Untitled 3 (2011) 14'50

Untitled 3 is a concert work connected to the Crush project. Like its parent project, Untitled 3 explores the microscopic forces released during the process of crushing rock, drawing on two research projects at PGP (Physics of Geological Processes in Oslo): 3D numerical simulations of grain fracture and fault gouge evolution during shear - the work of Steffen Abe (Aachen) and Karen Mair (Oslo), and the study of real acoustic emissions from granite, basalt and sandstone under compression - the work of Alexandre Schubnel, (Paris).

Work began with the accurate sonification of data from simulations and real acoustic emissions. These experiments each presented a different type of data requiring different approaches to sound. The initial sonifications highlighted the most interesting mapping processes, which were then used as a point of departure for sound-art experiments. Although sometimes at the expense of scientific accuracy, these new developments attempted to maintain correlation between 3D sound and the patterns and processes found in the geological systems. Parameters such as sound type, volume, transience, frequency, filter, pitch shift, grain, continuation, resonance and spatial location were mapped in various ways to the source data parameters such as fracture magnitude, fracture location and spatial displacement. Time lines and spatial dimensions were particularly malleable and found to be one of the most useful ways to focus towards (short time spans) or abstract from (longer time spans) the geological systems. Some results are many minutes in duration, others only a few seconds. In Untitled 3 I then explored an abstract development trying to set a sense of scale and dynamics through timbre, time and space. Untitled 3 is spatialised in 1st order ambisonics.

The installation Crush-2 (also part of the Crush project) is opening on the 29th May as part of the SID exhibition at the Teknisk Museum in Oslo.

The Crush project was developed during an artists grant from the Norwegian Composers' Remuneration Fund.