*UNDER WAY* metaphorically transposes the building which houses it into a ship at sea, and sets those who encounter it free on a voyage to uncharted shores.

The intervention uses a series of epistemological inversions to create the perceptual conditions that allow the “ship” to set sail. It installs a moving horizon, with its ocean and stars, into the space, suggesting to the visitor that it is in fact the building which is moving. The instrument of this horizon is an illuminated, kinetic loudspeaker assembly, inspired by marine chronometers and compasses, the essential instruments of navigation. In the days of square-rigged sailing ships, both chronometer and compass were suspended in intricate baskets of gimbaled rings, so that as the ship moved, they would remain static, enhancing accuracy. Here I invert not only the building, moving its horizon to its interior, but also the chronometer, so that it continually tilts on its gimbals and drives the motions of a horizon projected onto the walls. The reimagined compass, no longer a silent introverted guide, projects an altered reality into the entire space.

The physical installation consists of a 12ʺ loudspeaker mounted on gimbals so that it can move freely on two axes. Movement is initiated entirely by the soundtrack playing from it, via a small wire pressing on its membrane. A mirrored film floats on top of the membrane, and it is surrounded by a fixed ring of multi-element LED spotlights, directed inward, forming a continuous though highly variegated shadow line around the walls of the room, thus creating the horizon. Then, as the speaker moves so does the horizon, with a rich, undulating wave. The mylar ring also reflects the lights upward, projecting a celestial map overhead, rocking with the motion of the ship.

At the center of the installation is a five-channel electroacoustic composition which addresses several layers of compositional imperative: its low-frequency components must drive the motion of the speaker, while steady tone material is used to initiate standing waves in the room. Because the speaker is constantly reoriented, these waves and nodes are constantly varying, and, combined with reflections from the walls as well as noticeable Doppler effects, they develop a highly complex and changing sonic architecture. This part of the composition is derived from recordings made from inside a bottle which was thrown into the sea. The resonance of the bottle provides a singular tone, while the actions of the water develop a narrative. The fluttering of large sail cloths, a kind of macro-rhythm, is heard from four speakers concealed in the base. These sounds were mixed using complex phase and frequency shifts as well as convolution, so that they seem to emanate from the walls and the floor, not from the central instrument. And thus a final inversion: the sounds of the ship’s sails become the waves upon which it navigates, while the sound of the sea steers it from above.

Wood, brass, LEDs, loudspeakers, carbon fiber, mylar, linen.
165 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm. 5-channel audio, 20-minute loop.

Links: http://www.douglashenderson.org, https://vimeo.com/88984132

Originally created for the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl/European Soundart Award (prize winner), with assistance from Fruendeskreis Habakuk.

Douglas Henderson (US) is a sound artist whose work spans all aspects of the medium, from electroacoustic sound compositions to sculptural works and installations. He harnesses the energies of sound both as a sensual medium and as a culturally charged fabric of social implication. He is particularly interested in the dialog between sound and visual art, and the intricacies of expression that become possible as new, hybrid art forms develop. Among his awards are the 2013 Deutscher Klangkunst-Preis, a 2012 Gigaherz Prize for electroacoustic music, a 2008 Rockefeller Foundation MAP Award, and a 2007 guest of the DAAD Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm.