In Adaptation #1 (2019) light and sound are sprayed throughout the reflecting sections of a former antenna dish. The repurposed antenna dish was found abandoned on the rooftop of an extinct radio station in Rotterdam, and it was composed of twelve sections. I disassembled the antenna dish in my studio, polished each section, preparing them for new configurations.
I adapted six pieces from those twelve to form a radial composite mirror of 3m diameter. The parabolic artifact, originally designed to transmit radio signals, now polished, has turned into a mirroring surface. The concave mirror recalls experiments of XXVII century’s optics, an era which inaugurated modern visual narratives. Those experiments contributed to new ways of seeing, expanding human perception. Through this work I interrogate the relationship between seeing and hearing a sonic sculpture. Sound emerges by the attributes of the material set in motion, as a monument for noise appreciation.
Afloat before the composite mirror, an undefined, volatile body performs its choreography. The object is suspended in the air by a wind column that is fed by an array of ventilators in the base of the installation. The sound source is in motion, while its reflections are scattered. Its blurred materiality – more air than mass – resonates as sheer noise, cast by the curved mirrors, projected in the space and back to the ears of the visitors.
The three-dimensionality of the sound source – the floating object responding to the air column and to gravity – engenders the complexity of the analog, physical world, resulting in an acoustic texture. Sound and light converge, break up, dissolve and dissipate throughout the room, inviting for an auditive navigation. The parabolic facets allow for articulated reflections that inform the visitors about their position in relation to the object and to the reflecting surfaces.