By: Stephanie Simon

From avante garde music to noise you hear on the street, sound artists are creating new worlds to enjoy in Brooklyn. NY1′s Stephanie Simon filed the following report.

The folks at ISSUE Project Room have made a very sound investment in sound. They’ve created a one of a kind audio immersion room. This month, sound artists from around the world will playing their work inside the space.

“The speakers are overhead here, and you can see them from the audience perspective, they have the sound that goes in all directions as opposed to one direction, so they fill the room in a unique way,” said ISSUE Project Room Co-curator Stephan Moore. “I can show you the software that I use to control the room. I can do circles with it, execute different kinds of curves. So it lets artists work with this dimension, two-dimensional movements of sound.”

The dangling speakers are called “Floating Points” and that’s the name of ISSUE Project Room’s month-long Sound and Music Festival. Founder Suzanne Fiol says the festival gives sound composers a place to create and display work that is really cutting edge.

No doubt many people have heard of surround sound. But the latest installation is taking that idea to the extreme. It actually lets people fall asleep, surrounded by speakers, though not all of the sounds are soothing.

“We really wanted to create a place where composers can come and use this system and learn about it,” said Fiol. “So Stephan and I just put this together and it was easy and fun and a wonderful festival and now we’re on our fourth year.”

The piece, by artist Kaffe Matthews, is called “Sonic Bed Marfa.”

“The bed is eight speakers that surround you as you lay in the bed,” said Moore. “And then six subwoofer speakers that sit under you, these are the ones that do the low frequencies that sort of shake things, like the surround sound on a movie or the explosion that makes a rumble and make the low sounds. She takes advantage of all the things that speakers can do.”

Since it started in the East Village in 2003, ISSUE Project Room has been about giving artists a place to do experimental work. With a grant from the Manhattan Borough President’s office they will be moving to a new space next year. The festival runs through the end of the month, but the bed may stay even longer — allowing more time for a sonic snooze.