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Speaker Swinging

Speaker Swinging is a performance for three loudspeakers, nine audio oscillators, and 3 performers who swing speakers in circular rotation, thus creating the Doppler Effect. The subsequent acoustical processes of phasing, vibrato, and tremolo are fundamental to the work, as are the elements of sweat, struggle, fear, and seduction.

Speaker Swinging was first performed in Toronto in 1982, and has since become a classic of 20th century experimental music. It has been performed at museums, concert halls, and festivals worldwide.

Concept, creation, and composition by Gordon Monahan.

  • Gordon Monahan
    Director
  • Bruce Mau
    Director
  • Gordon Monahan
    Writer
  • Gordon Monahan
    Producer
  • Gordon Monahan
    Key Cast
  • James Kidnie
    Key Cast
  • Oliver Kellhammer
    Key Cast
  • Gordon W.
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Genres:
    Experimental Music, Sound Art
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 6, 1987
  • Production Budget:
    4,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Shooting Format:
    Betacam SP Video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    3:2
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • MuchMusic television broadcast
    Toronto
    Canada
    December 6, 1987
  • The Kitchen
    New York, NY
    United States
    December 1, 1987
Distribution Information
  • Gordon Monahan
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
  • V Tape, Toronto
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
  • The Kitchen, NY
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Gordon Monahan, Bruce Mau

Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. Since 1978, he has performed and exhibited at the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin), the Venice Biennale, the Secession (Vienna), Haus der Kunst (Munich), MAK Museum (Vienna), The Kitchen (NY), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Merkin Hall (NY), and Massey Hall (Toronto). Monahan is the recipient of a 2013 Governor- General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. The renowned composer John Cage once said, "At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we haven't heard before.”

Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer and educator. He began his career a graphic designer and has since applied his design methodology to architecture, art, museums, film, eco-environmental design, education, and conceptual philosophy. Mau is the chief executive officer of Massive Change Network, a Chicago-based design consultancy he co-founded with his wife, Bisi Williams. In 2015, he became the Chief Design Officer at Freeman, a global provider of brand experiences. Mau is also a professor and has taught at multiple institutions in the United States and Canada.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Speaker Swinging was first performed in Toronto in 1982, followed by live performances at festivals, galleries and museums worldwide. The video was filmed and produced in 1987 when cathode ray tube video cameras were still in use, just as CCT image sensor cameras were being adopted. We intentionally used the older tube cameras to capture their signature light trails which we used as a distinctive visual effect throughout this film.

Speaker Swinging is an experiment for three or more swinging loudspeakers and nine audio oscillators in an enclosed space. The idea comes from hearing such things as Leslie speakers, moving vehicles with broadcasting sound systems, airplanes, and other moving sound sources, both industrial and organic.

The rotary speaker motion and the corresponding Doppler shifts can become metaphors for the molecular movements of electrons that occur within electronic tremolo and vibrato circuits. It mimics these miniature processes that not long ago were modelled on human-scale mechanical-acoustic systems. By making reference to the atomic, it necessarily acknowledges the celestial.

Speaker Swinging was first inspired by hearing automobiles cruising on a hot summer night with Heavy Metal blaring out of the windows. As the cars cruised by, there was that fleeting moment of wet, fluid music, when one tonality melts into another.