SYMPHONIE AQUATIQUE

SYMPHONIE AQUATIQUE, 2016
WATER-SOUND INSTALLATION

@GALLERIA FATAHILLAH, JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 2016
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/10/24/engage-the-senses-at-media-installation-art-exhibition.html
https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/majalah-37809376

With emerging technology, we are surrounded by several digital devices like laptops, smartphones, and VR/AR devices. In music technology, there are also many devices or interfaces, such as controllers and applications. These devices allow users to control things with the touch of their hands and fingers. But I thought that as the digital experience increases in our lives, we grow apart from experiencing natural interactions such as feeling the wind, touching and seeing water and its reflection, and hearing birds singing or waves on the shore. So I proposed a sound installation, called "SYMPHONIE AQUATIQUE," which everyone from a non-musician to professional musician can participate in, to create interaction between digital technology and nature. In the early 1970s, Jacques Dudon, a French experimental musician, derived musical ideas from water. He developed several water-sound instruments over thousands of pieces, including an automatic instrument system using water without an instrument player as well as instruments played by a professional musician. Among these instruments, there were only a few musical instruments, including some pictures and short music sources such as Flutabulles and Aquavina. [1][2] So, I focused on his fundamental notion of developing a method of using several instruments, and tried to explore a way of developing a new musical interface using water, which can expand its usability from the theater to the gallery, and also the possibility of how a human being interacts with nature and the computer. SYMPHONIE AQUATIQUE is composed of six glass bowls containing water, with conductive tape connected from the water to the table. Each bowl of water is mapped with individual traditional instruments and different environmental sounds. The system uses a sensor board to obtain a signal from touching the water. User can touch the water with one hand, while touching the conductive tape with other hand. It also allows them to touch the water and see a reflecting water-wave on the wall while listening to music. Three features of this work are: 1) Applying cultural values to artworks by using musical instruments or environment sounds collected by its own specific regions. 2) Providing an experience that can easily be played by simply touching water to produce a musical instrument performance that is difficult for ordinary people to learn. 3) Interactive sound installation using three human senses (listening, seeing, touching). This work was invited to the "4th Korea-Indonesia Media Installation Art" exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2016. It was first introduced and designed in such a way as to map and play different Indonesian instruments. The name of SYMPHONIE AQUATIQUE is derived from a name of Berlioz’s symphony called "Symphonie Fantastique" (Fantastic Symphony), suggesting that this artwork will give audiences an experience like a symphony in aquatics.

Produced by Seungsoon Park
Supported by Korean Cultural Center, ArcoLab