Access/babbel

Meesh Fradkin

babbel, 2023

Wood, plastic tubing, rubber tubing, metal wire, steel rods, 3D printed parts, audio interface, amplifier, cables, loud speakers, condenser microphones, LED strips, Arduino, Max/MSP, REAPER, Ableton, RTcmix, Unity, Blender, Parsec

Sound descriptions by Cheryl Green

Technical and manufacturing support by Vincent Cusson

Meesh Fradkin's voice-activated sculpture listens to the formation of speech and explores the loss of meaning in buzzwords. Powered by a sonified dictionary composed of jargon, babbel questions positionality in the arts by bringing attention to who is participating in real time.

Suspended from the ceiling as multi-tiered wooden chandeliers with steel rods and plastic tubing, this installation lights up and emits sounds in response to words overheard in the gallery space. Fradkin’s installation invites visitors to consider how words are hollowed out by use, overuse, or misuse.

Please note that some sounds may be loud and dissonant.

Meesh Sara Fradkin’s babbel is composed of five multi-tiered sculptures that sprawl over the entrance of the gallery, spilling into the main exhibition space. Suspended from the gallery’s pipe grid with thin metal wires, an outer ring is formed by four of the low-hanging chandeliers around the centerpiece. As the sculptures float four to seven feet off the ground, tactile floor bumpers and arranged seating mark off these areas.

The largest chandelier is voice-activated, emitting different sounds in response to words spoken in the gallery. Four small speakers and two microphones are integrated into the sculpture and three larger speakers are in the pipe grid.

Behind the chandeliers are three large screens mounted in a horizontal line on the wall about four feet off the ground. The monitors reveal “You are a very good person” in red text, alternating between a black and white background.

There are two small-scale 3-D printed models of the sculptures anchored to the pedestal against the alcove wall. These are tactile sculptures that want to be touched and explored—it’s ok if you break it.

Note: Sounds will appear in an irregular, unpredictable order.

a midtone buzz. the buzz holds as a deep tone sneaks in. the deep tone rises steadily from the ocean depths toward sunlight, bubbling, crackling with static. the tone rises, and rises, warbling and flicking as it passes up and into the air. the tone settles overhead, consumed by electricity coursing through it.

from a mile away, impossible to locate, a chipper syncopated tune.

sparkling jangles, like chains being slid in fits across a slick marble floor

buzzy tones ebb and flow, punctuated by tiny zaps.

fluctuating sparkles, flitting quickly over a distorted, pulsing midtone.

abrasive tone starts suddenly, joined by caustic screeches.

fluttering charged with gnarled pulses of energy, scraping high and low. buzzes and zaps build over fluttering, notes race up and down the scale. brash explosion. ripples of fine, translucent oil slipping down.

scratchy fluttering of too many lantern flies to count, beating a million miles an hour.

teeny pings scribble up and down, bumping into each other as they go. fast, then slow and syncopated pinging, ponging, blipping, a tinny echo.

a thousand millipedes marching in lockstep on feathery legs.

distorted, plonky sounds like plucking the tines of a comb racing high, low, and in between, with a buzzy hum in the background.

electric guitar feedback, a solid tone joined by low throbs. feedback ends, leaving throbs like a beating heart.

bubbles of carbonation sparkle and pop.

stifling whir that rings and fizzes.

ticklish cacophony of buzzes, ticks, clicks, and flutters. a low tone holds steady as buzzes and flutters grow, rise, clamber over one another. tones climb higher, brighter, louder. the tones all fade, leaving the tickle of buzzes and ticks, then nothing.

reminiscent of a '60s TV sci-fi theme sparkling with swift, agile bloops, beeps, and Space Age dials and knobs turning, sounds warping as they do.

echoes of a distant electric guitar riffing placidly. a rattling shaker builds into the riff. back to faraway, echoing electric chords. slowly fade.

a base of tender trembling with layers like a distant song on cassette played backward. wings flutter in close, circling, spiraling. the melody continues trembling, trilling.

smooth, round tones pulse slowly in and out, inching louder. pulses continue as higher-pitched, raspy notes shiver over the round tones. slowly fading together. raspy shivers drop out, leaving the smooth round pulses.

an emergency warning tone layered over with ships in a harbor pulsing an indecipherable message. all thin, quiet, fade away.

brash and reckless tones pulse in slow motion and out of sync, growing impossibly loud. tones fall away to leave twinkling blips bouncing up and down the scale with no direction, a scratchy wind beneath them.

a clarion call, crisp and bright, colored by light tinkling. the call fades, leaving electronic tinkling to glisten, then fade.

acarde sounds slur together in a wavy, curvy line. distorted reverberations dense with beep, blips, and long tones.

popping, fizzing crackle loud and close. slowly fading, then gone.

silky tone with intermittent tiny blips, long and loud, then fading slowly.

brash notes on a trumpet intermingle with pulsing electricity. sounds weave and wobble with crackly echoes. metallic reverberations, frantic notes on the trumpet. aching sounds swoop in, gobble the trumpet that continues to bang and bonk. all slowly fades.

bright, spirited beeps, chimes, and plinks jetting across the soundscape constantly overlapping and changing places, high, low, middle. chimes fall away, leaving the jetting beeps tumbling. now most beeps fall away, leaving a quick, syncopated race to the end.

a line of ants rush and race, their tiny legs stirring up glittery sand. at even intervals, a pop. ants disappear at the sound of a chime.

eerie distant tone, suddenly met with one pure tone. the eerie sound grows louder, wobbles against the pure tone as they both rise. now softening, the pure tone gone, leaving the gauzy pulse of the eerie tone. fades slowly, slowly, slowly.

a long midtone squeezes narrow and widens, then joined by bouncing blips and beeps. static pushes all other sound away. static now rolls like ocean waves, the blips and beeps riding the waves until the static disappears, leaving an animated somersault of blips.

low tone from the ocean's depths grows louder. higher, wavering chords build along the low tone, crest, and slip under, leaving the low tone alone to fade to nothing.

click, then a drone so deep and hidden it's barely audible. deep drone grows louder on the left, then everything fills with obsidian, chords thick and glinty. a ruffle, then the glassy tones continue, gently quieting, pulsing, as the higher tones drop out one at a time to reveal the deep drone again.

a wall of static, no end, no beginning, no top, no bottom.

long, rich tone punctuated by quick, effervescent plinky notes like windchimes. The rich tone grows louder, a warping low pulse grows beneath it then leaves, windchimes beating faster. long tone begins to slowly fade, plinky windchimes slow, and the warping pulse returns. Warping pulse gone, windchimes slowing and more even, the tone softens. Warping pulse regains strength and speed, then all fades to silence, the pulse the last to leave.

luscious metallic ringing. ringing is joined by a steady tone that warbles against the ringing. now, just the tone, long and clean.

low, fizzy fuzz with a metallic echo slowly grows louder, as if approaching from behind. as it passes, it slowly grows ever quieter.

a high tone wiggles awake, then joined by a lower tone, each steady, they bump against each other. now, they merge and resonate like an old phone dial tone, a resonant chord. the high tone drops out, leaves the low tone a moment before silence.

dreamy, faraway melody on trumpet. melody plays quietly, tucked beneath a bright, pulsating whine. grows louder, warbles, a high-pitched electric screech. suddenly softer, the melody mostly buried. the high-pitched whine returns, tumbling with the melody. a pulse layers onto the whine and the melody. quickly fades to nothing.

long, sticky static, a ticking timer in the far background.

rasping chords like electric guitar, a low heart beat beneath. gravelly notes join, mix, grow. a hiss like a tire losing air, and the heart beat stops. guitar-like chords soar higher in pitch as they grow ever quieter.

layers of smooth, overlapping tones throbbing with steady crackle beneath. growing louder, the throb holds its tempo perfectly. layers drop out bit by bit, the throb never vanishing.

steady, airy twinkling. a higher twinkling tone builds on. higher notes add. the bottom drops out.

wind rushing through a long, narrow metal tube. pitch rises as the volume swells. static layers in as pitch rises higher and higher. a tone like a humming voice builds in as pitch and volume lift. a mix of rising and falling pitches warble and rub, plinky electric tones like old video game sound effects mingling, racing ahead in fast forward as they gently fade.

electric buzzy chimes, fizzing, crystalline, steady.

white-hot crackling hiss.

long, soft tone slowly rises as another tone oscillates. bright chirps pass over the tones. soft tone melts away as oscillate tone and chirps continue a moment longer.

shadowy tones reverberate and pulse. tones grow and build as a quiet high squeal layers on, then is swallowed by the shadows. the shadows pulse and grumble on, slowly growing fainter.

shimmering playscape of tumbling tones, all bright and light, swirling, some digital beeps, some chimes and bells.

ringing bells billow through an eerie layer of glimmering fog. fog slips away, leaving the bells and light taps of a chime.

long, ripply chime rings out, wrapped in light, crinkly static.

quick boop-boop, then two tones, one high and still, the other low and quavering. the high tone fades, leaving a low, fast-trilling tone.

layers of spindly gears grinding and glinty chimes ever-ringing create a bed both steady and wavering. grinding stops, leaving pulses from chimes, their metal matte but scratchy.

a bed of shimmering, twinkling drones, a melody tries to form above it but cannot. above the twinkles, now a dial tone and tones racing up the scale to a shrill note. all turns to pulsing static, squeals, and robotic blips.

tv static scratching. a long, ghostly tone mixes into the static. ghostly tone fades, leaving tv static to scratch and crumble loud, then suddenly gone.

dissonant chord, steady and raw.

raindrops made of amethyst and rose quartz fall onto glass, starting as mist, then a downpour. plinking drops slow, begin to lower in pitch. they fall in pairs, bundles, race each other down. Now slowing, a steady rhythm. Back to the rainfall, sparkling and quick. slow, patient, then quickening again syncopated.

beepy boopy shaking notes, fast and staccato chasing each other and tumbling down a gentle slope.

rapid-fire pulses like the ceaseless beating of hummingbird wings pierced by high, glassy notes. they repeat in cycles, flitting, swooping, pointy and raspy. suddenly soft, sputtering to the end.

multiple electronic waves roll over each other, pulsing, reverberating. growing louder, fuller, brighter than a full moon. softly, quieting, like clouds passing the moon.

lustrous tones flicker in haste through a tall, echoey space.

tangled morass of ornery tones, long and short laid over an old-fashioned radio knob turning, seeking a station, any station

a crinkly bell rings out joined by overlapping, disagreeing melodies on caliope. static crackles, noise like the caliope is being dismantled, put back together inside out and played as if in a dream. chimes burst forth, ring out, fade.

fast, skittish beeps interwoven with one long, tense tone cutting through the middle.