{"id":855,"date":"2025-04-18T00:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T07:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/?page_id=855"},"modified":"2025-04-18T00:32:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T07:32:29","slug":"about-the-sound-instrullation-at-the-prelinger-library","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/?page_id=855","title":{"rendered":"About the Sound “Instrullation” at the Prelinger Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2022 I set up a sound installation inside the Prelinger Library<\/a>. It sits in the stacks and includes six small computers and speakers and software I wrote to control the selection and playback of approximately a thousand different sounds. I\u2019ve come to call it my \u201cInstrullation\u201d; part installation part instrument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The twenty or so families of sounds are grouped into four major categories:
1. Topical<\/strong> – brief concr\u00e8te sounds (field recordings) that reflect specific topics covered in the Library
2. Symbolic<\/strong> – brief concr\u00e8te sounds that (for me) epitomize or symbolize a library experience (e.g., whispering, pages turning, etc.)
3. Musical<\/strong> – longer continuous “musical” sounds that undulate and float
4. Voices<\/strong> – voices of readers who offered me recordings they made while reading passages from books they found in the stacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people visit the Library on any given Sunday afternoon (and even when they don\u2019t), I play the Instrullation to enhance, accent, and sculpt the space. One visitor said that the soundscapes gave them the feeling of a soft warm embrace. A nearby sound increased one visitor’s interest in a topic that happened to be close by. They thought they caused it. (They didn’t.) I was told by one person that a fleeting distant sound came as a surprise and actually drew them towards it, to see what was there. They then checked out and enjoyed that section of the stacks. It literally moved them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the residency, I also wanted to play the installation along with other musicians in the space. I found an excellent pairing one Sunday afternoon in 2024, when Kattt and Kenneth Atchley came in for a first visit and a listen. That visit led to Kattt and Kenneth\u2019s (aka greensatan’s) monthly visits to improvise together in the space.\u00a0After several months we dubbed our trio “Resonant Margin”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2022 I set up a sound installation inside the Prelinger Library. It sits in the stacks and includes six small computers and speakers and software I wrote to control the selection and playback of approximately a thousand different sounds. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/855\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomblum.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}