Music for Fans and Instruments
Mixed media installation. 2022.
Variable dimensions. Three to five fans, three to five small string instruments, stands, electronics.
Photos by Paul Litherland.
A number of fans are paired with an equal number of small string instruments. The
blades of the fans strike the strings of the instruments, producing music. At slow speeds this music resembles the aleatoric rhythms of
wind chimes, at faster speeds it resembles folk dances; at even faster speeds it sounds like
engines revving —a plane taking off. The audience is invited to sit before the fans and experience how
the air currents they feel, map onto the music they hear, as well as the images they see. The work is an example of analogue mapping. A fast spinning fan, for example, is felt as a forceful gale, heard as a whirring drone, and seen as a blurry, spinning, halo.
*The work comes in various formats and sizes and changes based on the needs of a given exhibit.A smaller version is seen above and a larger, more complex, version is seen below.