Oscillating rocks

The installation is the result of a 3 month recording expedition to the Rhone Glacier, the birthplace of one of Europe’s biggest rivers. This giant bodie of Ice was the biggest Glacier of the Alps in the last Ice Age, and the main responsible for the geologic formation of the Swiss Lac Leman and the valley that precedes it.

By using high sensibility hydrophones, and microphones, several recordings were conducted on different locations of the Glacier, these include: Ice tunnels, the mountain range and a Gravel Factory that operates on the Glacier´s end. The recordings were made with special attention to low frequencies and infra-sound. Infrasound corresponds to a range of frequency below human hearing capacity,  these can be produced both in the movement of the Glacier and in big mechanic industrial complexes. In order to give physical form to the recorded low frequencies, this project´s end result is a kinetic organic installation that uses gravell collected directly at the bottom end of the Glacier, together with transducer speakers that vibrate under very low frequencies. Although infrasounds cannot be acoustically perceived by humans, these transducer speakers generate movement, constantly oscillating the gravel around them. Through this friction,  they physically interact with the Glacier gravel, re-arranging the soil in a kinetic installation, and generating new acoustic sounds on their own.