Petrified Waves
To some extent crystals are claimed to be inorganic, dead material. We use crystalline minerals to built electronic devices like displays, speakers or microchips. Experimenting with different salt crystals over the last year I experienced the vivid dimension of this material. The crystal growth can be influenced by the environmental condition the solution is in. Parameters like temperature, humidity and surrounding sounds manipulate the shape of the fragile crystals. This made me think of crystals as beings with a certain kind of sensibility that I attempt to make visible in this work. The crystal growing process takes place in an environment that aims to isolated it from various environmental parameters especially noises. Within the soundproof-box the solution is than exposed to predetermined sound waves that may effect the shape of the crystalline growth and reveal petrified waves.
Working atmosphere
Illustrated Thoughts on Crystals, Waves and Interference
Crystals_solid. still fragile enough to become a device to transmit signals. stable. to store information for years and years. sparkling. so it creates a show that immerses people into its unique structure. sensitive. oscillating and monitoring. not living but reacting. with predetermined patterns
Waves_water can lead to waves when the tide is low and raises high again. sonar waves are my favorite ones. they are loud and can be harmful or quite and gentle but get to make my body move. electric waves can have are square shape. they can turn into a stroke. they are what makes our body stay alive.
Interference_People interfere when they come to close to each other. they collide and thoughts might merge. bing out new thoughts or block original thoughts.collision means destruction and mutation. means old ideas and new life It is matter that occurs at the same time same place. waves can interfere and evoke a strong crystaline growth.
First draft of an installation setup:
Visitors put their mouth near the microphone and make use of their vocal cord.
Microphone is atatched to a loudspeaker.
Above the loudspeaker the crystal solution is arranged.
Crystal solution is recorded from above with a video camera.
Video camera is attached to a projector that projects the image onto a wall.
The image shows the pertrified waves that are produced by the vocal cord of the visitors.
Some Ideas on aesthetics and experiments
Magnesiumsulfate + gold dust (crystalized after approx. 2h)
screenshot from video on Crystal formations from the 50ies
Video in full length:Crystals-Formation, Atomic properties & growing crystals 1950
Setup to expose crystal solution to sonic waves
petri dish contains magensiumsulfate solution. piezo disc is attached to the petri dish. piezo disc emits square waves produced by an oscilating circuit
sound isolating box with magnesium sulfate solution in petri dish attached to peizo disc. piezo disk works as a loudspeaker in combination with the petri dish.
Crystal solution and sound waves trapped in a box
In order to be able to expose the crystal solution to specific sounds and observ if they have different impacts on the crystal growing process I built this sound proof box. It isolates the medium from an environment that is "contaminated" with other sonar waves e.g. voices or noise from the street. It is possible to connect an audio jack to the piezo disc. That way a variaty of different sounds can be played directly onto the solution.