Neural KNot:Syncopated/Synaptic/Syncope, 2021.
Neural KNot:Syncopated/Synaptic/Syncope
Neural KNot:Syncopated/Synaptic/Syncope is a kinetic sound sculpture which uses the techniques of electronic music composition to illustrate the experience of Audio Processing Disorder (APD), a neurological disability where an individual hears sound yet has trouble processing and understanding what is heard.
This work is the result of my 2021 residency with the Manitoba Neuroscience Network where I tinkered with the techniques used in the design of diagnostic instrumentation and bio-systems modeling by applying a crip-technoscience methodology.
Exhibits: Buhler Gallery, Winnipeg Canada.
Neural KNot, front view
Neural KNot, audience member using the tactile sound platform.
I shifted the auditory characteristics of APD away from being a clinical disorder and placed those characteristics into the realm of sound art. Using compositional techniques by re-imagining the use of sensors, 3D medical imagery, and equipment. Within the installation a network of threads, microphones, audio software, electronics, and speakers work together to produce sound that uses counterpoint rhythms, vibrations, and feedback loops to speak to the sonic landscape that I experience.
Hanging in the centre is a knot of wire and thread representing neural pathways. Embedded within the knot are two contact microphones. On one side of the knot three spools of thread unwind, the thread runs through the knot, over the microphones and is wound onto a motorized winder on the opposite side of the knot. Over time the thread accumulates on the winder, illustrating the muffling and reordering of speech that I experience.
Closeup of thread spools, Neural KNot, and winder.
Closeup of winder after 5 months of running.
Neural KNot, highlighting accessible tactile sound platform.
A computer and audio interface, cables, mixer, amplifier, video monitor, and three speakers make up the rest of the work. These elements are placed on a low platform so that viewers can visually trace the input and output of the sound. The largest of the three speakers is a tactile transducer, it is bolted to an accessible platform, as low frequency sound is played the transducer shakes and vibrates the platform. Viewers are invited to step, roll, walk, sit, or lie on the platform so that sound is experienced through the body.
Installation Documentation. sound starts 40sec in.
