Axial: A Sound Art Work of an Oceanographic Expedition

Axial is a sound installation in which a cargo container is employed as a resonant object: resonant in its acoustic sense because the container is used as sound generator, but also resonant in its metaphorical connotation because the container and the generated sounds translate and represent the geological properties of Axial, an active submarine volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge located about 250 miles off the coast of Oregon (U.S.A.). The container is also the space-instrument for interpreting the scientific data obtained during the oceanographic expedition Enlighten10, organized by the Ocean Observatory Initiative. During this expedition I recorded the sounds of the hydrothermal vents located in the area at depths of over 4,500 feet.

Hugo Solis, internal view of Axial, sound installation, cargo container, sound, electronics, 2011.

(© Hugo Solis)

This Ph.D. thesis describes in detail the entire compositional process as well as the concepts, procedures and context of the artwork. It also describes the concept of digital plurifocality and presents the properties of the Plurifocal Events Controller, a technological infrastructure for creating spatially distributed sound works. The thesis also describes Juum, a piece of software that helps to organize and create digital artworks using an extended timeline logic employing scripting programming.