Instrument 1

2022

Configuration: 18” x 16“ x 7.5”

Bronze, brass, and welded steel

Instrument design involves the precision of science and engineering for the production and output of specific sounds. Factors such as air movement, tension, shape, scale, mass, and material can be controlled to give a multitude of possibility for complex arrangements. Equally, the product of sound can emerge from human instinct relating directly to responses in movement, essentially becoming part in our physical language. Whether decorative, symbolic, or for performance, origins of design inform our lived interactions, our memory, as well as our curiosity of play.

Instrument 1 explores an introduction of research on the percussion family showing experimentation with sound material interactions. The arrangement involves two components: hollow-form base constructed plates and cast striking tools. In this case metal interacts directly with metal, involving a difference in masses and height variation. When struck, a cupping noice is produced as the bars pivot and fall forward into the inverse profiles of the plates.