“The Architecture of Water” (installation funded by the Helen Meyerowitz Deafness and Art Memorial Grant, 2010. By Ryane Acalin and Curtis Tamm).
sound/touch alchemy.
Just as distinctly separate flows of water shape the circumstance of a submerged body, subtle variations in the immediate environment influence perception. Deaf or otherwise “able”, the body manipulates the surrounding forces to suit an understood and consistent form. The apparent figure is the result of a relationship between the body and its surrounding environment. Thus an acquired language of tactile cymatics becomes an expanded layer of signage– sound as vision as touch. The augmented language utilizes the brain’s neuro-plastic ability to reconstruct the sensory architecture of the body. In the process, a space is created that heighten viewers’ awareness of their own sensory ability within a multi-form world. With the physical properties of sound ever-present, exaggeration aids the visual manifestation of the material quality. Our installation consists of two panels of semi-opaque/semi-transparent mylar with high-frequency audio-transducers attached at the top. The intersection results in an immersive, visual display of sound wave movements. As the sound is transmitted into the molecular architecture of the mylar, a paradoxical display is generated. The anomaly manifests a seemingly solidified, yet oscillatory, pool of water that ripples and rests below. When the two are filtered into a vibratory trough, they meet the base tones in a re-purposed light fixture (facilitated by concealed low-frequency vibration devices). The highs/lows of sound, now demonstrated by two physical materials, encourage play. Without the need to morally assess which sense to privilege, the sensory faculties can be redefined. Behind the installation, projected light patterns (made from the suspended mylar) travel through the structure, and up and outward into the gallery space. The modulating arrangement of light expands sound perception as it carries the tones into different areas of the room. As a result, the spectrum of sound becomes an architectural force. Our sense of hearing is converted into a multi-sensory ability, which can be available through means other than the cochlea. Combined, the elements begin to mimic an undulating, alchemical body of water, light and sound, commingling and intertwining into a multi-sensory structure.
