When the world screamed
2022Scuplture & Performance at Wave Farm, Artist-in-Resident Program 2022
Acra, NY
When the World Screamed is an installation consisting of a series of sculptures, 2 live performances and a radio show. This project speculates on the possibilities of co-creating with non-human entities and processes through sound synthesis and modulation.
The first is a series of sculptures made from found objects around Acra, NY (site of the Wave Farm residency). Each sculpture consists of metal contacts that are inserted into the ground, enabling us to pick up raw electrical signals from the soil. The quality of the electrical signals varies based on the moisture, ambient ground radiation and organic soil activity. These sculptures were the source of sound synthesis for this project.
(All photographs by AlonKoppel)
For the first performance, we used these sounds and live modulated them through various analog and digital filters. By allowing this data to distort, alter, and modulate the sound, the sonic performance is a collaboration between human and non-human systems.
For the second performance, we created various hand held sensing instruments that measured various biological sources of volatile organic compounds (i.e. smell) like grass, trees, ponds etc. The sounds from the sculpture were then altered, distorted and modulated via the data gathered from these sensors. By moving and altering the locations of sensing instruments, this performance further highlights the collaboration between the artists’ bodies and the earth.
The residency culminated with a radio event in which we played recordings from the installation and performance, present transmission related readings, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “When the World Screamed,” along with a discussion about how intersectional identities inform ideas of art, technology, and culture.