Spectra-3
The piece is the latest instalment of their ongoing Spectra series, a merging of physical and virtual sculptures that take inspiration from space, technology, and our relationships to them, to provide elegant and sensory experiences using sound, light, and reflection. Spectra-3’s design and movement is inspired by the radio telescopes of the Very Large Array (VLA) located on the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico. The piece combines computer-aided design with real-time input from the public’s movements, to inform its physical actions as it rotates on motors, augmenting the space with the enchanting hues and patterns of reflected light and spatialized sound.

Particle Waves
“Particle Waves” is a kinetic sound sculpture comprising of a 4×3 grid of 12 individual kinetic bowls. Within each bowl contains tiny metal beads of various sizes, creating “noises“ as the bowl rotates in various angles. The noise from a single bowl forms collectively to become a soundscape, reminding us of waves and oceans. The bowls are arranged in a 4×3 grid and controlled as a whole by a microcontroller running a wave algorithm. This creates a continuous wave-like kinetic motion over the grid, at the same time creating a spatialized soundscape. This installation is a continuous attempt of exploring the correlation between sound and nature.

Staalhemel

The intimate topography of the brain is laid out across a grid of 80 steel ceiling tiles as a spatialized form of tapping. The visitor can experience the dynamics of his cognitive self by fitting a wireless EEG interface on his head, that allows him to walk under the acoustic representation of his own brain waves.The accumulating resonances of impacted steel sheets generates penetrating overtones. The spatial distribution of impact and the overlapping of reverberations create a very physical soundspace to house an intangible stream of consciousness.‘Staalhemel’ (‘steel sky’, 2009) articulates the contradictory relationship we entertain with our own nervous system. Neurological feedback makes that the cognitive focus is repeatedly interrupted by the representation of this focus. Concentrated thinking attempts to portray itself in a space that is reshaped by thinking itself nearly every split second.

McNicholas and Barney Steel
Laser Forest

The public can explore the space, physically hitting, shaking, pulling and vibrating like trees for trigger sounds and lasers, provoking a very interactive collective experience. Resulting from the natural elasticity of the material, an interaction with the trees created with which they oscillate, creating patterns of vibration of light and sound. Each tree was tuned to a specific tone, creating harmonious children spatialized and played through a powerful surround sound system, and the more people, the cooler the experiment. The facility was designed to bring out in adults the feelings of curiosity and awe that are so vivid and evidence in children.