The Musical Qualities Of Vacuum Cleaners

Admittedly, some of them have a little musical help

. In Celeste Boursier-Mougenot's work, for instance, which appeared at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 2006, 13 vacuum cleaners were each fitted with a harmonica in the 'mouth' and connected to a modified guitar tuner. Now pay attention, because this is the science part. The microphone inside the tuner (or sound frequency analyzer as we shall call it from now on) identifies each note, however, when anyone approaches the installation, the movement disturbs the tuners' analysis and it reprograms itself, resulting in unpredictable orchestrations of chords, all planned by the architect of the piece, apparently.

At an old hospital in Lille, France, meanwhile, Geert-Jan Hobjin used 60 vacuum cleaners for his creation Les Chants Mecaniques. These vacuum cleaners were turned on and used to provide the background music in a series of half-hour concerts creating ambient music behind Edith Piaf singing, drum 'n' bass belted out of vacuum cleaner engines, or creating a techno beat with yelling birds!

Hobjin was also the creative genius behind the spectacular Flaming Vacuum Cleaners performance at the Brandenburg Music Festival, when a total of 100 vacuum cleaners, along with hairdryers, flamethrowers and countless bits and pieces too numerous to mention were brought together in a field to make beautiful music. Add cans of gasoline to the mix and you have the ingredients for a potentially explosive situation!

As the sun went down, four hundred people prepared to listen to the latest composition from this inventive man. The sound of a thin bird-like noise from some vacuum cleaners; while others other made deep bass sounds or played rubber tubes. The sound grew in layers, with sci-fi radioplays and classical music adding more depth and then the flamethrowers kicked in for a magical surreal performance. And no, in case you are wondering, everyone, including the vacuum cleaners survived intact, with not an explosion in sight.

And if you are thinking this is a very modern concept, confined to the 21st century, think again! While most of us were listening to the Bay City Rollers, in 1976 Wolf Vostell was composing the Fluxus-symphony for 40 vacuum cleaners. Vostell was part of the Fluxus movement, an international network of artists, composers and designers in the 60s, who blended a number of different artistic media and disciplines. Fluxus means "to flow".

Composition of this kind, using the likes of vacuum cleaners, cement mixers, flamethrowers and so on, is grouped together by the term noise music, which describes avant-garde music and sound art that uses cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy and repetition to create the sounds.

by: Marcus T

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