As part of the exhibition featuring various sounds of work, the working group “Ore.e Refineries: Sound of Work” (blacksmith Jesse Sipola & artist Eero Yli-Vakkuri), together with the sound designer Kristian Ekholm, presented a loud sonic metalwork demonstration at Akusmata Sound Art gallery in Helsinki.
Through their art work, the group explores soundscapes, which blacksmiths produce while working. The work is based on the sounds recorded at Jesse Sipola’s forge of pneumatic tools and metal processing work. A total of 142 soundtracks were collected on the run, most of which were produced by various air compressing tools. The collection includes, among other things, the sound produced by a dozen of Atlas Copco machines. The demo showed how the compressed air devices, gas pins and iron transform into musical instruments, if necessary.
The recordings have been compiled for a large-scale “Sound of Work: Blacksmith ed. 1 “collection, which has been released online with a license. The publication is intended for use by sound designers and musicians. It enables those working with computers to join the art scene of artisans.
The concert opened a two week long exhibition, which presents artworks inspired by the sounds from the “Sound of Work: Blacksmith ed. 1” acoustic sound library.
The Ore.e Refineries is a promo organization of craftsman culture, and is remembered for the NO-CHAIR-DESIGN campaign challenging the designers to leave chairs not designed. In recent years, the group has worked with the Hevoslinja project with the aim to enable horse traffic in urban areas.
