Fidgety is a kind of nervous and jumpy feeling. It makes you feel frustrated and anxious. Usually, people consider it as something bad. However, it can be inspiration for musical composition and art creation. This sound installation is how I transform that emotional impact into audio-visual composition.
The Chinese characters「忐忑」 are kind of hieroglyph. They composed by words - “up” 「上」and “down” 「下」 over the word “heart” 「心」 to describe such a feeling of fidgety. The design of this installation was also inspired by the construction of these Chinese characters. Built with 40 channels speaker-system, the arrangement of the speakers looked like a path of veins. On top of each speaker, there attached with a small kinetic sound unit.
The artist’s heartbeat sound are played by the 40 speakers.
They played one after another in producing a range of rhythm, performed as a musicial composition. These 40 speakers can be seen as a musical instrument of an Orchestra, through which, a piece of kinetic sound composition is performed.
Heartbeat served as the major underlying element of this work, it is however not to be easy for the audience to hear. The pulse is designed as a triggering force rather than an audible element. The low frequency of the heartbeat caused speakers to vibrate, which then triggered the kinetic installation on top of the speakers to produce sounds. The vibration of the speakers generate the kinetic movements that created the percussive sounds as well as the visual form of the installation.
Through this work, I am trying to re-address the forgotten intimate relationship between sound and physical movement, instead of producing movable objects with motors, sensors or other electronic equipment whereas people may expect from a work of media art.
