OFF-SITE

‘X Marks the Spot’ is a platform that initiates different types of connections and collaborations either through inter-personal interactions, web-dissemination, or through ‘Off-Site’ events that live beyond this digital archive in the form of exhibitions, concerts, etc.

’Off-Site’ seeks to explore the different enriching aspects that each of these levels of interactions and collaborations can add to the project. The tagging process ended in 2019, but the archival materials gathered will continue to be revisited and reinterpreted by myself and other artists. These results will maintain the archive active, while reframing ideas on documentation, temporality and site. Click on the Off-Site drop-down menu to find out more about the outcomes.


Image © Chrysoula Drakaki

PROJECTS

48Hz
by Miguel Negrão, 2014

As presented at Platform Arts, Belfast
Event partners: PLACE Build Environment centre, Sonic Arts Research Centre and Recomposing the City



48Hz
is an immersive imaginary soundscape of Belfast. A multi-channel sound installation that uses field recordings from ‘X Marks the Spot’ as the ground material for a drone composition.

The sound installation attempts to unveil and present to the listener the inner world hidden in the drone of the telecommunication boxes.

Each drone, with a fundamental frequency close to 48Hz, is unique and presents different sonic characteristics. For this installation I have selected two of the boxes as the single material for the composition: Sunnyside Street and Lockview Road.

The field recordings were analyzed in order to determine the key frequencies from each drone. By applying narrow band-pass filters it was possible to subtract the ambient noise and isolate the drone.

The 3-part composition progresses from a more “objective” perspective towards a more “subjective” one. Firstly it introduces the original recordings. Then, each individual frequency composing the drone is presented through a partially random selection and accumulation algorithm. Finally, the same material is played at different octaves with phase-shifted envelopes.

The installation generates a new version of the composition at each playback, creating a slightly different listening experience each time. The space is designed to invite the listeners to lie down on the floor and fully immerse themselves in the sonic experience.

Miguel Negrão

48Hz_1

48Hz_3

9 variations 35 instances: multiple ways to navigate Belfast
by Matilde Meireles, 2020

‘9 variations 35 instances: multiple ways to navigate Belfast’ is part of Scoring the City project, an experiment at the intersection of urbanism and experimental music takes inspiration from graphic scores in music as dynamic forms that could offer new ways of notating the relationship between design ideas, built form, and social life: in other words, between scoring and performing urban space.’

Scoring the City was conceived and led jointly by Gascia Ouzounian (University of Oxford / Recomposing the City) and John Bingham-Hall (Theatrum Mundi) with research and coordination support from Fani Kostourou (Theatrum Mundi) and Conor McCafferty (Queen‘s University Belfast). It is funded by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, and was supported in kind by London College of Communication, Plateau Urbain, and Belfast Harbour Commissioners.

‘9 variations 35 instances: multiple ways to navigate Belfast’ can be played by one or multiple persons. This graphical score compiles the sounds produced by each of the thirty- five boxes identified throughout the tagging process of X Marks the Spot. A map positions the droning sounds in space in relation to the River Lagan, one of the main features defining the city’s geographical layout. Each sound is summarised using nine of its main frequencies and amplitudes. The main frequencies are laid out in a sequential order while the amplitudes are presented through the different font widths – the thicker the width the higher the amplitude.

The collaborative and systematic sound mapping of Belfast in X Marks the Spot is a durational, organic and open-ended search process. Transposing fragments of this process into a graphical score, invites participants to continually re-imagine Belfast as a dynamic and sonic fabric.

More information about the overall Scoring the City project.


Loop. And Again.
by Matilde Meireles, 2024

Loop. And Again. delves into the dynamics of magnetic fields, intricate wiring arrangements,and their interconnectedness with the shifts in the surrounding landscape. The album is part of X Marks the Spot, a larger project which used sound to map specific telecommunication boxes—only those emitting an audible drone—in the city of Belfast between 2013-2019. In the project, sound suggests different ways to engage with Belfast, where walking routes could be improvised to incorporate the drones as part of how we experience the city.

Loop. And Again. revisits and reinvents field recordings of the boxes mapped for X Marks the Spot. The album honours these ordinary objects that are part of the invisible fabric of the city by inviting us to listen to their materiality in great detail. Through this attentive shift in perspetive and scale, Matilde invites us to extend what we perceive as sonic vibrations in the urban environment.

Bandcamp Crónica Electrónica