Swarm 2005
stainless steel, acrylic, audio electronics, steel rigging cable
Footprint = 8,000 cm x 8,000 cm x 3,500 cm
X10 units each 120 cm x 60 cm (diameter)
Be nor afeared; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.
Caliban, in The Tempest, Shakespeare.
“Swarm” consists of a series of laser cut acrylic sculptures that have a strong morphological relationship to microscopic marine forms, sharing symmetry with the structure of primitive Radiolaria, countless millions of which form the geological strata of this, the oldest continent.
Each object supports a solar powered digital Theremin circuit, amplifier and speaker, and each structure acts as a physical former, supporting the antenna windings that are sensitive to bodily proximity. On approach the objects interact by responding acoustically, moreover the entire installation operates as a ‘swarm’, the phenomenon of electromagnetic coupling producing clouds of audio ‘turbulence’ as visitors pass through the installation.
Philosophically, the work is a compact of many influences and references. I am drawn to an image of the Australian environment in which the terrain is crisscrossed by a network of voices, be these the ‘song-lines’ of the traditional owners, the frenzy of insect and bird communication or the lacework of technological communication links upon which we are so dependant. “Swarm” attempts a sonic-mapping of voices lost in the æther, of song long settled in the dust and inscribed into geological strata.
THE ARTIST
THE SOUND IN THIS SITE
It is ironic that the website of a Sound Artist contains very little audio material. This is, of course, intentional, the principal reasons being that I place a strong emphasis on the experience of a work in-situ, mediated as it is by the environmental context and the listening trajectory of the viewer/auditor. Secondly, the majority of these projects are multi-source environments, often operating with interactive or dynamic elements that are virtually impossible to represent as a linear stereo field.
A method I have adopted, that in some part overcomes such problems of Audio representation of complex sound installations, is to develop parallel Radiophonic projects. These Radio works are designed to give a general impression of the content and intention of the Installations whilst recognising the linear and more narrative form of stereo broadcast.
A range of ‘Sonic Archives’ may be ordered directly via this site for research and/or educational purposes.
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Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is dealing with numbers, because it does many things by ways of unnoticed conceptions, which with clear conceptions it could not do.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.