Mark Bain &
Mark Bain has been investigating the vibrations of buildings and their material properties since the late 1990s. To this purpose, he uses sound waves that often lie beneath the perception threshold. In his sound works, these have the effect of an invisible object that designates a place, and which the audience can physically sense and hear. These projects developed from Bain’s research into the relationship between the resonance frequency of the human body and of architecture in the context of his dissertation at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Bain has already presented The Archisonic in several versions and with reference to various places as a live performance and installation. Using seismic sensors, which he developed himself, and which can register micro-vibrations, Bain transfers the natural oscillation of a building and enhances it via a loudspeaker system adapted to the specific proportions of the building. The sensors are wired with the building to divert the resonance frequency. Bain thus uses the architecture like a playable music instrument—also often in interaction with musicians, performers or video presentations.
He is interested in special places and architectures and how various materials sound. Like with an instrument, there are various forms and sizes and materials that influence the sound waves. For The Archisonic, it is the form and proportions of the building and the materials like wood, concrete, glass and stone. Bain occupies himself specifically with the Trinkpavillon in Bonn-Bad Godesberg in the context of VIDEONALE.20. Another healing spring was drilled at this place, the Kurfürstenquelle, in 1962. This was followed in 1969/70 by the construction of a cuboid pavilion that has since served as a place for dispensing curative water. Bain invites visitors to imagine the experience as a kind of curative sound bath that envelops the body like a physically tangible sound sculpture. (Kathrin Jentjens)
