2018

steel pipe, wire, assorted rocks, donated mirrors, vibrational transducers, 4-channel sound composition

This immersive sound installation activates resonant bodies through vibration-loudspeakers, or transducers. At the center of the work is an exploration of the local Murcian landscape; its economy, history, and culture. In this region of Spain, the local economy has depended on sustainable solutions to bring enough irrigation water for citrus, almond, and olive farmers to remain productive. As they continue to face the challenges of ongoing drought and other pressures on the water supply, a large steel pipe became a symbol for the difficulty in bringing the precious resource to those who need it. The steel pipe is ‘vocalized’ by playing its own resonant frequencies back through small vibrational transducers.

BLANCA, SPAIN

After coming to Blanca and immersing themselves in the environment, the landscape and the people of the Murcia region, Tyler Lewis and Mara Marxt Lewis became acutely aware of the immediate threat of desertification: a process caused by climatic variations, globalized industrialization and urbanization processes. Desertification stands as a major barrier to meeting basic human needs, affecting the livelihoods of the local people who depend on the dry land ecosystem for farming and agriculture. It is one of the greatest environmental challenges today, occurring in dry lands throughout the world and affecting biodiversity, water reserves and soil quality.

The desert is one of the most symbolic and meaningful territories we have on our planet – still not entirely understood. An empty place but full of physical and spiritual resources. The desert is also the memory of our planet and a symbol of adaptation and regeneration, where seeds and plants may remain inactive for a long time and then regenerate with the slightest presence of moisture.

The desert can be as well a site of altered perception, the place where we lose orientation and where we experience the mirages. In Blanca they created works in response to ideas about water, a lack thereof, and what happens when it’s gone.

Work developed during the Residency program of AADK Spain.