Conveyor (2007)

stereo sound

Conveyor is sound to accompany an art exhibit about the field of industrial engineering, mounted at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Prof. Mary Carothers, Prof. Naira Campbell-Kyureghyan and their students. The piece begins with a direct presentation of sounds heard on the factory floor of Sandvik Sorting Systems, as the staff puts large conveyor-belt sorters through their paces. Characteristic sounds — test packages bumping against various surfaces as the machine sorts them, constant motor whine, distant pounding of metal — suggest more fanciful treatment. The percussive impacts of packages knocking against the sorting machine morph into synthetic imitations of these sounds, as the factory soundscape undergoes extreme time expansion, letting us hear short sounds as if under a magnifying glass.

Performances:

• E-Expo, Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, 3/3/2007