This page connects with chapter 3 in the artistic doctoral thesis.
Superguitar_03 is a sound composition-installation-sculpture that studies the possibilities of adapting a traditional instrument to our contemporary world, dislocating it from its old mode of existence. It is part of a series of acoustic guitars that I have augmented, performed and composed with since 2009. These guitars question the interpretation of a traditional object, in this case a sonic object, through a reconfiguration and expansion of its aesthetical and technical resources. I do believe in the notion that art can influence society by allowing us to imagine other possible ways of being. In Superguitar_03, four acoustic guitars are suspended forming a circle and sixteen different structure-borne transducers are attached to them. The visitor entering the installation space, triggers the composition by pushing a button, and the composition plays a multichannel sound sequence that combines specific frequencies in the transducers to make the body and strings of the guitar resonate. Four speakers on the edges of the space play back a soundscape in very soft volume, inviting the audience to move closely to and far away from the sound sculpture.
Public presentation: Black Box, Helsinki Music Centre, Finland, December 4th and 5th, 2017.
Idea and Realization: composer and sound artist Alejandro Montes de Oca.
