The Perth Cultural Centre and the PPP
The underground pipes on display inside the SOUNDIG offer a unique insight into our past. Recently excavated by a team of experimental Archaeoacousticians, the Perth Phantom Pipeline which runs directly underneath the city at this location has been dug up to reveal its subterranean artifacts, biofacts, audiofacts and microfacts.
Western Australia, uniquely rich in mineral deposits, has a complex network of pipelines developed over the past century and half to transport gases, water, oil and liquids over vast distances. Construction for some of these pipelines began over 120 years ago and inevitably some of these grand plans were abandoned before completion in favour of more snazzy state-of-the-art transportation technologies. In 1977 when the Art Gallery of Western Australia foundations were laid (just 70m from here), a small number of rogue pipes were discovered, one of which could not be identified. The Department of Public Interest (DPI) couldn’t agree on how to treat this and so it was covered back up, mystery unsolved.
Meanwhile in 2002, aural-illusionary scientists in Auckland, New Zealand, were developing an extraordinary new technology that tagged migratory molecules and sub atomic particles (M-SAP) from archeological sites around the world and rendered them into algorithmic waveforms through new experimental processes*. Professor Markoff Chaney, Dr Julie Kapatelis and Mr Radcliffe Arvadan whose unorthodox practices negated scientific hegemony in favour of visionary concepts, shocked the scientific community by recreating perfectly audible sound from this data. First experiments with ancient Roman coins revealed the sounds of being dropped into a large well, further augmentation produced the an echoey voice wishing for bananas (not yet to be found in ancient Rome). These sounds had been sub-atomically embedded into the copper coins and petrified for centuries beneath the earth’s surface.
Through a fortunate series of coincidences involving an aeroplane, a small kitten and an unusually small house, these three scientists became aware of the Perth Phantom Pipeline (PPP), which they hypothesized was a prime candidate for the presence of M-SAP since the internal cavity had remained untouched for a number of years. After lengthy existential conversations with a succeptability to become quite strange, the living laboratory of the PPP has been installed and is now open to the public for viewing and audio scrutiny, aptly named SOUNDIG.
The central pipe (aorte centralis) and subsidiary conduit (arterialis less importantis) are view-able through the lower port-holes, these have been tapped at regular intervals with live micro-mythic processors retrieving and analysing the molecular residue. Listening posts at regular intervals allow the public to hear the results. So far this has yielded a significant amount of cultural, social and evolutionary material from unknown pasts to recent history and unknown future histrionics. From this archaeoacoustic information, scientists and amateurs alike are able to re-imagine the way in which the people of Perth may have lived in past generations right up to the present time.
You can be part of the ongoing experiments or even contribute to the surveyance and analysis process by listening to the sound as it comes out of the pipes and identifying where these sounds may have come from. You can also contribute sound recordings (or video footage) that can be uploaded to the SOUNDIG website for cross-referencing to the ongoing Perth sound archive and ultimately fed back into the PPP to be buried again for future preservation.
Western Australia, uniquely rich in mineral deposits, has a complex network of pipelines developed over the past century and half to transport gases, water, oil and liquids over vast distances. Construction for some of these pipelines began over 120 years ago and inevitably some of these grand plans were abandoned before completion in favour of more snazzy state-of-the-art transportation technologies. In 1977 when the Art Gallery of Western Australia foundations were laid (just 70m from here), a small number of rogue pipes were discovered, one of which could not be identified. The Department of Public Interest (DPI) couldn’t agree on how to treat this and so it was covered back up, mystery unsolved.
Meanwhile in 2002, aural-illusionary scientists in Auckland, New Zealand, were developing an extraordinary new technology that tagged migratory molecules and sub atomic particles (M-SAP) from archeological sites around the world and rendered them into algorithmic waveforms through new experimental processes*. Professor Markoff Chaney, Dr Julie Kapatelis and Mr Radcliffe Arvadan whose unorthodox practices negated scientific hegemony in favour of visionary concepts, shocked the scientific community by recreating perfectly audible sound from this data. First experiments with ancient Roman coins revealed the sounds of being dropped into a large well, further augmentation produced the an echoey voice wishing for bananas (not yet to be found in ancient Rome). These sounds had been sub-atomically embedded into the copper coins and petrified for centuries beneath the earth’s surface.
Through a fortunate series of coincidences involving an aeroplane, a small kitten and an unusually small house, these three scientists became aware of the Perth Phantom Pipeline (PPP), which they hypothesized was a prime candidate for the presence of M-SAP since the internal cavity had remained untouched for a number of years. After lengthy existential conversations with a succeptability to become quite strange, the living laboratory of the PPP has been installed and is now open to the public for viewing and audio scrutiny, aptly named SOUNDIG.
The central pipe (aorte centralis) and subsidiary conduit (arterialis less importantis) are view-able through the lower port-holes, these have been tapped at regular intervals with live micro-mythic processors retrieving and analysing the molecular residue. Listening posts at regular intervals allow the public to hear the results. So far this has yielded a significant amount of cultural, social and evolutionary material from unknown pasts to recent history and unknown future histrionics. From this archaeoacoustic information, scientists and amateurs alike are able to re-imagine the way in which the people of Perth may have lived in past generations right up to the present time.
You can be part of the ongoing experiments or even contribute to the surveyance and analysis process by listening to the sound as it comes out of the pipes and identifying where these sounds may have come from. You can also contribute sound recordings (or video footage) that can be uploaded to the SOUNDIG website for cross-referencing to the ongoing Perth sound archive and ultimately fed back into the PPP to be buried again for future preservation.
Definitions and links
Archaeoacoustics
From Wikipedia
Archaeoacoustics is the use of acoustical study as a methodological approach within archaeology. This may for example involve the study of the acoustics of archaeological sites, or the study of the acoustics of archaeological artefacts. Archaeology has often focused on the visual and on physical objects, although the past was of course not silent. Since many cultures explored through archaeology were focused on the oral and therefore the aural, it is becoming increasingly recognised that studying the sonic nature of parts of archaeology can enhance our understanding. This is an interdisciplinary field which includes areas such as archaeology, ethnomusicology, acoustics and digital modelling, and that is a part of the wider field of Music Archaeology. There is particular interest in Prehistoric Music.
An early interpretation of the idea of archaeoacoustics was that it explored acoustic phenomena encoded in ancient artifacts. For instance, the idea that a pot or vase could be "read" like a gramophone record or phonograph cylinder for messages from the past, sounds encoded into the turning clay as the pot was thrown. This approach was first raised in the 6 February 1969 issue of New Scientist magazine, where it was discussed in David E. H. Jones's "Daedalus" column. He wrote:
[A] trowel, like any flat plate, must vibrate in response to sound: thus, drawn over the wet surface by the singing plasterer, it must emboss a gramophone-type recording of his song in the plaster. Once the surface is dry, it may be played back.
—Jones, 1982[8]
From Wikipedia
Archaeoacoustics is the use of acoustical study as a methodological approach within archaeology. This may for example involve the study of the acoustics of archaeological sites, or the study of the acoustics of archaeological artefacts. Archaeology has often focused on the visual and on physical objects, although the past was of course not silent. Since many cultures explored through archaeology were focused on the oral and therefore the aural, it is becoming increasingly recognised that studying the sonic nature of parts of archaeology can enhance our understanding. This is an interdisciplinary field which includes areas such as archaeology, ethnomusicology, acoustics and digital modelling, and that is a part of the wider field of Music Archaeology. There is particular interest in Prehistoric Music.
An early interpretation of the idea of archaeoacoustics was that it explored acoustic phenomena encoded in ancient artifacts. For instance, the idea that a pot or vase could be "read" like a gramophone record or phonograph cylinder for messages from the past, sounds encoded into the turning clay as the pot was thrown. This approach was first raised in the 6 February 1969 issue of New Scientist magazine, where it was discussed in David E. H. Jones's "Daedalus" column. He wrote:
[A] trowel, like any flat plate, must vibrate in response to sound: thus, drawn over the wet surface by the singing plasterer, it must emboss a gramophone-type recording of his song in the plaster. Once the surface is dry, it may be played back.
—Jones, 1982[8]