Research

  • RT60: The Authenticity of Space through Sound
  • GRANTEE
    Alan B. Richmond
    GRANT YEAR
    2013

Alan B. Richmond, RT60, Bauhaus theater, 2014, Dessau, Germany. Courtesy of the artist.

The RT60 project involves ongoing research and inquiry focused on the notion of individual sonic identities within architecture. This is accomplished primarily through concentration on the inherent “sonic fingerprint” of each individual structure, in accordance with its unique and specific design, dimensions, and materials, all of which are captured, examined, and expressed through impulse-response technology. This investigation utilizes analytic processes and state of the art software to sample room acoustics and their frequency and decay characteristics, providing a new and advanced form of documented blueprint and historical record, and thus revealing further details and insight into the densities, surfaces, and forms of the structures we inhabit and how our engagements within are affected. The RT60 project will result in an audio catalog and archive of the 'sonic fingerprints' (impulse-response measurements) of selected, landmark twentieth-century modernist structures including: Bauhaus buildings (main building, studio building, and master houses) by Walter Gropius (Dessau); Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe (Berlin); Haus Le Corbusier Weissenhofsiedlung Museum (Stuttgart); and Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Frankfurter Küche in the Ernst May Haus (Frankfurt).

Alan B. Richmond is an artist, musician, and engineer who has studied and worked in mixed- and multi-media, with special emphasis on installation, sound, and performance. His work thus far can be characterized as minimal and experiential, with regard to common contemplative themes of nature, architecture, structure, place, relationships, existent states, and time, especially ephemera. Richmond holds a degree in art from Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey, California, and a certificate in audio production from the University of Washington at Seattle. Since 2004, he has been a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and from 2010 to 2014, studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany, with professor Douglas Gordon. He has performed at various venues and institutions, including the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center; the 2012 Lüften Festival; Portikus Frankfurt am Main; the 2012 Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival; the 2013 Club Transmediale Berlin; the Frankfurt Kunstverein; the Museum für Moderne Kunst: and Städel Museum.