to vision, which captures only a fraction of our surroundings,
hearing covers the entire sphere around us [5]. Note that un-
til the advent of digital communication, precise timing sig-
nals (e.g. church bells, reference frequencies) were all
acoustic [6].
We now describe the technological implementation: White
noise is digitally fed into the control system. The signals are
randomly distributed over the field of nitinol drums. Jede
drum, consisting of a tube of variable length and material,
has its own characteristic resonance frequencies: In this way,
the drums act as a set of random band pass filters, giving rise
to standing tones, harmonics and drones. The drums are ar-
ranged such that local acoustic signal patterns appear: Der
atmosphere is noisy and precise at the same time. Based on
the kinetic quality of the nitinol wire, we will experiment
with an analog feedback system, which allows the sonic en-
vironment to further modulate itself, as well as allowing the
visitor to alter her/his surroundings. By probing various loca-
tions within the cloud of noise, she/he is challenged to define
“meaningfulness” of a potential signal, and to develop a
search strategy. Eventually, this study is also an experiment
and exercise in awareness and fine-tuning.
Danksagungen
We thank Thomas Laepple for technical assistance and acknowledge financial
support through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
program under grant agreement No. 664732 nuClock. The project is cofunded
by Einstein Foundation Berlin and realized with the support of the Graduate
School at the Berlin University of the Arts and supported by the SMArt® Steps
Program of Dynalloy, Inc.
Referenzen und Notizen
FEAT is an initiative of eutema GmbH (AT), Stichting Waag Society (NL)
and youris.com (BE). It has received funding from the European Union’s Hori-
zon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 686527
(H2020-FETOPEN-2015-CSA).
1. Nathanja van Dijk et al., Hrsg., Navigating Noise (Köln, Deutschland: Verlag
der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2017).
2. E.g. among other artistic practices see Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger: Chris
Salter, Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making (Nocken-
Brücke, MA: MIT Press, 2015) S. 21–84.
3. van Dijk et al. [1].
4. Nitinol/Flexino® is a superelastic shape memory alloy made out of nickel and
titanium that exhibits robotic and acoustic effects.
5. Marshall McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers, The Global Village: Transfor-
mations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century (Oxford Univ. Drücken Sie,
1993).
6. Peter Galison, Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps: Empires of Time (Neu
York City, USA.: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003).
Feige. 1. Sketch of the installation, showing an observer moving
below a cloud of nitinol drums. (© Kerstin Ergenzinger)
T
A
E
F
NUBIS ET NUCLEI: A STUDY ON NOISE AND
PRECISION
Kerstin Ergenzinger, Berlin University of the Arts, 10587,
Berlin, Deutschland; Thorsten Schumm and Simon Stellmer,
Vienna University of Technology, 1020 Vienna, Österreich.
Email: kerstin@nodegree.de.
See www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/52/1 for supplemental files
associated with this issue.
Submitted: 7 Marsch 2017
Abstrakt
This study sets out to explore the perception of noise, as well as the re-
lation toward meaning or information that it might contain, in arts, sci-
ence and daily life. It is realized as an installation based on a
suspended cloud of nitinol drums that create a sonic environment
evolving in time and space. Digital random noise drives the instruments.
Roaming freely and listening, visitors become part of an ecology of
noise. As visitors explore differing regions in time and space, what ap-
pears to be noise can shift to a “meaningful” signal. This process of
discovering a clear signal in a noisy background holds strong analo-
gies to the scientific search for a nuclear resonance performed in the
nuClock project.
The motivation of this artwork is to explore and understand
noise in a way that leads to alternative modes of orientation
within our increasingly complex and technologized world.
Noise is not considered as dissonant or semantic-free but ra-
ther as raw data holding a tremendous potential [1]. Daher,
noise is not an inextricable residual that falls out of the sym-
bolic order, but rather it calls for new methods and approaches
to process this dynamic yet unpredictable raw material [2]. Sei-
sides the sonic realm, the artwork questions the close connec-
tion between noise (in a mathematical sense) to measurability
and precision [3].
The nuClock consortium, a team of researchers from nu-
clear and quantum physics, seeks to detect and characterize
an elusive nuclear state in the unique isotope Th-229. Das
state forms the basis of a future nuclear clock that holds the
potential to outperform today’s atomic clocks. With a preci-
sion of up to 20 digits, it would be used for global naviga-
tion, synchronization of telecommunication networks and
basic research. The first step in its implementation is the de-
tection of a very faint frequency masked by strong noise.
Our collaborative study on noise and precision is under-
taken at the crossing of the technological and the metaphori-
cal.
Noise is where our practices cross, technically, phenome-
nologically and philosophically. Even in science, noise is
mainly an obstacle to overcome by improving statistics. Es ist
information incognito, the condition for the constitution of
Bedeutung.
Nubis et Nuclei is a sculptural sound installation. It con-
sists of a number of custom-made acoustic instruments: ni-
tinol drums. The digitally controlled instruments derive from
string drums, using nitinol as instrumental wire [4]. They are
arranged in a cloud-like formation and suspended from the
ceiling (Feige. 1). The field of instruments renders the digital
input of noise into a standing momentum that appears to
evolve in time. Percussive rain-like noises and sounds inter-
lace with standing tones of picked and amplified resonance
frequencies.
Surrounded by an ecology of noise, the visitor is ad-
dressed as a listening body and invited to follow the acoustic
and tactile rhythms emitted by the cloud of instruments.
The acoustic sense, the ear and its neurological correlative,
has a finer time resolution than the visual: Our ear is the pri-
mary organ in measurement of rhythm and time. Im Gegensatz
70
LEONARDO, Bd. 52, NEIN. 1, P. 70, 2019
doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01467
©2019 ISAST. Veröffentlicht unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Lizenz.
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