In Defragmentation/blue, time seems to stand still. Five bright blue lines float in the dark. Depending on the viewer’s perspective, they appear as a horizon or as a covering of the space, and they continue into the infinity of unlimited black. In actuality, the light rays are ultraviolet-reflecting ribbons. To move further into the room, one has to crawl under them, which completely changes the visual and acoustic perception of the space. The unboundedness of the architectural installation is reinforced by the static-repetitive structure of the sound installation. In the compositional design of Defragmentation/blue, Bernhard Gal incorporates psycho-acoustic phenomena like masking effects, combination tones, and the gestalt laws of psychology. In a progression of frozen time-windows, superpositions of partial tones unfold, varying with the listener’s position in the room; micro-tonal glissandos form floating sound textures that fill the whole room.

Defragmentation/blue (1999)

Reflective ribbons, black light, loudspeakers

Location: Studio Five Beekman, New York City 1999
Supported by the Austrian Cultural Institute New York
Photography by Yumi Kori, Tom Ritchford and Susanne Wimmer.