The Resonance Project, 2007–present
The Resonance Project is an ongoing series of performances, installations and films that uses the human voice to stimulate architectural spaces to resound at their natural frequencies.
The Resonance Project: Palais de Tokyo, 2012
Performance of 'Composition for tuning an architectural space' Image: ExperienzPerformanceLiveArtPlatformBrussels2013©CiciOlsson
The Resonance Project: Palais de Tokyo, 2012
For a text on the Resonance Project by curator and gallery director Jonathan Watkins : click here.
Resonance Project (2007-) performances and films have taken place and been exhibited in such places as the Centre Pompidou, the Palais de Tokyo, MoMA PS1, an Ottoman hammam, Ikon Gallery, Oxford University, a multi-storey car park and the Brighton sewers. Oliver Beer has developed a vocal technique through which he stimulates the empty spaces in buildings to resound according to their resonant frequencies, creating an extraordinary force of vibration and revealing the 'voice' of the building. Using this technique with classically trained singers, Beer transforms buildings into musical instruments, much in the same way that a wine glass can be made to sing with the tip of a finger. He then composes polyphonic music for these newly audible 'architectural instruments', which he weaves into immersive live performances.
“Like Frank Lloyd Wright, Beer reminds us that besides floors, walls and roofs, architecture is empty space, and this is why, since 2007, he has been working with architectural acoustics, playing on the occurrence of natural (audible) frequencies in buildings for his ongoing Resonance Project.”
Jonathan Watkins. 2017.Oliver Beer. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery
The works and installations are very physical experiences and so are not available online – for more information on the Resonance Project, please contact info@oliverbeer.co.uk