HKAIIFF 2026 · Official film record
Frequencies for an Empty Room
빈 방을 위한 주파수
[ Film / Synopsis ]
Residents leaving a condemned apartment block compose one final concert from the frequencies hidden inside their empty rooms.
An ageing apartment block outside Daejeon is scheduled to close, and twelve households have already carried away nearly everything they own. Composer Han Ji-on enters each emptied room with former residents, recording pipe hums, floor vibrations, window whistles, elevator motors, and the resonant frequencies of walls stripped of furniture. A local sound system clusters these materials by physical source and proposes playable relationships, but every musical phrase is selected and performed by the residents on small resonant objects they bring back. The building slowly becomes an instrument whose movements follow remembered routines: a child running upstairs, a late washing machine, a neighbour tapping the heating pipe. Images remain spare and observational while a sixteen-channel mix rebuilds the block around the audience. The final gathering is not a memorial concert but a temporary act of listening before the keys are returned.
“For turning architectural resonance into communal music through exact spatial listening, restrained synthesis, and a deeply humane attention to departure.”International Jury citation
- Director
- Im Seo-ryeong
- Production entity
- Resonance Underfloor Lab
- Entity type
- University sonic research laboratory
- Country / region
- South Korea
- Runtime
- 52 min
- Language
- Korean
- Format
- 4K · 1.66:1 · 16-channel spatial mix
- Genre
- Music-driven acoustic documentary
- Completed
- 6 May 2026
- Production window
- 10 months
- Festival master / version
- Festival master v1.7 · checksum locked
[ Named authorship / Principal credits ]
Creative team
[ Production entity / Profile ]
Resonance Underfloor Lab
Resonance Underfloor Lab is a university sonic research group devoted to spatial documentary, acoustic measurement, and participatory composition. It treats machine analysis as a listening aid and reserves musical authorship for named human contributors.
[ 51% Standard / Assessed creative participation ]
72%
AI participation is assessed across the full chain of authorship, supported by journals, model logs, version histories, stems and finishing records.
[ Capability record / 2026 signal ]
Where this film points
- Multilingual synthesis
- Consent-bound voice & likeness
The work demonstrates spatial sound tools that can analyse and organise intimate location recordings without replacing community composition. It forecasts AI sound practice centred on traceable sources and participant control.
Residents and the composer alone decided which memories could become music and when an empty room needed to remain silent.
[ Room Tone Becomes Chorus ]
Former residents stand in separate empty rooms and strike familiar household objects on a shared pulse. The building’s measured resonance carries the notes between floors.
[ Production method / Documented workflow ]
How the film was made
The record distinguishes authored decisions, bounded machine operations and final human approvals across the production chain.
Residents selected the rooms, memories, and daily sound events that would structure the film; clustering tools organised only their approved recordings.
Participants recreated rhythms on chosen household objects, with all timing, ensemble decisions, and spoken recollections directed by people.
Locked observational frames and measured camera movement preserve the building’s emptiness, with minimal generated repair limited to removed identifying details.
The edit follows acoustic relationships rather than apartment order, and human editors decide when silence carries more meaning than analysis.
Physical measurements guide spectral separation and spatial placement; residents and the composer select every musical relation and final dynamic contour.
The lab archived room permissions, source recordings, acoustic measurements, clustering settings, participant choices, mix sessions, and the festival master.
“For turning architectural resonance into communal music through exact spatial listening, restrained synthesis, and a deeply humane attention to departure.”
[ Records / Rights / Provenance ]
Reviewer-ready evidence
The record links each sound event to its room, participant, memory note, musical decision, and final placement.
Resident, voice, location, and recording permissions define use, anonymity choices, exhibition scope, expiry terms, and withdrawal procedures.
Analysis lineage, local processing settings, source boundaries, transformation limits, and repeatable session parameters are preserved.
The delivery contains the 4K picture, spatial mix, stereo fold-down, subtitles, access files, source cue sheet, and checksum record.