32-bit Noir – Michael Trommer’s Transmissions from theTechnological Sublime

Transmissions from the Technological Sublime is a panoramic multimedia installation that depicts anocturnal landscape of non-place populated by infrastructure rather than people. Hatched as a MFA thesisproject within OCAD University’s integrated media program by Toronto’s Michael Trommer, theaudiovisual piece renders highways, shipping channels, airports, and office parks as uncanny interstitialzones of contemplation. Slow rumbling drones coalesce with long static shots and the viewer is left tosoak up the atmospherics. With animations that are decidedly un-photorealistic, the piece capitalizes on atension between ‘the everyday’ and a somewhat ominous and foreboding reproduction of it.

Taking an unconventional ‘audio first’ approach to crafting this piece, each of Transmissions from theTechnological Sublime’s cinematic vignettes emerge from individual field recordings. Over emailTrommer describes the majority of his recording sites as “open urban or exurban areas in which theambient sound level was comparatively quiet,” and how he “auditioned” sounds and soundscapes thatwere recorded from significant distances (across bodies of water or parking lots, etc.). “Harmonic factoryhums reflecting off of open water and filtered by forests, for example can become these euphoniousmodulated textures,” he concludes, describing his search for soundscapes to “resynthesize,” 3D model,and animate in Blender.

↑ Transmissions from the Technological Sublime, installed at OCADU’s Black Box Facility

Transmissions from the Technological Sublime is displayed in an ‘ultra letterbox’ 5.33:1 aspect ratio viathree synchronized HD projectors. When asked about his restrained, rudimentary CG aesthetic, Trommerforegrounds his desire to cultivate listeners rather than viewers. “The intention was to make the visualssparse so as to allow the sound to evoke the environment—to fill in the spaces.” And listeners do have a lotof room in which to appreciate the nuance in these spartan scenes—broadcast via six audio channelsarranged in a hexagonal array with a central subwoofer—as the installation’s sound had far a more visceralspatiality than any of the super-flat cinematography.

Devoid of humans, Transmissions from the Technological Sublime’s default protagonist is the black sedanthat cruises its many Ballardian landscapes. Just as Trommer’s taste in office parks is banal, so is his tastein automobiles. A Ford Crown Victoria, the car “is a model commonly used by taxi drivers and the police.”“Although this is minimal information, it nonetheless suggests a fairly specific type of individual,” which isas much detail as he’ll provide on the mystery driver. While Trommer won’t reveal their identity, he doesspeak to their significance. “It is important that this person remained encased in the car; although they’reobviously wandering these vast, perspectival spaces … they remain entrapped, both within the circular,

looping narrative and the sonically and spatially sealed confines of their automobile.” Perhaps it is ideal ifwe keep this sonic shut-in in mind while we navigate Trommer’s exurban soundscapes.

Michael Trommer