GMU:My favorite things/Projekte/cascada

cascada - sound installation // Ruben Dhers

Cascada is a sound installation for prepared guitars and fans that musically interprets the sound of a waterfall and seeks to approach the vital irregularities that characterise natural events. In so doing, Cascada resizes the sound potential of an acoustic instrument and creates a sound architecture that only exists in the music of the installation.

Cascada - 2011
Mixed media: prepared steel-string acoustic guitars,
fabric, motors, speakers and computer.
Dimensions variables.
ZKM Institut für Musik und Akustik. Karlsruhe 2011

The installation works with the amplified natural sound of the guitars without any kind of audio processing. Computer controlled hanging and placed fans (dc motors) strum the strings with variable intensity. The space is filled with a mass of harmonics and chords that suggest no beginning or end. Cascada drives the listener to a contemplative state.

sketches before the installation :

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Pure Data + Arduino: The PD patch controls the speed of each fan separa- tely. This works randomly, but partly limited in order to generate polyrhythmic patterns and dynamics. Slow changes happen approximately every five minutes.