Technical Statement

Steel Ice & Stone is the union of three media: Still image photographs, sound media and electronics. I created, collected and designed all aspects of this work. All three components contribute equally to the expression of the installation and the viewer's experience.

The viewer walks through the installation: a constellation of nine large—4 x 5-foot—photographs hanging from the ceiling of the exhibition space. Doing so, the viewer trips sensors set to play sound bytes from sound units embedded in each piece.

The work samples contain images of the artwork itself, the new sound unit's schematic, and my past work using this combination of media. The photographs are laser-exposed c-prints (not inkjets). The sound is the combination of machine sounds and bird calls from indigenous North American birds. The electronics is an embedded sound unit I am designing and building for this installation. It contains the sound chip, the sensor mechanism, and calibrating capacity for the sound volume (loudness) and sensor sensitivity.

All my work is in this media.

The effect? On me, was that feeling that I got when walking on lone, quiet streets in Cologne in early November. I'd be walking to my inn, a few steps from the red-nosed crowds at galleries, markets and carnival events, and felt a musing of freedom, different from anything I felt at home. A gentle anonymity, a pensive curiosity, the right combination of independence and belonging filled my reservoir of emotions; it’s a moment of introspection I move to share with others.

Work Statement

Steel Ice & Stone is a 9-photograph sound and image installation. The large—4 x 5 foot—images are of pieces of steel, ice and stone. The sound is the melding of machine sounds with birdcalls. The sensor electronics unite the interplay of the media by delivering the sound byte only when the viewer is there to experience it.

The combination of media conveys how I process the events of my life and times: the still image holds the moment captured in time, while the sound weaves through that moment in the present. This creates a layered experience conveying my thoughts and emotions balancing presence and time.

The expression of the piece is that loss, and the emotions it evokes, are both mutable and indelible, hence the still images and the morphing of the sound from the unforgiving sounds of machinery to the gentle warble of a birdsong.

The nuance of recollection is very powerful to me. Sensual recall of an event plays heavily in my work. 


Peripherally absorbing the work by sauntering through the suspended images is the breath of the installation. It’s a moment of connection and introspection I move to share with others.

New thoughts, new emotions--The Installation IV

As the days get shorter and colder, there's a gentle melancholy that floats under my hat, and it reminisces the feeling of Steel Ice and Stone. Oddly, I created it in summer.

Events, piling on one another, distract and steer me away, but only for a moment. Delving deeper and deeper into this piece demands introspection.

The nuance of recollection is very powerful to me. Memories gauge time for me, yes, as do the many lists I write--and keep--but the recall of a feeling rather than event plays very heavily in finishing this piece. Getting the sensations just right--formed by walking closely past an abstract image and hearing an abstract though vaguely familiar sound--noise--sound?--is the breath of the installation.

The effect? On me, was that feeling that I used to get walking on lone, quiet streets in Cologne in early November. I'd be walking to my inn, a few steps from the red-nosed crowds at galleries, markets and carnival events, and felt a musing of freedom, different from the freedom that I felt later on when I drove to the Midwest (more on that another time).

Right now, I don't have a semblance of that abandon, but it doesn't affect me other than reflecting on it. At this point in time, freedom represents just a little time to myself, looking back and recalling that nuance of the wet cold air, the musty smell on my humid clothing and the sun that seems to be barely rising and always setting.

The Sound II

Sound must come on the blog, ASAP.

A collection of edited bytes as a video is the only way I can think of posting it to the blog.

As for its meaning:
The sound means quite little if there is no one present to trigger the playback, and that is of enormous importance to me. I believe that the installation should remain silent if no viewers are present--why waste a message on plain air? Thinking more about this, it's the travel of the viewer through the installation that gives it life.

The images are quite beautiful and can stand by themselves, however, the passage of the viewer through the collection, which right now is envisioned as three "enclaves" of three images as seen above, sets off the sound. In composing the raw materials, I'm wondering if the sound composition should transform on the byte or if a signal from another source should start other sound playback. I want the viewer to sense the sound's transformation and not instead witness a chaos of noise because too much is going on.

The Installation III

A friend and colleague wrote after he saw the blog:

Does the piece change over time in regard to the materials? Does ice melt?

I was confused by the observation; they're photographs. What would sadly change is the piece's stability in the environment, but otherwise, no; quite the opposite. A central concept is that  the images are of hard, unyielding materials that eventually relent over the passing of time. The sound (not yet uploaded but coming soon) is soft, fluid, and moves with the viewer as she/he travels through the installation.

The pieces have not yet been situated, though I've begun to map it out with stick figures. A rough calculation is that the piece will occupy a space of 25x 50 feet--not a small space. 

However, generous space is needed also because of the sound elements. Because there is no spoken word and the sound is the weaving and layering of multi-directional sound bytes of varying length, the space the piece occupies becomes, as the above-mentioned colleague suggested, a choreographed element of the installation.

The Sound

The sound has been an uphill battle. Not conceptualizing it, but getting down to the technical processing of it. My do-it-yourself attitude needs some readjustment here; sound recording does require some time to master and the different tricks are learned on the fly. Some bytes I taped are just plain terrible and must be discarded.

But, on the aesthetic side of this component: The collection I've assembled are bird calls and machine noises. The bird calls I've collected mostly from birder cites but am looking for more. The idea for the birdcalls has been developing quite a long time when, that summer in Löwenich I heard two different bird calls. One from an amsel, the other from a dove, whose name escapes me now (but I'll get it).

Neither of the birds sounded like a machine of any kind, but, it led me to listen to bird songs, and in doing so, realized how many of them are pulses, bleats and taps resembling the machine sounds I'd taped over the years.

As time allows, I'll start processing the sound I in my library to better evaluate it.

Sound Unit

Thinking about using an I-Pod Shuffle as the sound unit, hooked up to a sensor, and and speaker. Sounds good, since it would be a clean presentation. However, how would the thing be recharged?

The Installation ll

Trying to show SIS has always been a challenge. The pieces are big and expensive; the work, as a whole, like SMV is hard to describe visually because it needs to be experienced. When it was conceptualized, it was a silent piece; they were going to he held by clams as they leaned forward; then, by brackets as they leaned back. With technical advances, the pieces now hand from the ceiling.

SIS is about breaking down my self-imposed isolation coming from the pain and loneliness I felt at the end of a long intimate relationship. Some who've seen it have suggested that it's about dying and regeneration.

Not really.

It's about closing down and opening up again. 

The Installation

While of late I've been concentrating on the electronics, I view tiny thumbnails of the images daily and the sound of the piece has never left my mind.

All three components--Images, Sound and Electronics--are equally important; all contribute to the expression of the installation and the viewer's experience. The installation can't exist without all three components; no one component can exist by itself.

While the images could create the environment by hanging alone, without the interactive element and the sound media, the large prints stretched on canvas could be room dividers. The sound, without the visuals and electronics are sound effects and birdcalls that would sit idly on a CD. The electronics--nothing more need be said.

This work has been so long in the making. However it was always in my heart and mind to complete because its timbre resonates in many chambers of my mind and soul. As time passes, to my surprise, I've become more lenient of events around me. Accepting of reality has never been a strong point, adapting to it--somewhat--has. Steel Ice & Stone is unfolding as a witness to my reaction to my surroundings, as if I had little to do with it.

My ideas for the piece have changed little over the years, even if those who have seen the piece evolve think it's in constant flux. As the electronics become resolved, I'm turning my attention to is the sound. As all the aspects approach completion, the culmination of the piece is imminent: the melding of the components together to create the final experience.

That is the the challenge, the one I so look forward to.

New Schematic

Assembling the code.

OK, so the unit has been figured out, somewhat. How to code it through a microcontroller?
Breaking down all the actions is somewhat easy, pretending your dealing with someone with an incredibly short attention span.

So, here goes, for Sensor A, the sensor that picks up a viewer and plays sound from the piece:

a) Viewer crosses Sensor A.
b) Sensor detects this and sends signal to the chip in the unit for sound playback
c) The sensor turns itself off for the duration of the playback on the chip.
d) When the chip has finished its playback, the sensor turns on again.

Easy enough, but, before this can happen, some other actions have to take place independently of what Sensor A is doing:

1. Before the viewer can cross Sensor A, it must be calibrated and smoothed: it must be set to pick up either:
     a) a break in the light caused by the shadow of the viewer
                  or
     b) movement within a specific range in front of it--for now, let's say 5 feet.

2. Before the sound can play, it must go through an amp which must be set to a specific loudness or volume, which is done at the time of calibration.

3. Before any of the above can happen, the unit must turn on an off according to a timer.