Sub_Bar – subfrequencies and haptic art

With Sub_Bar, Eufonia launches a pioneering series of events exploring music, subfrequencies, and the haptic sense.

Our sense of touch, ignored by compositional practices, is home to our deepest memories and most instinctive reactions. It speaks a language of pain and pleasure, trauma and comfort, summer and winter. What happens when we stimulate it with music? We invited hearing, hearing-impaired, and deaf artists to create original works using only subfrequencies. More specifically, frequencies between 30hz and 150hz. Their compositions will be played through a powerful subwoofer system, transforming the venue into a musical pressure chamber. This creates a unique listening experience that activates the whole body.

The events consist of sub-installations, live performances, haptic artwork, and music production workshops.

These unique sub-works are composed by electronic music heavyweight, Byetone, founder of the renowned label Raster Noton, Deaf Rave mastermind, DJ Troi Lee, and subfrequencies expert, Stefanie Egedy. Their compositions will be featured alongside other diverse international artists. These installations will be supported by the live performance, “Blink Time”. It is an exploration of time, mass, and communication by Sub_Bar resident and Eufonia founder, Atelier Francesco. It also features a reactive installation by Julia Karnas that transforms hand movement into vibrations. This will be showcased along with other haptic artworks created specifically for Sub_Bar.

But Sub_Bar is not only about art: it’s also about research and education.

Therefore, the event concept includes a workshop on creating music using subfrequencies. While it is open to anyone who is interested, it is specifically aimed at deaf or hard-of-hearing people. The workshop will partly make use of tactile devices that transfer low vibrations through the body. The rest will be done with subwoofers that create the same vibration by rapidly pulsing large amounts of air. Attendees will explore the basic elements of music and the main functions of the Ableton LIVE software. Additionally, they will learn how to create and manipulate sound using low frequencies. This will facilitate the creation of music in an intuitive and simple way. Using the body as a listening medium and interacting through sound as an alternative form of communication. A German sign language translator will be available to co-facilitate the workshop.

Sub_Bar is a vision dedicated to subfrequencies.

A space that invites everyone to meet, interact and experience music in an innovative, inclusive, and immersive way. Embedded in an aesthetic-artistic context, the overall concept aims to promote inclusion as a task and opportunity for all of us.

Sub_Bar is kindly supported by Musikfonds, Fonds Soziokultur, and Ableton.