Developed for Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery, +ROOM-ROOM is a pair of site-specfic sound installations mounted in two adjacent galleries. Artists Yann Novak and Jamie Drouin independently explore how the perception of architectural space is affected and transformed by sound. Through contrasting sensory experiences, the installations create a divide between the two virtually identical rooms and restructure notions of architectural solidity and singularity in favor of more flexible, intuitive, and subjective perceptions.
The aural compositions, based on ambient recordings made in the two galleries, turn attention onto the spaces themselves and encourage us to rethink the ways in which we process physical location, and create assumptions about our surroundings. Novak, assigned to +ROOM, utilizes the upper sonic spectrum to highlight the volume and density of his gallery, while Drouin, assigned to -ROOM, explores the lower spectrum of sound in order to exploit the emptiness of the space.
Here, Novak and Drouin present a live composition of +ROOM-ROOM using the original sound pieces as source material for the new work. Where the original installation presented two discreet aesthetic experiences, the live performance references the commingling of sounds that occurred in the hallway between the two Henry galleries.