One could say, compared to the first recording, the second one sounds a bit drunk. Whereas the first one keeps a steady pace, the second one seems to be staggering. The events in the first one are heard at regular time intervals, despite all differences in spatial direction and sound quality among them. In the second one the time intervals between the events are uneven, something our auditory sense is quite sensitive in detecting. Nevertheless, both are recordings of the same sequence of events, captured at two different locations in space. Thus, two listeners positioned at these respective locations would experience the same sequence of events quite differently. Listening to the two recordings exposes this difference. Time Space is a work exposing this fundamental condition of acoustic communication, which I call temporal dispersion.

In the installation version, the audience can freely stroll about a large room equipped with many loudspeakers in an irregular configuration. There is one designated location in the room which is marked visually, e.g. with a spot light in an otherwise dark room. This landmark is meant to invite the audience to figure out what is particular about this location. While approaching the landmark, they may discover that the pace of the events is becoming more and more steady, eventually reaching a completely even state at the landmark. The experience at the landmark corresponds to listening to the first recording. What can be experienced gradually in the installation, namely the change from a temporally even to a more and more uneven sound texture when moving away from the landmark, can be accomplished instantly by switching from the first recording to the second one – the latter corresponding to a position where the unevenness is flagrant. For the audience in the installation it may take a while until they became aware of the varying degree of temporal regularity in response to their movements. As opposed to the experience in the online version, the changes are gradual and therefore more difficult to hear.

I became aware of the significance of temporal dispersion when preparing a public presentation of my case study Among in the context of the research project The Choreography of Sound. Among is a sound installation exploring spatial sound textures based on periodic time patterns. When composing Among I took various measures in order to avoid the various periodicities, which are very handy on the compositional level, to become too apparent in the experience of the textures. Only after the fact, when I was trying to recapitulate my approach in order to share my findings, I discovered that an important source of the subtlety and richness of the textures I managed to produce was due to temporal dispersion. I had composed with it during several months without noticing its significance for the work at hand. Of course, the very fact that differences in flight times account for time lags in sound propagation is well known among musicians and usually masterfully compensated for by performers. But in the practice of electroacoustic music composition it is not a recurrent topic, although it should, as I learned.

The installation version of Time Space is a minimalist (in the sense of "stripped to its essentials") work attempting to make the knowledge experiencable, which I have gained in the process of composing Among. It proposes a situation allowing to become aware of the effects of temporal dispersion through listening, walking and reflecting about the experience one enacts. In the online version the enactment is partially replaced this expositional text embedded in a prescribed sequence of stages: first listening, the reading and listening again. The second listening stage also provides visualisations revealing the structure of the installation version.

(3) Listen