Forepaw Installation

Constructed by Ross Manning and Danny Jenatsch inside the Forepaw Gallery (Northcote, Melbourne), Forepaw Installation uses the pared-back elegance of live audio feedback through a constellation of salvaged loudspeakers.

Twenty different types of loudspeakers were arranged at varying heights and directions around the gallery room. Each of the loudspeakers differed in type, age, quality, power, size and, as Manning explains ‘… were all recycled from other works. I’m very much a collector of such things, much to my partner’s dismay.’ Three different types of microphones were placed in the centre of the room, pointing outwards toward the speakers, in the hope of igniting audio feedback loops between the microphones and the speakers.

Once everything was switched on, the microphones would pick up the ambient sounds of the gallery room: the natural hum of the lights, the back toilet flushing, the sounds of people moving through the space, pigeons warbling on the front awning, slow traffic and trams outside. The signals from the three microphones were sent to two amplifiers and EQ, and then sent out through the loudspeakers.

To complete the feedback loop, the sounds being emitted by the loudspeakers are picked up by the three microphones (along with live ambient sounds) and once again sent through the loudspeakers. During performance the microphones were moved about the space, changing their proximity to the loudspeakers, and varying the range of sounds being picked-up, altering the nature of the feedback being produced.

Manning and Jenatsch constructed two different types of switching devices – a linear keyboard-style design using small push-button switches, and a circular device that would automatically switch ten speakers on and off sequentially. These devices provided the performers with a certain level of control during performance, enabling them to turn off individual loudspeakers in certain corners and walls of the space.

It seems a little futile trying to describe in words what Forepaw Installation sounded like. It would be easier to describe eating a bowl of porridge. Feedback isn’t uniform, or constant, and it does differ widely in frequency, timbre, complexity, volume, and pretty much every other sound characteristic.

Using twenty different types of loudspeakers, each with their particular sound qualities, ensured that a complexity of sound was being flung around the gallery space. The sounds were disfigured by each of the loudspeaker’s particular limitations. For Manning the instrument’s sounds were ‘… quite musical, with a full range of frequencies. Of course the sound spatialisation was the main thing we were playing with. The audience would have sound coming from above, below and behind them. Also peoples’ movement vastly changed the acoustics of the space. Whether the audience were sitting on the floor or moving around and how many people in the gallery all controlled the sound produced.’

Forepaw Installation was constructed and performed twice over one night only in 2007.

We are still trying to track down an audio recording for Forepaw Installation.