Barely Audible Frequencies no. 3, 2013
Speakers, 10.5hz
Dimensions variable
Installed at Galerie VŠUP, Prague.

Barely Audible Frequencies no. 3, 2013
Speakers, 10.5hz
Dimensions variable
Installed at Galerie VŠUP, Prague

Atop a white pedestal, two speakers play a 10.5hz tone as loudly as the stereo would allow, oscillate violently while remaining completely silent, employing a strategy of negative presentation – that a message or idea can be expressed or communicated through the absence of an element one would expect to be part of a given situation, site, or sensation.

This form of the Barely Audible Frequencies series developed in relation to a paradoxical question which accompanies the work produced by Toshiya Tsunoda. Tsunoda is engaged with field-recording and sound installation, and specializes in recording extremely quiet sounds such as the minute variations of air pressure inside a pipe or glass bottle. The paradox lies in the fact that without Tsunoda's presence, and his highly specialized approach to the recording process, many of the sounds he makes use of in his compositions and installations would never be audible, rendering them as something other than sound, merely a wave, a rumble or a vibration. This begs the question; what is it that being is recorded if it is not a sound without the recording apparatus? Or, what, of not sound, it causing the speakers to oscillate?