Cancellations

During her EMPAC production residency, artist Ghislaine Leung is experimenting with spatial audio for her upcoming exhibition at London’s Chisenhale Gallery. For this talk, Leung is joined by EMPAC’s lead audio engineer Todd Vos to discuss the technical and aesthetic considerations of “sound cancelation.” The method of “active sound cancellation” is common in the design of noise-cancelling headphones in order to eliminate unwanted environmental sounds. Leung is translating this technology into an architectural installation to experiment with its potential to produce an as yet unknown reality of sound.

At EMPAC Leung will be editing a new audio work KISS MAGIC HEART for this sound cancelling loudspeaker environment. Comprised of 18 hours of material from three UK commercial radio stations edited into a single compressed block, the recording will be distributed spatially in and through Studio 2 to cancel and clash sound polarities.