Paul DeMarinis  
Corti (2018)
Paul DeMarinis, Laetitia Sonami, Matt Robidoux

Computer-generated noises and  harmonicas

Much of my recent work has grappled with the impossibility of making the process of hearing audible. A seemingly infinite variety of sounds—smooth, rough or faint—pass from the outside world via our organs of physical sensation into our nerves to somehow arise anew within the halls of our perception. Smooth is smooth, rough is rough and faint sounds faint. Yet we know from science’s eavesdropping that once a sensation enters the web of neurons, all that exists are noisy, spikey electrochemical bursts of energy that somehow must convey all the sounds’ many qualities, even as they are themselves raucous. Where my recent installations Jiffy_pop (2014) and Tympanic Alley (2016) created sounds that could conceivably pass unchanged through these strange networks of hearing, Corti offers a gentler, analogous homage to the tiny organ within our ears that effects the transformation of sound into the zigzagged spikes of the nerve language.

Paul DeMarinis has been making noises with wires, batteries and household appliances since the age of four. His works combine interactive software, synthetic speech and noise with obsolete or impossible media. He has created numerous performance works, sound and computer installations and interactive electronic inventions. One of the first artists to use computers in performance, he has performed worldwide. Much of his recent work deals with the areas of overlap between human communication and technology. His audio works are available from Lovely Music, Black Truffle Records and on his Bandcamp site. 

pauldemarinis.org