The sound simulation takes the listener into a high- dimensional space extending in many more dimensions than the three you are in. The piece is based on American composer Alvin Lucier’s seminal work “I Am Sitting In A Room.” Lucier explored the acoustic properties of three-dimensional, physical space by tape-recording a spoken text in a room. He then played the recording back into the room and recorded again, and again, repeating the cycle until only the natural resonant frequencies of the room remain, articulated by speech.

In “I Am Sitting In A High-Dimensional Room,” the artists leave the physical world behind. Narrated by a neural-network-synthesized voice and performed in a high-dimensional room simulation by Dr. Felipe Orduña Bustamante, the piece offers a sonic experience of an invisible, unimaginable space. As high- dimensional, mathematical spaces underpin, for example, artificially-intelligent neural networks, the work alludes to dematerialization and abstraction in contemporary science and technology, as well as the virtualization of culture during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioned by 1014 Inc. and co-presented with Media Art Xploration.

The sound installation can be experienced online through November 15, 2020.