Robert Hengeveld
Staging The Gap
September 17–October 16, 2010

At a concert both the performance and other visual effects of the concert shape our understanding of what we hear. Hengeveld’s installation Staging the Gap turns that relationship on its head, creating instead a situation in which the audio frames our understanding and perception of the visual.

The work explores the relationship between audio and the visual, and the roles they play in structuring our understanding of the world around us. The work uses fiction to better understand our perception of the real.

An outdoor concert stage is recreated at a miniature scale of 2 m2 – a scale at which the viewer is encompassed by the work and yet remains slightly detached from its original context. This model structure is elevated 1.5 m from the ground on top of scaffolding. The empty stage is silently animated with lights, smoke, and other effects, which are precisely orchestrated –recreating a virtual, but performer-less show. The effects are programmed through the use of ‘colour organs’ and other electrical circuits. The model stage is accompanied by eight audio headsets hung across the front of the stage.

Each headset plays a very different soundtrack created by a variety of musicians who have made audio interpretations that specifically respond to the visual performance. This diverse collection ranges from experimental noise, to rock ’n roll, classical, and others. The audio tracks and visual effects play in sync, and are triggered by the viewer through an illuminated push button switch.