Audium (theater)

Audium (theater)

Audium is a unique sound art phenomenon that has been presented weekly in San Francisco since 1967. Audium is a creation of composer Stan Shaff that is performed on original equipment designed by Doug McEachern. It is played in a completely dark theater designed to heighten the spatial effects of sound and for "choreographing sound in space." Compositions are developed from acoustic and electronic instruments and from sounds of the natural world used as metaphors. Works are "sculpted" in space through 176 speakers.

Audium has pioneered the language of space in music for over 50 years, as progressively complex compositions evolved jointly with originally designed performance equipment. Its three major concerns have been development and exploration of space as a language of music composition, live performance in a space uniquely designed for spatial composition, and the role of the environment in the totality of the work.