a cryptic lamellaphone 2014
timber, brass, steel, pingpong balls, ink, acrylic paint, 650mm diameter x 50mm (h); object support & seating
A featureless flattened cylinder rests on a low stool. A pair of identical stools face each other across the object.
Gallery visitors are invited to sit, in pairs, to hold and move the object in their hands.
Sounds are generated within the object – rolling, bumping, random sequences of resonant metallic tones.
The object is an instrument producing musical uncertainty.
A curious tension arises between the pair as they negotiate how to make sounds together – each can feel the
others movement, but neither can be sure how any movement relates to a particular sound.
Cooperate, compete? Lead, follow? Master, wander? Engage, abandon? It seems impossible to repeat a melodic sequence.
The mechanism is hidden within, prompting investigation by peering into slots around its perimeter.
Like looking into a microscope – a scale transition, a shadowy world within, a simple revelation.
The object’s form is redolent of the zoetrope, a 19th century optical device. But rather than animation of vision, this object animates sound, relationship, association and memory.
imaginary scores for a cryptic lamellaphone 2014
3 x drawings – pencil & ink on Dessin 200gsm paper, each 750mm (w) x 1080mm (h)
(l to r) : 1 an imaginary score 2 silence 3 an imaginary score
The drawings map the internal layout of tines fixed within the cryptic lamellaphone instrument, and imaginary trajectories of three ping-pong balls moving freely between the tines, striking them randomly to produce melodic sequences in direct response to movement of the instrument by visitors.
The third drawing, silence, might be imagined a score of 4’33” duration…
Somersby School of Arts 17 July 2016 – One Month Festival, Korea
The cryptic lamellaphone was included in an afternoon event to launch the Somersby School of Art project, north-west of Sydney in the Mangrove Mountain district.
The event was part of the One Month Festival, organised out of Korea by Artistic Director Chang Soo Park. Through July 2016, the festival presented 323 concerts in 130 cities in 26 countries.