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Project Website: http://slought.org/content/11255/
Slought Foundation, a non-profit organization rethinking contemporary art, presents "That Which is Known and Unknown (for Chris Rice); What Was and Will Not Ever Be Again the Same as it is Different", a subharmonic sound installation by Thomas C. Moore from September 11-November 6, 2004. This two-month exhibition, comissioned in conjunction with the concurrent emerging artist exhibition for a "tomb-like" vault at Slought Foundation, confronts the visitor with a low-level sound composition featuring a range of mild to intense subharmonic vibrations (caused by variations in the amplitudes of the sound waves). These pockets of intense vibration are enhanced by the vault's non-dampening steel enclosure.
A sound wave (e.g., someone talking) is a small pressure wave that travels through the air. The energy generated from the pressure waves is passed from molecule to molecule, finally exciting your eardrum and causing vibrations in the internal structure of the ear. Human ears are capable of detecting sounds in the range 25-17,000 Hertz (vibrations per second). Sounds below this range vibrate too slowly for humans to hear, but are able to be felt with the body. Using frequencies from the lower end of the audible spectrum, T.C. Moore's work explores the impact of sound on human sensory perception as it engages the body rather than the ear: sound as tactile experience.
As sound frequencies approach the level at which the brain operates (between 1 and 13 Hz), exploitation of low-frequency sound makes possible cognitive warfare and mind control using acoustical, optical and electromagnetic fields to interfere with an enemy's biological processes. Overexposure to low-frequency sounds (50 Hz or lower) can result in immediate reduction of cognitive performance, reduced perception, lessened memory performance and a heightened sense of discomfort. Certain low, partially audible frequencies cause humans to experience nausea, and have been used to incapacitate persons in counter-terrorist and crowd control settings.
Thomas C. Moore is an emerging Philadelphia-based sound artist whose work has been presented at galleries and art spaces including Diapason Gallery, New York, the Red Room (Baltimore), and the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
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