In 1955 the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges was appointed Director of the National Library at a time when he was losing his sight completely. In his _Poem of the Gifts_, he reflects on the magnificent irony of simultaneously being given “the books and the night.” _La Biblioteca Ciega_ (the Blind Library) is a site-specific sound art performance composed for the very reading room of the library where Borges stood sightless, surrounded by books.
_La Biblioteca Ciega_ uses a series of custom-made instruments that turn light into sound. Mechatronic optical turntables, sonic back-lights and light-bars were designed and built by the artist and then played by members of the Banda Sinfónica de Ciegos, an orchestra of blind musicians. The bars of light turn on and off in chaotic patterns controlled by the performer, generating complex waveforms. The turntables use a belt-and-pulley system activated by a hand crank that spins an acrylic disc. Each of the discs has a different sound-wave form carved out by a laser cutter. The performer plays the disc by spinning it and bringing a small flashlight closer to the perforated groove. Underneath it, a light sensor reads the fluctuations of light as it passes through the cutouts. An electronic circuit takes these fluctuations and turns them into voltage differences, in other words, into an analog sound signal. The backlights produce sound in a similar way, but the waveform cutouts are linear.

A computer transforms these analog signals in real time using the SuperCollider software and spatializes them through an eight-channel ambisonic array that surrounds the audience, creating an immersive sonic experience.

By experimenting with alternative methods of sound inscription, _La Biblioteca Ciega_ becomes a sonic speculation on reading and writing.
In Borges’s darkened library, blind musicians read to us a passage written in light and shadow, a language that can only be heard through the interaction between humans and machines.

Links: www.varchausky.com.ar

Performed by Cristian Alderete, Javier Cabanellas and Marcela Chavez

Live Sound by Daniel Hernández

Photo-Sensitive Mechanic by Bruno Krauchik

Video documentation shot by Pablo Ziccarello and edited by Caroline Neal

Photos of Instruments by Daniel Trama

Commissioned by Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación Argentina for Ciclo de Obras Multimedia at Centro Nacional de la Música.

With support from DXARTS (University of Washington), Proyecto S.A.E.T.A.S. (UNQ), Yamaha Music Latin America S.A. Sucursal Argentina.
With thanks to Marcos González, Maestro Cladera, Banda Sinfónica de Ciegos, José Luis Castiñeira de Dios, Tivon Rice, James Hughes, Stelios Manousakis, Martin Jarmick, Pablo Di Liscia, Teresa Riccardi.

Nicolás Varchausky (AR), born 1973, is a composer, performer and researcher. His work explores the relations between sound, space, memory and spoken word within technological environments. He has a degree in electroacoustic music composition from the Universidad de Quilmes (UNQ, Argentina), where he works as an assistant professor. Since 1999, his artistic production has been oriented not only on electronic and instrumental music composition but also on sound-art projects, performance, interactive installations and site-specific projects in public spaces. He teaches courses on electronic music composition, sound design, sound, music & drama and the SuperCollider software. He directs the research project SAETAS (Sistemas Algorítmicos de Espacio y Tiempo en el Arte Sonoro, UNQ) on systems aesthetics in sound art. He has also taught at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA, the electronic arts degree at the Universidad Tres de Febrero and at the Fundación Universidad del Cine.