Sound, space and the IKO loudspeaker – the apparent paradox of diversity with unity
Angela McArthur, Emma Margetson · 2024
Practitioners of spatial sound often inhabit highly controlled environments in the production and reproduction of their work, and they do this in isolation. This is not the case when working with the IKO loudspeaker, which emphasises the material environment in which it’s placed, so enlivening the architectural properties of spaces. At the same time, it operationalises diverse elements in environments, both human and other-than-human. In doing this, space is not only a compositional parameter, but affords further layers of diversity in the sounds themselves, the listening potentiated through a space, and practices of artists and composers who bring work into the space. Yet at the same time as it evokes such diversity, it also unifies sounds, listening subjectivities, and practices, through a process of felt relationality between these elements. The experience of working with sound, space and the IKO loudspeaker is one of apparent paradox, though in practice, is not. The experience is one that tacitly creates a collective understanding and coherence. Here we attempt to articulate some of this tacit knowing.