Dunes and Redundancy represent two different methods of the collecting of processes that are otherwise found mainly in the electronic realm.

Dunes:
In Dunes an audio-signal - no matter where it comes from - is recorded and made visible and audible. The recording takes place in the form of sand dunes, and is made audible by the sound of 16 fans (8 pairs). This results in a resolution of 3 bits within the frequency range and of innumerable bits (sand) within the dynamics range.
The audible is the white noise of the whirring fans. The visible is the flying sand and the shifting dunes.

The Installation
The 8 pairs of fans where directed at the 3x3 meter sand surface. A webcam was focused on the lighted surface, feeding images into the internet. Initially the sand was damp and clayey (sandbox-sand), then another layer of silica sand was placed on top of it.
The audio stream from Linz was band-pass filtered 8 times. Each of the frequency bands controlled a pair of fans (above a certain limiting value = fans on, below a limiting value = fans off). In addition, the audio stream from Linz was transposed lower by 2 octaves, low-pass filtered, panoramised at random and transferred via two loudpeakers to the sand surface.

Redundancy:
Redundancy deals with the loss taking place in the process of audio-compression such as the currently popular MPEG process or mini-disc, i.e. with the fact that the media supply an increasing amount of material pre-filtered psycho-acoustically. Analogue material consists of an infinite number of units (e.g. any coast-line, if measured analogously to its end, is infinitely long). In addition to the digital screen, in a psycho-acoustic, loss-determined compression, anything that is not "important" is left out. This process of transformation and the resulting losses, the artefacts and the side effects are the theme of this work.

Unfortunately, for reasons related to finances and time it was impossible to provide sufficient computer power to realise Redundancy in the original form. Instead, there were 4 microphones (on the controlling hardware; in the lab; next to the dunes; on the window) that were cyclically connected to produce the audio-stream which was transmitted to Linz.

Long Radio Night on ORF, österreich 1:
For the "Long Radio Night" a CD was produced offline in which the most diverse material was compressed with MPEG and compared/confronted with the original. The re-synthesis of the subtraction of both spectrums could be heard (FFT original signal - FFT MPEG compressed signal -> re-synthesis). In addition, different contributions and material were fed to the net from Radio Helsinki, VNM, and the on site microphones as a realaudio stream.

On September 13, after the "Sound Drifting" project, Dunes was re-started under changed conditions - this time without a webcam, but pictures were taken several times a week. Also the fans were at first controlled by a signal from a radio station and later by a random generator instead of by the audio stream from the Internet. Dunes was open to the public at irregular intervals day and night (with one interruption) until February 2, 2000. Due to its central location and the contemplative atmosphere, the installation was visited also for relaxation.

Participants:
Dunes and Redundancy: Seppo Gründler
ESC im Labor: Geri Schreilechner, Reni Hofmüller, Sandra Abrams, Jogi Hofmüller
Radio Helsinki: Jogi Hofmüller, Reni Hofmüller a.o.
VNM - with contributions by: Katharina Klement, Klaus Lang, Klammer Josef, Seppo Gründler, Andreas Weixler, Klaus Hollinetz, GHIT and many more.

Dunes is the based on an idea originally intended to be realised within the context of "Niveau" (http://vnm.mur.at/gruendler/niveau/), which was awarded a recognition award at Strömung 99.

Dunes and Redundancy was realised with the support of IEM at the Kunstuniversität Graz and ESC.

Other URLS:
ESC:http://esc.mur.at
VNM: http://vnm.mur.at
IEM: http://iem.kug.ac.at/
Dunes: http://mur.at/gruendler/dunes/