Concept
The Project "Digital Twintrine" (a wordplay combining 'Digital Twin' and 'Vitrine', the German word for display case) uses sound synthesis to capture and reimagine the sound of a particular fridge in a Vienna café.
Part of the PEEK project 'Spirits in Complexity', it explores our relationship with complex models and sounding objects in the world. This is done by presenting the fridge model as an installation and then deforming and exploiting it as a musical instrument for live performance.
The fridge in the "Cafe am Heumarkt" has been described as 'legendary' by many people and this project tries to deeply engage with it on a serious electroacoustic level.
Research Questions
A couple of aspects might be interesting here:
- What is the significance of this specific fridge?
- What (musical) complexity hides behind such a prophane object?
- What aesthetical spaces can be accessed through a deeper confrontation with such an everyday object?
- Is there an interesting way of engaging with the model from a musical perspective, what kind of instrument can it be?
Method
In order to approach all of these questions, a first analysis and modelling was performed. This was followed by implementation, interface design, tests, experiments and shall be concluded by future musical performances.
Figure 1. below shows a preliminary analysis of the fridge's contol logic, its 'score', one might say. From a musical perspective, it presents itself rather trivial: the fridge can 'play' or not 'play', meaning its compressor is switched on or off, depending on its internal state. Other sound sources articulate themselves based on a different score: The change of temperature causes cracks, the fan(s) blow air over the evaporator following a different logic, almost permanently contributing a soft 'drone'. Refrigerant fluid adds a turbulent and ever unpredictable almost unhearable gurgling that can only be experienced up-close.
As described, this approach initially presented the technical challenge of analysis, model building, and implementation. A detailed description of these stages is omitted here. Figure 2 presents a high-level block diagram of the implementation.
It is however interesting to at least describe the kinds of sounds that are implemented here and that one would normally be inclined to ignore. What are their sources? What are their affordances in reality and in the implemented model?
Implementation
Both a purely phenomenological (black box) approach and a white box approach were applied.
Such a white-box approach involved looking at patents and studying the use of sound emissions of refrigerators for technical purposes. Unfortunately the white-box approach was severly limited due to the fact that at the time of writing, the exact model of the frige is unknown to the author. Interestingly, refrigerator manufacturers often provide detailed descriptions of various refrigerator sounds and their 'meanings' for concerned customers (an example can be found here).
In an initial analysis, the following sound sources were identified and implemented:
- Compressor (Electro Motor)
- Fans
- Gurgling of refrigerant fluid
- Crackling of material due to temperature related expansion/contraction
Fig. 1, Conrol Logic / "Score" of the Fridge. What happens if it is manipulated? What happens if it is replaced?
Instrument Design and Dissemination
The current implementation, designed for an installation setting and to create an authentic 'fridge sound,' is built in the FAUST programming language. The next step involves a complete reparametrization, exploring stable regions of the digital model and expanding its parameter ranges. This step transitions the model from the physical to the pataphysical, transforming it into the abstract instrument for the Lecture Performance.
The FAUST programming language offers the advantage of exporting to multiple formats, making it accessible to a wide audience. If a viable instrument emerges from this process, it could be used in various environments (Max/MSP, SuperCollider, VST hosts, etc.).
Musical Meanings in the Instrument
While these sounds don't carry inherent meaning, many associations and connections immediately suggest themselves. In accordance with the priciples of pataphysics, the original physical object is turned into a useless object during the modelling process. Looking back at the original frige reveals insights into its significance:
This particular fridge is well known to guests of 'Cafe am Heumarkt.'. It is often described as legendary, perhaps because its sounds are the only disruption of the otherwise rather silent cafe. It serves as an intrusion, an artifact, and a comforting sound — perhaps simply because it was 'always there'. Its very 'unmusicalness' may be what allowed it to endure; a more musical sound would likely provoke complaints from the guests.
The process of 'making kin' with the resulting model is intriguing, precisely because of the thoroughly unmusical starting point. Is something lost in transforming it into something musical?
Researching refrigerator sounds reveals that some people use them as a sleep aid; YouTube videos like 'Refrigerator Sound - 10 Hours - Sound for Sleeping' have garnered millions of views. Other connections involve physical objects: for instance, the sounds of refrigerant fluid may evoke associations with water pipes, waterfalls, rivers, etc., depending on qualities like speed and muteness.
Future Work
While future Live performances will act as the next step for this project, a second avenue is already in planning: Aligning with the metaphor of the spiritual in our research project 'Spirits in Complexity,' the practice of using refrigerator sounds for sleep will be explored in a follow-up side project. Videos made explicitly for sleep purposes often incorporate esoteric claims, such as 'Sleep Music, 432 Hz Miracle Tone'. The fusion of esoteric claims, technologically mediated comfort, and industrial sounds like a fridge presents a promising topic for further exploration.
Fig. 3, An example of a refrigerant mechanism, presented in US Patent US2401560A. Essentially drawing such as this on becomes part of the score of the performance.