Betsey Biggs

17 underground induction loops, speaker wire, amplifiers and speakers, induction loop receivers, headphones, watery orchestral music, sounds of marine animals. Commissioned by Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts.

Sunken Gardens is a performative audio installation, in which a new layer of sound — a sonic underwater world full of bubbling noises, creaky technology, sonar sounds, oddly vibrating chords, surprising fragments of text, and so on — is added to the existing landscape. These sounds will be inaudible to the naked ear, but visitors, with the help of special receivers amplifying this sound field, will be able to sonically navigate this invisible landscape, creating their own musical form by walking amidst the many musical elements which make up its sonic and geographical structure. Like a piece of music, Sunken Gardens will contain fragments of narrative and harmonic structure; unlike traditional music, visitors will play the piece non-linearly simply by walking through it.

The technology for Sunken Gardens — ‘induction loops’ or ‘hearing loops,’ as they are more popularly called — is decades old, but is regaining popularity because it’s so helpful for those with hearing loss. Most hearing aids (and the receivers visitors will use) are equipped with telecoils, which amplify the electromagnetic waves given off by the induction loops, and enable the listener to hear concerts, lectures and in this case, an invisible sunken garden.

Sunken Gardens was commissioned by Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts for their inaugural outdoor sound installation exhibition, In the Garden of Sonic Delights, alongside artists such as Laurie Anderson, Annea Lockwood, Bob Bielecki, Francisco Lopez, Stephen Vitiello, and Trimpin.

very special thanks to:
Ranjit Bhatnagar
Stephan Moore

EXHIBITIONS

2015: Garden of Sonic Delights, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, NY, USA.

2014: Garden of Sonic Delights, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, NY, USA.