Listening Glasses

Installation with glass sculptures

Listening Glasses are hollow spheres of glass with a small funnel-like opening at one side, which is inserted into the ear and a circular aperture at the other, which is exposed to the air. Each glass is tuned to a particular musical tone, and acoustically amplifies this tone through sympathetic resonance. Using such a glass, a listener can discover a musical tone in sound that might otherwise have been too quiet to be noticeable.

The design of the Listening Glasses emulates nineteenth century acoustic tools named Helmholtz resonators. Helmholtz revealed that he had used glass resonators to listen for musical tones in the sound of his environment (1954, 44). Fascinated by the thought of trying this exercise myself, I produced a new series of resonators. The installation Listening Glasses was commissioned for the exhibition 'Sound Escapes' (2009). The work consisted of five differently tuned glass resonators on a mahogany stand. Accompanying paraphernalia included sterile speculums, cloth gloves and a small leaflet, which invited gallery visitors to use the glasses to listen for musical tones in the sound of other works featured in the exhibition, as well as in ambient environmental sound.