Spike. 2019

Sond/Light Installation

4m x 4m x 3m. 8 channel sound, 14.200 ribbon cables, 210 LEDs, wood, braided steel cable, dmx controllers, custom software.

14,200 ribbon cables hang from a curved wooden frame in four bands of colour, forming an open cylinder to walk through and stand inside. The work, Spike, is a sculptural sound installation built from recordings of electromagnetic fields captured from everyday electronic devices. The cables, which were recovered from early computers, retain the traces of an obsolete technology, now exposed from ceiling to floor as sculptural material.

Along the structure, more than 300 LEDs scatter rhythmic flashes, arriving and gone before the eye can hold them, like sparks with no fire behind them. In synchronisation, the electromagnetic recordings form a textured soundscape of hums and clicks, closer to the noise of a short circuit overheard from another room than to any familiar machine.

Spike approaches a technological environment that runs constantly around us and stays, even so, out of reach. Light and sound create a bodily experience at a monumental scale, which contrasts with the intimacy of standing inside it. Its porous boundaries act less as a wall than a theatre curtain: crossing it, the body becomes a spectator and participant within the larger electromagnetic infrastructures in which it is embedded.

Credits 

Created during a residency:  Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts

Idea | Construction | Light | Sound | Software: Marc Vilanova

Studio Assistant: Alex Jacobsen

Help: John Round, Katie Marya, Tyler Swain

Technical Support: Prototype Design Lab, Metropolitan Community College

Text:

Ana Prendes

Special thanks: Josh Johnson, Holly Kranker, Igi Ayedun, Sylvie Fortin, Rachel Adams, Chris Cook, Cameron A Granger, Rodney Ewing, Irini Miga, Adam Milner, Kandis Friesen, Jes Fan, Melanie Mclain, J.C Todd, Joel Kuennen, Konvent.0

Camera: Itzi Calle

Video Edit: Mac Vilanova

Color: Carles Pons Altimira

Sound Mixing: Santiago Latorre

Photo: Itzi Calle, Colin Conces

Available for booking