Taking off from Pauline Oliveros’ Apple Box approach, a suitcase (usually found in the city the piece is performed in) acts as the instrument. Together with its contact microphones it functions as a filter and amplifier for the sounds coaxed from its resonant body.
In 2016 I was rummaging through the garbage piles in the Hamburg/Wilhelmsburg neighborhood to find an object I could coax sounds from. Eventually the crap I collected made it back to the garbage heap, as I bought an old leather suitcase for €1 in a thrift store. I remembered an exhibition about immigration from Bremen to New York, and the image of a room full of such suitcases immediately came to my mind when I saw the one in the thrift store.
Taking off from Pauline Oliveros’ Apple Box approach, the suitcase acts as the instrument. Together with its contact microphones it functions as a filter and amplifier for the sounds coaxed from its resonant body. This project is an alternative to the use of (disembodied) field recordings when relating to a specific location. The object has to come from the city I am performing in, and by exploring its sonic properties I am imagining (this is the absurdist part) what the object would say to us if it could talk.
Sonic Flotsam 2025 is an update on the original project that was using small handheld fans in the past. As part of a Harvestworks Artist in residency grant from 2019, Harvestworks engineer Emad Jamal built an arduino-based motor system that allows me to control the motor speed in realtime.
Artist statement by Hans Tammen
