Test Tone for Landscape    (2005)

Test Tone for Landscape    (2005)

Five walnut veneered record sleeves
34cm x 34cm x 4cm each
Five clear vinyl 12” records and ink drawing+
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Test Tone for Landscape is made up of five clear, separately numbered, vinyl 12″ records each containing five tracks. Each track is created from domestic ambient sounds (the hum of a fridge, the ‘ping’ of a bowl etc) collected from Adam Chodzko’s home in order to create five different tones along a scale. Each of the five records is to play a separate tone, simultaneously, from five sound-systems placed around an environment (a hillside, a forest, part of a city etc). Various harmonies of a chord can be heard depending on the position of a listener in relation to the location of these five sound- systems as they move through a place.  For any area, of any size, the precise positions for the sound- systems can be mapped (at least, poetically) through the markings scratched into the wood grain on each record ‘sleeve’, each sleeve being fabricated from the same walnut- veneered bed headboard (full of the sleeper’s dreams). Each record and sleeve is ultimately allocated to five different owners who then need to return together in order to generate the harmonies from their respective parts of the test tone.
Test Tone for Landscape is provisional, a ‘kit’ intended to produce the test tone to prepare and harmonise a space so that something else can then happen (another form of sound perhaps?) and so that spatial relationships can be assessed for an event in the future.  Works such as Night Shift (2004),  Props. For memorising the gravity of mime objects. (2013), Deep Above (2016), Thru hole I blind/O/Thru hole oui see (2020) have a similar status as existing as form of exercise or remapping (of body and/or mind) in order to achieve an altered state of perception.

At Tate St Ives, as part of Chodzko’s solo exhibition Proxigean Tide (2008) a digital version played Test Tone for Landscape randomly from five different locations across the loggia entrance space to the museum, producing a different auditory tone for each visitor as they entered the museum, depending on the movements of their body through that space.

7 mins excerpt of  recording of mix of the five test tones (as compressed mp3):

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Related works:

a loose leaf falls between   (2013)
A Plan for the Perfect Night    (1992)
Ants Choose Position for Sequins – 2 Seconds Interval   (2003)
April – May 2000 Arc Ark   (2010)
Deep Above  (2016)
Guide for a Parade with Two Masks   (2004)
I See Through Every Image. (A souvenir for Laarni; A planting template for Belladonna seeds), 2013  
Mask Filter   (2013)
M-path      (2006)
Night Shift       (2004)
Props. For memorising the gravity of mime objects. (Flood)   (2013) & Props. For memorising the gravity of mime objects. (Fire)      (2013)  
This Is It     (1992)
And the City Grew Quiet… (2011)