RELIEF is a joint project between sound artists Mike Rijnierse and Rob Bothof. An array of moving ultrasonic Parametric speakers project sound on tilted sculptures, letting the audience experience sound as if it is coming from the sculpture itself.

One component of this piece I find inspiring is the interactive element between the listener and the sculpture itself. The audience is welcomed to move around, experimenting with location in comparison to the tilted sculptures on the wall to see how this affects what they hear. The sculpture is based around echo location and thus listeners can pinpoint the ultrasonic sounds produced by the ultrasonic speakers. What I gathered from this piece is when creating an installation it’s important to understand your own goals before you can start to design and create an installation, I think it’s important to make an installation that people can learn from. Most people are kinaesthetic learners, to learn is to experience something first hand and so by giving the audience a sculpture they can interact with can further push the underlying message of your art across or if there is none, furthering and internalising the conclusions the listeners may come to when interacting with your piece. In terms of RELIEF, echo location is used by some Blind people to navigate the world around them so by interacting with the sculpture you might start to appreciate further the struggles blind people may go through in every day life. Developing this investigative relationship with the listener is something I’d like to aim for when attempting to develop sound art installations of my own.