Dark Adaptation 暗适应
8-channel spatial sound installation
This work contributes to the doctoral research by examining how spatial perception unfolds through gradual sonic emergence, positioning listening as a temporal and embodied process rather than an instantaneous event.
Dark Adaptation is an 8-channel spatial sound installation developed from the artist’s ongoing research into sound, space, and perception.
The title “dark adaptation” refers to a physiological process in which the eyes gradually adjust to low-light conditions. In this work, the concept is extended beyond vision to describe a mode of auditory and embodied perception, in which sound slowly emerges over time and invites the listener to recalibrate their relationship to space.
Documentation: [Watch video]
Designed for circular or semi-circular exhibition environments, the installation employs eight loudspeakers arranged around the listener to create a non-directional, non-narrative sound field. Rather than following defined trajectories or events, sound unfolds gradually through appearance, recession, and recomposition, emphasizing proximity, resonance, and the spatial scale of listening. The sonic material is based on field recordings collected over the past three years in various locations across London, with a particular focus on Brutalist architectural spaces.
These recordings include concrete reverberations, subtle material vibrations, underground transport systems, crowds, and ambient urban noise. Through spatial processing, the sounds are detached from their original geographical and narrative contexts and transformed into abstract acoustic traces.
This approach extends the use of impulse response and spatial processing beyond technical reproduction, treating recorded sound as material that can be abstracted, displaced, and reconfigured across different spatial contexts.
In Dark Adaptation, sound is not presented as an object to be listened to, but as an atmospheric condition that continuously inhabits the space. Visitors are invited to remain, move, and gradually adapt to the evolving sound field, shifting perception from attentive listening toward a more embodied awareness of space.
In this sense, the work contributes to the research by demonstrating how sound can opearte as an active spatial agent, shaping perceptual and architectural experience over time.
