About This Project

Vis(c)area

March, 2002

Size: 10′ x 10′ x 12′

Materials: Sound, Electronics, Transducers, Wood, Light, Audio Hardware

Vis(c)area is a sound-sculpture installation designed site-specifically for the gallery space. A three-dimensional sound composition, it explores fusions of sound with architecture, sculptural object as interface, and interactivity. All sounds are produced by hand-made oscillator circuits. These circuits contain photocells that react to values in light. Each circuit has a light that shines onto it through holes in the wood panels.

When viewers walk into the sculpture, they trigger changes in the sounds through their shadow, and can ‘play’ the space by moving around and interrupting the light paths. Each panel contains a pair of audio transducers that resonate the wood surfaces to transmit sound. Like the magnet of a speaker vibrating a cone, the transducers use the panels as resonant membranes. This fuses the sound with the object and the space, as the whole construction becomes an instrument.