reconstructed, so that only small deviations from it remained
- the resulting reconstruction was played several times in the sewer of Vienna and recorded binauraly - play
& recording location, as well as perspective / position, were changed
- the different recordings were layered;
in addition, some of the tracks duplicated and delayed (delayed)
- finally, the 24 channels of 3D sound were distributed on 12 tapes, which are supposed to be played simultaneously
c) technical instructions:
The piece “vienna unground” is designed for up to 24-channel 3D sound
See: iem.kug.ac.at/fileadmin/media/iem/services/jahresberichte/2002/CUBE.pdf
24 loudspeakers have been aligned in three rings, where the lower ring consists of twelve speakers to achieve maximum localization in the horizontal plane. The middle ring is built of eight loudspeakers, where the remaining four speakers form the top ring. (see fig.3) “
It uses 12 tapes (page A), each controlling 2 of the 24 channels (Eg Ch 1.2, 3.4, 5.6, …)
The individual tapes are to be started by one person at the same time as possible
After the end (~ 7: 40min) the tapes have to be stopped again
→ Although the piece was designed for 24-channels, it can be played back on any even number of speakers.
You can listen to the track on bandcamp by clicking Here