An instrument for measuring rain. A steel frame hosts eight platforms, water drippers and medical blood bags, exploring the acoustic qualities of rainfall and how sound responds to material. Each platform surfaced with matter found on-site at Bow Creek.
Two variables make it playable. Taps control the frequency at which drops strike each platform, and a pulley system controls platform height, and with it volume. Tuning both across all eight materials turns the apparatus into an automated, amplified drum machine. And its output into music.
Built to the brief “States of change / Changes of state”, the apparatus registers and quantifies the natural chaos of rain through sound data. An early experiment in the thread that runs through my work since. Instruments that make environments audible.
Falling rain doesn’t produce the sound of water. It resonates the sound of the surface it falls on.
Live performance
Drum machine in motion
Beat sampling session
Drum machine live recording
Drum machine beat sampling
