Sound Through Glass

A mixed media installation where glass, sound, video and performance are interrelated inviting the public to perceive glass as a performative object and a sound source and trying to bring the material to a space where crafts and fine art meet.

While being filmed I walked through Nexø city dragging two glass canes and exploring the sounds created by the friction between the glass and the ground. Those sounds were recorded by various sources (directly from camera, sound recorder, and contact microphone) then mounted together with the video.

The installation consists of the resulting montage in loop on a screen (or projection) and two suspended glass canes working as speakers reproducing the sound from the montage. For that I attached sound exciters to the glass that receive the electrical signals from the sound track and convert them into vibrations. The glass pieces receive the vibrations and transform them into sound adding their own layer of acoustic characteristics. Sharp, glassy, crystalline and echoing are the main characteristics resulting from the sound traveling through the suspended glass canes. By leaning our ears against the glass pieces and/or holding them we can listen to the sound or feel the vibrations inviting us to an unusual interaction with glass.

Depending on the attention that we put in practice, sound can be annoying, interesting or only one more layer of the many. As a metaphor I try to perceive the friction in life as something that can be explored.