Every year, a temporary city, the Black Rock City of 80 000 people is built, deconstructed and burned in the Nevada desert.
Mechanit Project
made an appearance with a sound installation at the Burning Man event in Black Rock City in August 2019.
The work was realized at the Finnish camp Steam of Life's sauna, designed by the Helsinki-based JKKM architecture agency.
The installation’s fully mechanical soundscape created it's own tranquil atmosphere inviting the visitors of the sauna to engulf
themselves into this alternative mechanical reality and take distance from the noises of the Black Rock City buzz. The sounds moved as
a progression from the sounds of everyday metallic sauna and hygiene accessories to the abstract forms of circular and square objects and
furthermore to become elevated mechanically souding echoes in metal plates mounted from the sauna’s ceiling.
Team Sound design and production: Atte Olsonen & Ukko-Pekka Itäpelto
photo - Hannu Rytky
In just around the corner by choreographer Iina Taijonlahti and sound designer Atte Olsonen, the foresight of the future
is examined through the movement of the human and the robot ball. Taijonlahti performs the piece with a robot ball.
A black swan also visits the piece. The black swan theory is a metaphor used in future research, which comes as a surprise due
to its rarity and is often rationalized afterwards. The working group has consulted future reacher Marko Ahvenainen during the work process.
I was responsible for the sound design of the work. The soundscape of the piece consists of footsteps and the sounds of robots
and solenoid motors drawing shapes in the acoustical performance space.
Bruce Nauman's video work Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square, based on walking, served
as a reference for the piece.
The Solenoid System I've developed stands at the heart of many of my sonic explorations. This custom motor controller,
synchronized with MAX/MSP and integrated with Ableton Live, has played a pivotal role in shaping my sound design and individual sound art projects.
Version 3 of the System, completed in 2023, commands 356 Solenoid motor channels, enabling a diverse range of movements from subtle nuances to
impactful tapping, driven by PWM pulses.
Beyond sound, the Solenoid System transforms physical space into an auditory canvas. During recent trials, this latest
version, built in collaboration with Lucas Weidinger (Solisynth) and firmware by Andrea Vogrig, spans
the venue in a grid layout, allowing for variedsound movement shapes. Whether creating circular patterns, square formations, or
swaying sequences, rapid motor actions across the space immerse audiences in an interactive sonic journey.
The most notable works featuring the Solenoid System are Mechanit Project's
"Koneistos",
Tanssiteatteri Hurjaruuth's "Talvisirkus Super",
and my solo work, the interactive installation "Listener".
These creations spotlight the immersive soundscapes crafted by the Solenoid System, researching the synergy between technology and art.
They invite audiences to explore captivating sonic environments brought to life by the latest evolution of the Solenoid System.
About solenoid motors: A solenoid motor is an electromechanical device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy using an electromagnet
formed from a coil of wire. This device creates a magnetic field from the electric current, which then generates linear motion.
The solenoid motor comprises a copper coil within a casing and a plunger that moves inside the coil. One end of the plunger has a
cap nut, while the other end is connected to a spring. When current flows through the coil, the magnetic field pushes the plunger
out of the coil. When the current stops, the spring returns the plunger to its original position.
This movement produces a snapping sound. The intensity of the electric pulse regulates the loudness of the snap sound, ranging from a barely audible click to a loud bang.
When multiple motors are arranged in a row, and electric pulses are sent to them in series from one end of the row to the other,
it creates the impression of the physical movement of snaps in space. In Mechanit Project's performance "Mekanis-eloi (dance)," motors are positioned in the
performance space in a grid-like structure, enabling the movement of sound in three-dimensional space across the room. This phenomenon, the movement of sound in space,
is impossible to achieve with a traditional speaker system. In that case, the movement of sound occurs in the "stereo" image formed between the speakers. The solenoid motor
system allows for a genuine three-dimensional auditory experience.
Mechanit Project's latest performance Koneistos is a synthetic nature experience,
a performance installation in which the light modules and mechanical sound machines are the main performers. The work seeks beauty
and warmth from the versatile sounds and clumsy movements of physical metallic materials and machines.
I work as the facilitator and leader of Mechanit Project. The group includes lighting artist Teo Lanerva, sound artists
Atte Olsonen and Jani Hietanen, playwright-choreographer Soili Huhtakallio, the set builder Ville Metsätalo, experience
designer Ukko-Pekka Itäpelto, and producer Anita Parri.
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“Mechanit Project's Koneistos is one of the high points of the Lux Helsinki [2023] Festival” (HBL)
"The lights move vertically and horizontally in the abstract, raw, beautiful space of the metal piping.
The light-beings feel like something alive. They climb, descend, crawl, stop, hide, and change color. They do
their own work, act, and perform. ... In Koneistos we rely on our own sensations and associations. It is this
openness that is so luxurious. For me, the various abstract geometric shapes built from the steel pipes of this
synthetic forest were associated with the three-dimensionality of the spatial spaces of Kandinsky's paintings.
I was inside them." - Hanna Helavuori, hannahelavuori.com
“During an hour’s meditative journey, the audience experiences a powerful, fully mechanically realized nature experience” (HBL review 7/25/2020)
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In Koneistos, the audience is invited to a “synthetic forest” spread over an area of 100m2. The forest,
built of five-meter aluminum and carbon fiber pipes, is the habitat of dozens of small, mechanical creatures that
communicate through movement, sound, and light. Mechanical light-creatures climb along the tree trunks in dialogue with
sound objects sounding around the forest. As performers, we are present in the space, but more as equal residents of
the forest with the machines and the audience, rather than in a hierarchical position as performers.
Koneistos was premiered at the Lux Helsinki 2023 festival and was elected to the Finnish Light Art Association's
Lux Helsinki 2024 international curator residency pitch-program. Jani Hietanen's and Atte Olsonen's sound design in Koneistos
was nominated for both the "Äänisäde 2022" and "Äänisäde 2023" awards.
Koneen Säätiö, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland and Arts
Promotion Centre Finland is funding the project.
Team Sound design and production - Atte Olsonen
Sound design - Jani Hietanen
Visual design - Teo Lanerva
Artistic dialogue - Soili Huhtakallio
Production - Anita Parri
Set design and building - Ville Metsätalo
Listener is a spatial interactive audiovisual sound installation. The audience is invited one by one into a
darkened room to explore the vivid interactivity of the surrounding rattling sound in the light of a flashlight.
”The visitor enters the fully blacked out space alone. The only light is the flashlight they are handed at the entrance.
There is a continuous uneasy rattling, a cricket-like sound that soon surrounds the visitor completely.
The rattling goes suddenly quiet when the visitor lights the flashlight.
The visitor searches around the space with the flashlight, the rattling gradually fades in.
It feels like the source of the rattling is though continuously evading the light beam however hard you try to find it.
The visitor can slowly see the “root system” of cables that has grown like a vine over the carpet, the tables, the walls.
Some are even hanging from the ceiling. In the end of every vine is a little metallic thing, a motor of some kind.”
Aesthetically the work investigates the agency of machines. The timid character of the motors invites the viewer to meditate
on the presence shared between her/him and the mechanical beings in the shared space.
Technically the installation is built around a modular solenoid motor and light sensor system.
The fully acoustic and spatially articulate soundscape of the work is produced solely by the
mechanical action of the solenoids. The work is adaptable to a wide variety of spaces and is
scalable with its 20-54 solenoid motors and can accommodate spaces between 20-70m2.
A slideshow (4:40 min) accompanied by a binaural recording can be found here: https://youtu.be/-7d404tP7Y8, please listen with headphones.
