Lenses

Sound installation

Duration 15-55min

Lenses is a multi-speaker installation for "white cube" art gallery spaces. It uses a range of wine glasses as "lenses" to modify sound. The glasses are collected from thrift shops, friends and pubs. They are arranged into a group of between 12 and 24 (depending on the size of the exhibition space). Each glass must be a different pitch from the others, and during the selection process the glasses are organised in descending order according to their pitch. Each glass is sounded by rubbing a moist finger around the rim for approximately twenty seconds, and recorded with a stereo microphone positioned just above the bowl of the glass. The glasses are then arranged a pattern across a wall. Small speakers hang over the rims, outside the bowls of the glasses. A soundtrack compiled from the recordings plays through every speaker, but each glass resonates most powerfully in response to the recording of its own signature sound, which it gently modifies through acoustic amplification. The composition of the soundtrack is based on a grid-like score, which follows a "change ringing" technique devised by English church bell-ringers. Directional lighting is used to create shadows of the glasses against the wall.