Hørbar/Audiobar is a responsive environment for exploring the collection of audio art developed at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, Denmark (MFSK). The user interacts with the sounds by means of a tangible interface, namely, by placing bottles on a table. The bottle- and bar metaphor was selected so as to facilitate social interaction between the visitors at the Hørbar/Audiobar. This installation is the first phase of a larger media art platform project, conceptualized by media artist Mogens Jacobsen and media curator Morten Søndergaard. The Hørbar/Audiobar environment consists of a bar room for playful collective interaction and a panel for detailed exploration.
The bar
The bar consists of a central table and 260 bottles placed on shelves. The bottles all have colorful labels which indicate the content of the bottle; one bottle may contain mostly noise, one may contain “80% vocals”, and another “20% rhythm”. There are twelve, very subjective categories of labels easily recognizable by color. Some labels are black with white lettering; this type of bottle contains a “period” – e.g. 1960–1965. Placing bottles on the table will trigger a search for an audio-track that fits these parameters.
Research panel
Located in the entrance to the bar there are two monitors and two set of headphones. These monitors display the title and artist of the last 10 tracks played in the bar. When the visitor selects a track, a page provides more detailed information about this track. At the same time, the track is played in the headset. The visitor can also decide to obtain a list of all available tracks by the same artist. These tracks can also be explored on the panel. (Text: Mogens Jakobsen)
Mogens Jacobsen (*1959 in Rome) lives and works in Copenhagen. Studies in mathematics at the University of Aarhus and Media Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. In the 1980s he published avant-gardist music on audio cassettes; since the 1990s, he has been occupied with the internet as the new D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) medium and produced net.art. He has been working primarily with network installations since 2001. Jacobsen is a founding member of the Danish artists group Artnode.org.
Hørbar/Audiobar is part of the collection of MFSK. Media Art Platform is curated by Morten Søndergaard, Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde; it is supported by Kulturnet Danmark / The Danish Cultural Heritage Council, Sonning Fonden and Sound Forum Öresund.
