Rhizome proposal - Prairie - Shawn Decker
Title:
Prairie
Artist:
Shawn Decker
Requested Funding:
$5,000.
Description:
My most recent sculptural installations have largely been concerned with creating immersive sound environments often using physical objects, kinetically activated to produce sound, or using many loudspeakers in ways they were not really designed for but rather almost as noisemakers, uttering small clicks and buzzes. These pieces have generally been modest in scope – utilizing from 4 to 40 small sources of sound, ranging from piano wires struck by motors, to small speakers, and are always environmental and immersive in nature.
Each of these works has a small micro-computer built into it which merges computer controlled processes (code that I write) with physical actions within the space of the installation – a field that today is usually described as “physical computing.” For me this is the area where “performance,” “music,” “sculpture,” and “sound” merge – the ability to construct processes which create motion and sound simultaneously, and engage entire spaces through time in the way a performance would. This is an area where sound and sight are linked – where you see with your ears, and hear with your eyes.
I have recently just finished a project called Motion Studies (Prairie). This piece, which just opened at the Experimental Sound Studio’s Audible gallery last fall, is a prototype for a much larger installation. The final version of the work will be a 40' x 80' installation, and would be premiered in one of the larger galleries at the Chicago Cultural Center (this has already gone before their curatorial board). This final version of the piece would simply be titled Prairie.
The prototype for the project Motion Studies (Prairie), shown in the documentation, is a 12’ x 12’ grid of speakers that are mounted on thin rods , with vibration motors attached near the base. The speakers are sent various combinations of pulses, causing them to click, buzz, chirp, and sputter in various insect-like patterns – with these same pulses being sent to the motors. In this way then, the clicks and buzzes heard through the speakers are also manifested in a physical shaking and vibration that is visual in nature, and exactly coincides with the sounds being produced. The 12’ x 12’ scale of this piece allowed for a grid of 36 (6x6) of the speakers, and served as a protoype for a larger scale piece. The patterns in the piece contrast more formal “theatrical” patterns, which seem to resemble dialogues between groups of these “grasses”, with more “naturalistic” indeterminate patterns of various characters, which are much more reminiscent of wind, water, or insects.
In the full version of the work (which would be just titled Prairie) an open space as large as 50’ x 80’ would be covered with multiple grids like this one – as many as 6 or 8 of them, with space between them to allow for people to walk among them. This space would have as many as 200 to 300 separate small speakers, each playing unique sounds that are coordinated among all the speakers. This would allow large coordinated group activities and gestures – waves of motion and sound traveling through the large space.
In any case, the sounds of the piece would explore the idea of grasslands and the rich sounds found within them – wind and air, insects, water, and the physical action of many blades of grass activated by these elements. Sounds would flow through the space as air flows through grass, leaving a visual ‘rustling’ behind as well as the vibrating sounds are transmitted physically to the rods the speakers are mounted on.
Timeline:
Design and initial electronics fabrication, testing, and pre-programming: Jan-March 2012
Additional programming and fabrication of components: April-June 2012
Setup of large-scale version and final programming: July-Sep 2012
Installation at Chicago Cultural Center: Oct. 2012
Exhibition at Chicago Cultural Center: Oct. - Nov. 2012
Budget:
While there is support from the Chicago Cultural Center and other sources for installation, shipping, and exhibition support, there is NOT support for the basic fabrication of the piece. Given the scale of this work, even though I have ordered some components (motors for instance) in bulk following the propotype, and have enough for the full version, the additional costs of fabrication for the full version of the piece are substantial, and are listed below.
| Additional components for physical fabrication: | |||
| bronze tubing, aluminum rails, etc. | 2500 | ||
| 6 Arduino Mega boards | 400 | ||
| circuit board fabrication | 120 | ||
| custom control shield circuits | 480 | ||
| MIDI shields | 200 | ||
| Wire, enclosures, elect. Connectors | 500 | ||
| misc. | 300 | ||
| speakers |
500 |
||
| total | 5000 | ||
Documentation:
Documentation of my work samples is below (vimeo documentation). The first work is the original proptotype for the larger proposed work. More documentation can be found on each work by clicking the "artworks" tab at the top of the page. Each video is self explanatory.
