Steve HeimbeckerSongs of Place
© Heimbecker, 2003
Presentation of the artist on Wednesday, March 10, and Thursday, March 11, 2004
“Songs of Place: Series 1, 2000 to 2003” is a production series of experimental audio art portraits which use surround sound audio and split screen video techniques to represent four Canadian places: Halifax, N.S., Montréal, QC, Vancouver, BC, and Springwater, SK. Each composition in the series captures a portrait of a selected city or countryside, using multiple (eight or ten) Acoustic Mapping Process (4-channel surround sound) location recordings. These recordings are layered and edited together with another system called Dynamic Voltage Mapping (DVM). The audio and video will then be compiled together for DVD production, complete with Dolby 5.1 surround sound for presentation in installation or special screenings, where surround sound audio systems can be optimally installed. “I am interested in creating a sonic and visual portrait of a particular place at a particular time. It is my contention that to fully hear a place one needs to hear the space of that place.”
© Heimbecker, 2003
Born in Saskatchewan with studies at the Alberta College of Art, Steve Heimbecker is recognized for his innovative role in the development of audio art sculpture, installation and multi-channel sound composition in Canada. Since the late 1980s he has exhibited and performed across Canada and abroad. In 2001 he moved to Montréal, and has since received multiple residencies and arts grant awards, most recently from the Daniel Langlois Foundation, for his research and production in new media and audio. For the last three years Heimbecker has worked on two concurrent bodies of work: “Songs of Place,” a series of experimental audio art Dolby 5.1 DVD projects, and the ambitious 64-channel environmental network data system, “Wind Array Cascade Machine,” and its wind-based telematic installations. Steve Heimbecker lives and works in Montréal.