containing a symbiotic sound field 2005
November 2005 Elam School of Fine Art  Auckland, New Zealand


on the surface, 10 electronic growth machines hidden in white chilly bins and orderly placed, 2 air blowing 'whiteware' machines, 3 sound generating wind turbines powered by fans, create an almost clinical environment, perhaps an orchestrated youth science fair experiment. rectangle tables were arranged to form a rectangular frame (in which the machines were placed on or around) producing a labesque sterile looking/feeling atmosphere. the wind turbines generated electricity to power speakers, making audible the mechanical noise of its own making. the irony of these turbines is that their wind is produced artifically from consumer fans...and in fact, more electricity is needed to produce the very small amount of electricity that runs the speakers...a very inefficient system. the 'growth machines' as well, while left to their own doings, remain on perpetual loops that often feedback on themselves. In the center of the rectangular closed-space, a microphone picks up the sound frequencies generated from the machines. this is fed into an oscilliscope program, producing visual sound waves barely visible behind the plastic-covered monitor screen.

norbert wiener describes feedback as a "method of controlling a system by re-inserting into it the results of a past performance." the controlled, contained enclosures of the chilly bins and the mechanical structures of the machines, represent this type of system however, I have left unsealed holes that allow for interuptions, deterioration, and uncontrollable variables to collide with the system.