| gil_delindro_epo_paper_transformation_2_2022.pdf |
“The expanded Theremin” can be seen as a Sound Sculpture that translates VLF frequencies, captured all around the European Patent Office building space, into a moving sculpture created with the thousands of sliced patent papers. The sculpture uses a mechanism similar to the one developed in the Theremin instrument, by using an Athena to capture and translate variations in the Atmosphere, and all sorts of electro magnetic field contaminations coming from the City and the building itself, these can be originated by multiple different sources, such as electronic devices and radio waves.
The main idea is to create an immersive Sonic Sculpture that constantly relates Outdoors and Indoors, and thus is always changing, living from the real-time input of the ever-present electromagnetic waves in the air around us.
In technical terms, “The expanded theremin” is a piece that directly continues my most recent series of works “ the sound of an earthquake contained in a room “.
On this recent piece, I use thousands of recycled Bamboo Sticks, that are attached one by one to a prepared platform, containing a contact speaker. The speaker directly translates Infrasound frequencies to the platform, and thus all the woods vibrate and clash with each other as a response to the acoustic pressure. The result is a kinetic Sound Sculpture, that creates a dense acoustic sound, resembling the textures produced by rain.
For this new piece designed for the EPO, I intend to use exactly the same technical procedure, but the Sound Source will be captured with a VLF antenna, installed in the EPO headquarters. This time, the goal will be to recycle the patent paper files as my sculptural material. The Artwork will be created using only paper, with the exception of the Sound speaker, and external Theremin antenna.
This will be achieved by slicing the initial sheets of paper into smaller 25 cm x 0,25 cm segments that will be attached one by one to the platform. The patent files will completely loose their identity as sources of information, and go back to a state where the only important thing is their physical materiality. The original Industrial A4 patent is lost, and the artistic process brings the material back into an unpredictable organic form, where every element becomes unique and moves in an ephemeral way, similar to that of a forest oscillating through the wind.
This project proposal lives from the Junction of two Past works. In 2018 I developed an Installation that also made use of an Antenna Set outside of the space of Gallery im Turn in the center of Berlin. The Antenna captured different electromagnetic Sound Sources everyday during the period of this solo exhibition, and transmitted these frequencies movements into a wood piece. Creating a percussion effect that activated the Sculpture in real time.
Here is a documental video of that piece, shown as part of the Solo exhibition titled "A grain within a cloud of Dust" presented in Berlin in 2018.