nokami

CONCEPT:

Greyfield land is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe economically obsolescent, outdated, failing, moribund and/or underutilized real estate assets or land. The term was coined in the early 2000s as a way to describe the sea of empty asphalt that often accompanied these sites, which may also be referred to as “dead malls” or “ghostboxes”.’

Greyfield’ is an ongoing project which investigates the acoustic trace of these spaces; its most recent incarnation is based on sounds recorded in Toronto’s downtown underground pedestrian network. This network, known as the PATH system, is recognized as the world’s largest underground shopping complex. It traverses the entire downtown core and interconnects many notable buildings, including Mies van der Rohe’s austere (but magnificent) Toronto-Dominion Centre complex and Santiago Calatrava’s BCE Place galleria.

The recording sessions for the project occur late at night or on Sundays, when the network is virtually empty. At these times, one hears only the omnipresent hum of the climate control systems and electronic banking and communications networks accompanying the soporific haze of omnipresent muzak. The differences in the various building’s acoustics seems to be accentuated by their emptiness.

My fascination with the PATH network stems from this haunting/haunted atmosphere - this high tech cathedral of branding stripped entirely of its human element..

Though the intent and sound of the pieces may reference sound art, the techniques employed in the creation of the pieces are more akin to that of a dub-style remix. The freshly-recorded sounds are downloaded to the computer, then looped and fed through an array of custom-designed audio-manipulation tools. The recordings are improvised on location as a kind of soundtrack to the space’s apocalyptically empty, surreal cinema.

As an audio-visual performance, ‘greyfield’ incorporates the live visuals of Montréal’s VJ Nokami. The video element of the performance is based on live manipulation of footage shot in the same locations in which the audio was sourced; in most cases, audio and video from the actual location of the performance will be integrated.

———–

IMAGES:

———–

MUSIC:

Michael Trommer

Michael Trommer is a Toronto based producer and visual artist who has recorded for such top electronic music labels as Transmat, Wave, Truffle, Stasisfield, Interchill, Monocromatica, Thinner and con-v. He records under his own name, as well as aliases such as ’sans soleil’, ‘minidisco’, ‘Hydraulic’,and ‘Manitou2′.

Broad-minded in his approach to electronic music, Michael also creates gallery-based audio installation work. 2005 saw him creating a site-specific sound installation for Australia’s ‘Liquid Architecture’ exhibition. Another of his recent works was a net-based audio-manipulation project which was part of the ‘from 0 to 1 and back again’ exhibition at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt; this became the subject of many radio specials on both Deutsche Welle and Hessischer Rundfunk. In 2000, his work was nominated for the Prix Italia for experimental music. His field-recording based material has been featured on London’s Resonance FM, www.vagueterrain.net, www.insine.net, www.monocromatica.com, and www.stasisfield.com. A site-specific field-recording based installation is being exhibited in New York state’s upper Catskill forest (www.restlessculture.net/deepwoods) from the end of May.

Contact:
trommer@sympatico.ca
MySpace
Michael Trommer Blog

Music:
Greyfield

Interview:
Michael Trommer: The sound of empty spaces

———–