near(ly) sounds is a conceptual framework based on interventions in specific, closed but acoustically semi-permeable architectural constructions through sound installations conceived and realized as aesthetic research dispositives. These apparatuses allow for an aural-aesthetic inquiry into the way in which one particular architectural construction conditions the emergence of its environment.
After selecting certain spots in the architectural space to be inquired, Alex Arteaga realizes sound recordings during the night (around 3 am) on these spots. Typically around this hour the level of sound generation achieves its minimum level. This allows registrations that present aural phenomena generated in the space of recording or in its close surroundings—near sounds—to be realized, but not yet fully constituted as sounds: they are rather nearly sounds. The reproduction of this acoustic material during the day on the same spots on which they have been recorded enables the listener to establish an altered relationship with the architectural construction: its solidity is destabilized. This rather processual presence of the architectural surroundings opens up new possibilities to explore its relationship with the emergence of the listener’s environment.
After near(ly) sounds. Bauhausgebäude, near(ly) sounds. Espacio Valverde was the second project realized within this framework. The architectural object explored was the art gallery Espacio Valverde in the Madrid’s city center. The research process—including the realization, selection, and installation of sound recordings—took place from June 1 to 10, 2017.
