Artist: Thom Kubli's Black Hole Horizon (2017)

I'm interested in how audio can be played and how speakers can take alternative forms than the traditional box, loud, portable (UE Boom) speakers or head/earphone. How this form could enrich the "reading" of the work, supply additional information or clues or give sound a more physical and notable presence. Hoe audio playing devices don't have to be off-self.

Black Hole Horizon (2017) - Thom Kubli

Video: Black Hole Horizon Documentation, Thom Kubli, Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/121111319.

Thom Kubli (b.1969) is an artist and composer from Berlin, Germany. In Black Hole Horizon (2017), Kubli's explores how sound can transformed from the virtual to having a physical materiality via horns and soap bubbles. [1] Sound from the horns creates ephemeral sculptures (soap bubbles) which mimic the ephemeral quality of sound itself. The horns' and their apparatus' don't exclusively produce the sound, but rather the soap bubbles are momentarily filled with volume that were created by and with sound. [2] The soap bubbles are then the work of art itself, and not only its output. [3] There's a sense of interactivity about the work, as the gallery space is repeatedly redefined by the travelling bubble sculptures, the viewer has to move their body to avoid being struck, causing a relationship between sound, sculpture and viewer. [4]

Each bubble is unique due to the utilisation of software MAX/MSP which randomises the three differently sized horn's three air pressure valves and flap mechanisms. [5] Additionally, a pneumatic pump presses bubble fluid from the barrels into three tubes which join to the funnel’s front opening. [6] Air circulation in the horn canal, sounds with varying duration and intensity emerge, and further soap bubbles are created by the fusion of air and liquid. [7] The unpredictability of these processes create sounds and sculptures which are unique in their volume, duration, trajectory in space and demise. [8]

The horns, or audio and bubble producing devices, are as important as their projections as they highlight an uncommon relation between technology and the idea of ephemeral outcomes over functionality and efficiency. [9] Kubli is interested in how technological randomisation and ephemerality, and innovations of speculation and the unknown, defy the plethora of redundancy of existing systems and social structures. [10]

"The machines we are using since the so-called industrial revolution are meant to function, and their modes of operation are supposed to be as predictable as the standardized results of their work. The same applies to the electronic devices that increasingly determine our everyday life: pressing a key, we want to know exactly what will happen next." [11]

"While the mass of information that surrounds us is constantly increasing, the kind of information actu ally circulating is also becoming increasingly redundant and often was not very innovative in the first place.Our behaviour is becoming more and more predictable, because we are all using the same computing machines and programs and are involved in the same social networks in a similar manner." [12]

Horn Construction:

" Horn Objects: Polyurethane, acrylic, brass tubes, piano-wire, latex tubing Further Materials: Steel barrels, perestaltic pumps, liquid tubing, servo motors, arduino, computer/MaxMsp, electronic wiring, air compressors, air tubing, soap bubble liquid | Dimensions: Variable; minimum extension: 50qm" [13]

Kubli's horns' are custom designed and have a specificity beyond a typical horn or sound device, I think it's interesting to look at the process of his experimentation, designing and construction. The following list is shortened and paraphrased from: Thom Kubli, LOG, Berlin, April 2015, http://thomkubli.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Catalog-text-by-Marcel-Rene-Marburger.pdf

1) Build maquettes. 2) Construct prototypes from flower vases, vuvuzelas or truck horns and create funnels with felt, with black cardboard and pink metal foils. 3) The models are not functioning, but are becoming larger. 4) Assemble several horn-skeletons from wire. Attach vacuum hoses / PVC tubes. Insert mouthpieces of wind instruments and dog whistles. 5) The linking of sound, air flow, the fragile soap bubble membrane and the final soap bubble proves to be complex. 6) Test an insanely loud, yet much too small air compressor. 7) The idea of the horns‘ size and shape is becoming more concrete. 8) experimenting with probability generators and random generators to control horns' sound. 9) Virtual CAD construction of horns. 10) tweaking horn design. 11) material research and troubleshooting. Four weeks later / 12) first test-horn made out of PU-block material. 13) milled parts are being assembled overnight. Exhibition room, the next morning/ 14) "Someone has already connected the horn. It works, spits soap bubbles and is impressingly loud."

I think what's interesting about the horns construction was their changeability and experimentation were comparable to making any artefact, despite the fact that the horn is a pre-cursor or agent in the over all work. How during the experimentation new ideas of randomisation and generation came to Kubli and these were easily folded into the design. I like the idea that even after initial conceptualisation Kubli is open to redesign or folding in new ideas during the construction faze. An idea I don't think is necessarily prevalent in traditional object design.

I'm also invested in how the technological aspect fo the horns construction - which in term of the generation and randomisation is a latter thought- becomes quite important to overall reading and meaning of the work in relation to the ephemerality of bubbles and sound is linked to the stagnation of technology of societal systems we rely on.

References:

[1] Frank Akino, "Thom Kubli - Black Hole Horizon - Sound Art Installation", Art Centre, 27 March 2020

[2] & [3] - Marcel René Marburger, INSIGHTS INTO THE UNKNOWN: THOM KUBLI‘S BLACK HOLE HORIZON, Kunstverein Ingolstadt on February 19th, 2015, http://thomkubli.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Catalog-text-by-Marcel-Rene-Marburger.pdf

[4] - Thom Kubli,LOG, Berlin, April 2015, http://thomkubli.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Catalog-text-by-Marcel-Rene-Marburger.pdf

[5] - [12] Marcel René Marburger, INSIGHTS INTO THE UNKNOWN: THOM KUBLI‘S BLACK HOLE HORIZON, Kunstverein Ingolstadt on February 19th, 2015, http://thomkubli.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Catalog-text-by-Marcel-Rene-Marburger.pdf

[13] Thom Kubli, "Black Hole Horizon," http://thomkubli.net/black-hole-horizon-eng/