IF06 - Earshot screening: Maria Blondeel -'R20 Brussels [inner]'

Maria Blondeel (°1963 Halle) is an intermedia artist based in Ghent, Belgium. She has made sonic light installations, and site-specific works for vehicles, telephone and radio, participated in concerts and performances in collaboration with musicians, and produced works for CD and video.

Her work has been presented at Argosfestival 2005 Brussels, EMAF 2005 Osnabrück, LUX.US 2004 Lüdenscheid, Galerie Rachel Haferkamp Cologne 2003, 'Earwitness' Brussels 2003, November Music 2003, R.I.Paris/Berlin 2003, ESS Chicago 2002, 'Simultaneous Silence' Berlin 2002, 'EyeDrum' Atlanta 2002, Vooruit Ghent 2002, 'Spritzenhaus' Hamburg 2001, '(audio)incident # 10' Brussels 2001, Kunsthalle Lophem 2001, CCNOA Brussels 2000, Galerie Im Winter Bremen 2000, Plan B Tokyo 2000, ' Brücken Musik' Cologne 2000, MeX Dortmund 1999, Studio 5 Beekman New York 1999, 'Música a Metrònom' Barcelona 1998, Fotogalerie Wien 1998, Lasalle-Sia Singapore 1997, Muhka Antwerp 1996, 'Musik + Licht' Podewil Berlin 1996, Experimental Intermedia Foundation New York 1994.

Website: http://www.mariablondeel.org

R20 Brussels [inner]
'R20 Brussels [inner]’ is a sonic video from an ongoing series about ring roads. The tuning is based on the resonance theory from early 20 century scientists. I'm working since 2000 on audio and video experiments made in a driving car, whereby light waves in the environment are made audible as square waves.

The R20 is a ring road. Ring roads in Belgium are located around cities and have their own road number, starting with an R. This recording was made on November 28th from 6pm until 6.48pm, during sunset. The tones you hear were produced by 6 electronic sound generators (square waves) that were installed in the car. The sound generators transposed the lights, as measured by 6 photoelectric resistors (sensors), into high and low pitches. The sensors were located on the front, the sides, and the rear of the car, separated into left and right. The generators were tuned to 466Hz, 659Hz and 2093Hz at full sunlight (about 100.000 lux). The sky above the travelled road was filmed using a fixed lens connected to a digital camera.