Ptarmigan existed as a project space in Vallila from 2009-2011 and a mobile curatorial/creative platform until 2014. We no longer exist as an organised collective, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced as/at Ptarmigan during these years.
This workshop proposes fieldwork and interventions with the 12-tone filter – a multifunctional sonic filter for transforming unpleasent everyday sounds as street traffic and city noise into a new experience of hearing. As this workshop will be mobile in nature, it will only meet at Ptarmigan for the initial gathering, at 12:00 on 4 July 2011.
12-tone filter is a mobile sonic object that transforms urban noises into tuned sounds. The object is made of 12 PVC drain pipes connected by elastic adhesive agent. Each pipe has a diameter of 100 mm. The resonance of a tube of air is related to the length of the tube. Pipes of twelve different lengths convert the incoming noises by resonance to different harmonic tonalities. The scale reaches from ´E to ES and includes odd and even number harmonics. Therewith the listener receives a new quality of hearing street traffic, aircraft noises and other strong everyday sounds. In addition one can play the object like an instrument, fading several tubes in and out. 12-tone filter is an effective transformer of ‘bad noise’ into ‘good noise’. Thanks to its reduced weight the object is mobile. One person can handle it focusing on interesting sources. It has the metaphoric appearance of a big anti-noise weapon, a kind of sounding bazooka. Jürgen Lehmeier, architect, designer, born in Dillingen (Germany), lives and works in Nuremberg. He studied interior design and architecture at the Postgraduate Program for Architecture and Urban Research akademie c/o of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nuremberg. In 2006 he founded the office Eyland 07 with René Rissland. René Rissland, architect, designer, born in Borna (Germany), lives and works in Nuremberg. He studied architecture at the Postgraduate Program for Architecture and Urban Research akademie c/o of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nuremberg. In 2006 he founded the office Eyland 07 with Jürgen Lehmeier. Florian Tuercke (b. 1977) is a sound-artist from Nürnberg, Germany. He graduated from the Nürnberg Academy of fine Arts with a postgraduate degree in “arts and public space”. His basic field of interest is the sound of urban spaces and its musical and copositional output.
