recording the Grand Tonometer

online is a new podcast interview with Steven Turner and myself conducted by the Hirshhorn’s Ryan Hill.

and don’t forget the free performance “Transparency” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on October 7

Today was (sadly) the final official day of my Fellowship. Steven Turner and I took three hours unwrapping and re-placing eight rows of tuning forks back onto the Grand Tonometer structure. I got a greater sense of the accomplishment of the “grand” task that I have completed as I we placed them one-by-one. I remember how daunted I was on my first day here.

Afterward Steven also demonstrated for me a chladni plate in action for me. Named after Ernst Chladni, an 18th century German physicist and musician, the Chladni plates one of the early examples of experiments showing that sound was a wave and not a particle. There are many fascinating variants of this device and video examples of patterns online. Look at those particles dance!

Later in the day it was off to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to meet with Milena Kalinovska and Sara about the planning and technical logistics of my Oct 7 performance at the museum titled Transparency. This will be my first Washington, DC concert since 2006. I will be premiering a new work inspired by the ColorForms exhibit. Transparency utilizes some of the myriad delicate recordings made during my Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.

Ryan Hill at the Hirshhorn is planning a podcast with Steven Turner and I about this project and the upcoming performance in the next few weeks.

It was (and continues to be) a fascinating and fruitful experience. I plan on continuing to work with Steven Turner and the collection. He keeps finding new things for me to explore and record. We plan on visiting offsite storage this Fall and check back for more on that.

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A huge THANK YOU goes out to all involved in making this Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship happen, including Steven Turner, Linn Meyers, Milena Kalinovska, Evelyn Hankins, Stacey Kluck, Minoru Hatanaka, Tony Myatt, Jesse Doris, Soko Hirayama, Bruce Morrison, and all the Fellowships office. And a special thank you to my partner Robert Eckhardt for his support and belief in me, before and during my Fellowship (and of course for setting this blog up!)

Today was the first day I used my portable recording equipment for some improvisational sessions with numerous Koenig wood organ pipes of varying pitches and formats. With the help of Stephen Turner we recorded some very strange sounding combinations. The bellows used for pushing the air through the pipes lasted for about 45 seconds each time and made a sad little wheezing sound at the end. for example: pipeorgan2

I also did some recordings of several combinations of larger tuning forks attached to resonating boxes. including this one: variousforks

All of these materials will be great to work with while creating the upcoming live performance piece.

Stephen also showed me one of the latest acquisitions to the collection… a pair of sound mirrors. beautiful!

I packed up my recording equipment that was set up in the basement studio. It was rather poignant… goodbye little studio.