Inside the latest addition to the University of Agder’s initiative to explore creative uses of technology.
Welcome to CreaTeME Lab. A space unlike almost anything you’ve experienced before.
This is CreaTeME Lab
What: A studio for sound production and presentation. Particularly well suited to creative projects involving immersive audio and complex audiovisual installations.
Where: Third floor of Kraftverk
Size: 70 square metres
Technical setup: 20 loudspeakers in a Dolby Atmos 13.1.6 configuration.
The space was developed as a collaborative project between the University of Agder (UiA), CreaTeME and Cultiva.
And, in a completely objective assessment, of course, it has already been described as “world-class” in terms of the technological and acoustic quality it offers.
“It’s wonderful to be standing here now with a room that is receiving so much praise from experts in the field. Getting to this point has been a technical, administrative and financial undertaking,” says Daniel Nordgård.
As head of CreaTeME, Nordgård has a particular responsibility for ensuring that UiA’s Centre for Excellence in Education delivers on its promise to develop music education through the innovative use of technology.
Boundless
One of the initiatives is the new lab at Kraftverk. Here, students, staff, collaborators and artists have the opportunity to work with immersive audio. Using a total of 20 loudspeakers, the lab creates the experience of sound reaching you from every direction.
“The room stands out because it is an extremely flexible audio-technical space — a lab designed to let you work in whatever way you choose. The aim is to place as few limits as possible on what can be achieved,” says Lars Kristian Lia.
Lia is an adviser at the Department of Popular Music and has been involved in designing the room and getting it ready for use.
Different types of audio playback
Mono — sound is played through a single channel.
Stereo — sound can use two separate channels, left and right, to create a sense of movement and depth between two loudspeakers.
Surround sound — additional audio channels, plus a dedicated channel for bass, allow sound to envelop the listener, but only horizontally.
Immersive/spatial audio — builds on the concept of surround sound by adding height as a dimension, allowing sound to be positioned in 360 degrees around the listener.
“The equipment is top-of-the-range when it comes to optimisation and sound quality for working with spatial audio formats. Making it available to students gives us at UiA opportunities we haven’t had before,” says Lia.
The blank canvas is an exciting prospect for Mads Hatlevik, venue manager at Kraftverk.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing what projects emerge here in the future. I hope students will have the opportunity to meet people who are highly skilled, can share their knowledge and know how to work with these systems,” says Hatlevik.
Bringing the universe into the room
Andrew Melchior is one person who fits Hatlevik’s description. The British-German artist and producer was invited to the opening ceremony to present his sound installation The Logos — more than 4,000 signals from outer space, translated into sound.
“We originally created this for a cathedral in Finland. It was a huge space where much of the sound experience was shaped by the building itself. It has been a revelation to see how well it has translated to this space here in Kristiansand. It says a lot about the groundwork that has gone into creating the room,” says Melchior.
He highlights several types of projects that he believes would work particularly well in the lab.
“The most obvious ones are film and video game projects. Perhaps video games in particular, as they have always been at the forefront of technology that can create realistic representations of a space. I also hope we’ll see projects focused on sound art.”
Looking to the future
Melchior believes that different forms of immersive audio will become increasingly widespread in the years to come.
“Now that we have headphones that support this kind of playback and can also track head movements, I think we’ll see more and more people wanting to work with these formats,” says Melchior.
An opening ceremony, complete with speeches, is naturally an occasion surrounded by positive vibes. The third floor of Kraftverk is no exception this afternoon. And although the fruit squash and slice of cake may have given Daniel Nordgård a sugar rush that is fuelling his enthusiasm, he is even more excited about what lies ahead.
“Now the fun really begins! Now the artistic work begins.”