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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Organ of Corti
Liminal
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_Organ of Corti_ is an experimental instrument that recycles noise from the environment. It does not make any sound of its own, but rather it attempts to draw our attention to the sounds already present by framing them in a new way.
Named after the organ of hearing in the inner ear, it uses the acoustic technology of sonic crystals to accentuate and attenuate frequencies within the broad range of sound present in road traffic or falling water.
By recycling surplus sounds from our environment, we hope to challenge expectations of what might constitute a piece of music by adding nothing to the existing soundscape but rather offering new ways of listening to what is already there. In a world saturated with sounds, the _Organ of Corti_ questions whether we need any more noise, and instead it offers a frame through which to listen to the sounds that already surround us.
In the summer of 2011 *Organ of Corti* toured England to four locations saturated in noise from road traffic or falling water. _Organ of Corti_ recycles sound in the environment by filtering incoming sound waves through a lattice of four-meter-high acrylic cylinders, known as a “sonic crystal” array. Depending on a listener’s position in relation to the array, the structure attenuated or accentuated areas of the frequency spectrum to create an evolving sound environment that relied entirely on the sound energy already present in the place in which it was installed.
Links: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liminal_sound/sets/72157625876756584/ www.liminal.org.uk/organ-of-corti
Named after the organ of hearing in the inner ear, it uses the acoustic technology of sonic crystals to accentuate and attenuate frequencies within the broad range of sound present in road traffic or falling water.
By recycling surplus sounds from our environment, we hope to challenge expectations of what might constitute a piece of music by adding nothing to the existing soundscape but rather offering new ways of listening to what is already there. In a world saturated with sounds, the _Organ of Corti_ questions whether we need any more noise, and instead it offers a frame through which to listen to the sounds that already surround us.
In the summer of 2011 *Organ of Corti* toured England to four locations saturated in noise from road traffic or falling water. _Organ of Corti_ recycles sound in the environment by filtering incoming sound waves through a lattice of four-meter-high acrylic cylinders, known as a “sonic crystal” array. Depending on a listener’s position in relation to the array, the structure attenuated or accentuated areas of the frequency spectrum to create an evolving sound environment that relied entirely on the sound energy already present in the place in which it was installed.
Links: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liminal_sound/sets/72157625876756584/ www.liminal.org.uk/organ-of-corti
Organ of Corti is by Liminal, a UK based arts partnership between architect Frances Crow and sound artist/composer David Prior. Organ of Corti is winner of PRS for Music Foundation's New Music Award 2010.
Organ of Corti came out of Liminal’s project Tranquillity is a State of Mind which provided a sustained period of research into the relationship between sound, health and wellbeing funded by the Wellcome Trust and developed in partnership with Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity.
Organ of Corti was developed in partnership with the Acoustics Research Group at the Open University and won the Noise Abatement Society’s John Connell Innovation Award 2011.
**Funders **
Organ of Corti has been made possible through the generosity of funders PRS for Music Foundation and Arts Council England. It was hosted by the City of London Festival, Lake District Summer Music Festival, Cotswold Water Park Trust and Worcester Music Festival. It has been developed in partnership with the Acoustics Research Group at the Open University, Vista Projects and Sustrans, with support from the Knowledge Escalator South West Proof of Concept Fund (administered by the University College Falmouth), City of London Pollution Team, Eden Arts, Friends of the Lake District, Cumbria Tourism, Worcester City Council, Worcestershire County Council, Severn Trent Water, Diglis Hotel, Worcester, Worcester New College and Mark Leahy. The design team are Liminal, Acoustics Research Group at the Open University, OMK Design Consultancy and Tandem. Sponsorship from Westmorland Ltd. Westmorland Hotel & Tebay Services. The project was developed at Space with support from The Dartington Hall Trust.
Organ of Corti came out of Liminal’s project Tranquillity is a State of Mind which provided a sustained period of research into the relationship between sound, health and wellbeing funded by the Wellcome Trust and developed in partnership with Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity.
Organ of Corti was developed in partnership with the Acoustics Research Group at the Open University and won the Noise Abatement Society’s John Connell Innovation Award 2011.
**Funders **
Organ of Corti has been made possible through the generosity of funders PRS for Music Foundation and Arts Council England. It was hosted by the City of London Festival, Lake District Summer Music Festival, Cotswold Water Park Trust and Worcester Music Festival. It has been developed in partnership with the Acoustics Research Group at the Open University, Vista Projects and Sustrans, with support from the Knowledge Escalator South West Proof of Concept Fund (administered by the University College Falmouth), City of London Pollution Team, Eden Arts, Friends of the Lake District, Cumbria Tourism, Worcester City Council, Worcestershire County Council, Severn Trent Water, Diglis Hotel, Worcester, Worcester New College and Mark Leahy. The design team are Liminal, Acoustics Research Group at the Open University, OMK Design Consultancy and Tandem. Sponsorship from Westmorland Ltd. Westmorland Hotel & Tebay Services. The project was developed at Space with support from The Dartington Hall Trust.
**Liminal** (UK) is a partnership between architect **Frances Crow** and sound artist and composer **David Prior**. We began working together in 2003. Our work focuses on exploring the relationship between sound, listening and the environment. It encompasses site-specific interventions and sound walks, gallery installations, performances, research and consultancy as well as sound and music environments for exhibitions. David Prior is a composer and sound artist with a particular interest in the relationship between sound and space. Frances Crow is a qualified architect who has worked in practice since 1998.