[rohrpost] “WHAT ABOUT THE GIBBS PHENOMENOM?” online group exhibition of soundart

[Shintaro Miyazaki]

NEWSFLASH SOUNDMUSEUM.FM / 17 November ‘08
New groupexhibition curated by Shintaro Miyazaki

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NEW GROUPEXHIBITION
“WHAT ABOUT THE GIBBS PHENOMENOM?”
from 17 november – 14 december exhibition by Curator Shintaro Miyazaki
with artists: Kim Cascone, Christophe Charles, Daisuke Ishida, Greg  
Haines, Kyoka, Miwon, Stephane Leonard, Catherine Fern Lewis and  
Nicolas Wiese.

The Gibbs phenomenon, which is a techno-mathematical problem, builds  
the initiation of the curatorial concept behind this group exhibition.

To see his exhibition for soundmuseum.fm please click on the below  
link and go to the gallery:
http://www.soundmuseum.fm

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What about the Gibbs phenomenon?

The Gibbs phenomenon, which is a techno-mathematical problem, builds  
the initiation of the curatorial concept behind this group exhibition  
with 9 international soundartists: Kim Cascone, Christophe Charles,  
Daisuke Ishida, Greg Haines, Kyoka, Miwon, Stephane Leonard, Catherine  
Fern Lewis and Nicolas Wiese.

Named after the American physicist J. Willard Gibbs (1839 - 1903), who  
was one of the first, who made a description of it (1899), the Gibbs  
phenomenon appears basically, when one tries to mathematically  
approximate a discontinuous jump function like a square wave with  
continuous periodic waves like a sine wave and builds a disruptive  
element. According to Jean Baptiste Fourier (1768 - 1830) one of the  
grandfathers of our electronic synthesizers and also the computer,  
every physical phenomenon is composed by periodic sine wave signals.

At the turnpoints of the discontinuity (the edges of the square wave)  
disruptive waves are appearing when increasingly approximating the  
square wave with a series of sine wave harmonics. This small dirty  
waves are artistically interpreted disruptions, disturbances and  
errors, which appear between the analog and the digital, between the  
real-physics and the symbolic code, which means also between nature  
and computer.

Listening to these artifacts, which are called ringing artifacts is  
possible: They appear when audio compressing (i.e in MP3-format) short  
sound-impulses and sound like pre-echos. When asked to describe the  
aesthetics of these sounds one should use the term "post-digital" a  
term which was introduced by Kim Cascone into the discourse of  
experimental music. They sound like the re-entry of the analog in the  
digital world - this means very erroneous.

The curated soundartists were provided with 10 short soundfiles, which  
contain an increasing distortion of a originally clean but then  
gradually compressed impulse sound and were asked to use these sounds  
as material for the own remixes, soundpieces or compositions. The  
exhibition contains 9 miniatures of 18.99 seconds.

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Shintaro Miyazaki
miyazaki.shintaro at gmail.com

General Information (Mediatheorist, Curator, Soundartist): http://www.netzknoten.net/
Curation: http://www.la-condition-japonaise.com/
Mediamusic Project: http://endliche-automaten.de/
Podcast (in japanese): http://uraniwasounds-berlin.com/