reciprocation

a mutual exchange, an alternating motion.

The body is where sound is born. Sound is simply motion until the body transforms oscillation into sensation in a messy, subjective process.

From the material sound moves through to the anatomical variations in each ear, auditory nerve, and brain, the chain of dependencies between sound and understanding is rife with distortion and occlusion.
The physicality of sound and the phenomenon of listening are dependent on reciprocal movement and reciprocal intention.

The four works in reciprocation reimagine loudspeakers – transforming them from “invisible” aural channels into sculptural objects to interrogate interpersonal relationships, (mis)communications, and the kinetic phenomenon of sound. While recorded audio is used to drive the loudspeakers and implicate the viewer-listener’s body, the heard sound is an artifact of the materials activated by the speakers’ movement.

This was my thesis project for my MFA in Intermedia and Digital Arts from University of Maryland - Baltimore County.

fate - speakers, macramé thread, monophonic phase-shifted sound
12’00” (loop)

Dozens of thin red cords are tightly strung in parallel between the center of each speaker cone. The speakers undulate like distant lovers, pushing and pulling the thread. The red threads slap against each other in a constant whisper as they oscillate individually, driven by the inaudible speakers they span. The movement increases and decreases, but both speakers always move in equal and opposite directions.

trine – speakers, steel jewelry chain, 3D-printed plastic, 3-channel conversation (recorded November 17, 2019)
18’08” (loop)

The audio playing through the speakers is from a recording of three intimate partners talking about their relationship with one another, rendered unrecognizable by converting each person’s speech into very low frequencies, but carrying the cadence of conversation. The mesh ripples up and down, carrying waves across its shimmering surface.

Perfectly opposite phase is impossible among three speakers; one will always be moving in the same direction as at least one other. True reciprocal movement cannot ever be realized with these three bodies. Each speaker connects to the other along the side in individual, chained partnerships, and across the fabric of the polyamorous union.

harmonic curtain – speakers, steel jack chain, score on paper, 8-channel sound
60’00” (loop)

Viewers are confronted with the tactile nature of sound when encountering harmonic curtain, installed above the entrance to the exhibition. The overall shape created by the series of hanging chains recalls the decorative fabric bunting of ornate drapery, rendered as a transparent and vibrating line drawing.

The entire form of the work - spatially and temporally - is derived from the harmonic series, the naturally occurring relationship of resonating bodies that we interpret as consonance in music. Rather than hearing harmonic relationships, the viewer-listener experiences this pervasive and fundamental sonic principle through sight and touch. The work illustrates the connections between sound and matter, highlighting the complicated interactions of even simple vibrating systems.

allegory – speakers, LEDs, steel cable, Max/MSP and Touchdesigner software, 8-channel generative sound and light

An inversion of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” the tethered bodies in this work are not prohibited from perceiving the objects casting changing shadows on the wall in front of them; rather, the viewer-listener is only able to perceive the light and sound motion of these captive speaker-bodies indirectly. The extremely low frequencies that pulse through each speaker would be inaudible without the implication of their surrounding restraints. They resemble irregular heartbeats, casting the dangling speaker and light wires as an uncanny life support system.