Acclaimed sound designer Philippe Wojtowicz, who implemented the sound system for the John Lennon, Unfinished Music exhibit in Paris in 2006, was charged to create the aural experience for the event. As Wojtowicz explains, the expansive range of the artist's material called for a multitude of different approaches in sound design.
"For some exhibits, we wanted to localise the sound source to a visual element," says Wojtowicz. "For example, having Marilyn Monroe's voice coming from her portrait. In other cases, we wanted to create an ambient atmosphere that really reflected the particular era and environment, like his famous Silver Factory. Many times it was a combination of both these elements. The small size of the MM-4XP miniature loudspeaker allowed us to place both localized and ambient sources in the appropriate locations, without visually distracting from the exhibition's focal points. And its self-powered design eliminates the need to create a space for amplifiers."
The sound system includes more than 40 self-powered MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers to provide the soundtrack for the show's many exhibits, which range from smaller, single-loudspeaker kiosks to multichannel environments utilizing UMS-1P subwoofers to reinforce low-frequency content. A few of the larger, rock-influenced exhibits, including the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and Studio 54 areas, employ the UPM-1P loudspeakers with UMS-1P subwoofers to deliver the powerful music of the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, and others.
The Warhol Live exhibition was moved to San Francisco following its successful debut at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). Andrew Hope of Canada company Gerr Audio worked with both the MMFA and de Young to adapt Wojtowicz's vision to each museum's particular space. "The MM-4XP is particularly well-suited for this exhibition," says Hope. "As with most museum environments, there's not a lot of separation between exhibits, and the MM-4XP's very tight focus helps to minimize sound leakage between the different areas."
(Jim Evans)
