I am sitting in a room - [laboratuar]

[twistiejoe]

does he say "a way to SMOOTH out any irregularities my speech may have"? Just trying to get the idea behind this if people could explain it that would be great

[mindform]

nice video..god bless alvin lucier!

[costantinoplus]

Le stesse parole divengono altre nello scorrere del tempo come i movimenti dell'unica persona che si moltiplicano nello spazio e generano altro.

[twistiejoe]

doesn't anyone think that this is just a big wank?

[iamskillxD]

evidently not. it appears that you are the big wank.

[twistiejoe]

sorry, i just don't get the point of it. can you enlighten me? Sorry if i'm a ignorant about all this

[badbobbyhughes]

so basically after so many iterations, the sound loses enough of its human speech formants, and takes on the resonant frequencies of the wall? the room itself is effectively parroting what the human originally said, though without the phonemic repertoire necessary to produce articulable speech?

[mcgorgomagan]

dude

it's called 'de-interlace'

[Auriam]

Interesting... extending the idea of feedback and looping into the visual from the auditory. And interesting that it should happen to be from a group from Ankara!

I was actually learning about Turkish on Wikipedia when I clicked through a few links on phonetics and linguistics and came upon this video when reading the page on "formant frequencies" of speech... whereas this is an experiment in allowing the formant frequencies of a room to manifest over those of speech...

[roneb2002]

brilliant! it takes simplicity to understand the real meaning of music.

[rajafTROLL]

wake up, doctor freeman

[rapethenun]

Oh man I laughed.

[TheDecadant]

hahahahaha, doctor freeman, funny stuff.

[atabarut]

I Am Sitting in a Room (1970) is one of composer Alvin Lucier's best known works, featuring Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into the room, re-recording it.

[atabarut]

The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Since all rooms have characteristic resonance or formant frequencies (e.g. different between a large hall and a small room), the effect is that certain frequencies are emphasized as they resonate in the room, until eventually the words become unintelligible, replaced by the pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself.

[atabarut]

"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech.

[atabarut]

I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."