Water Organ

A kinetic sculpture plays an ambisonic musical composition as inductive forces transform floating resonant vessels into moving speakers.

Participants trigger a random process generating electronic tones into seven copper inductive coils placed under water. Magnets underneath floating vessels transform upcycled steel “tin” lids into audible speakers, each resonating with a unique timbral character while passing over copper inductive speaker coils. A seven-toned ambisonic composition emerges from the minute vibration of each steel vessel floating above the water. The audible volume of each vessel varies according to a complex interplay between a vessel’s resonant frequency and the frequency of the electromagnetic audio signals being sent through the coils. Kinetic motion emerges from a semi-chaotic imbalance of inductive and magnetic forces, periodically pushing and pulling magnetic vessels towards and away from the coils as the electrical current reverses direction.

Water Organ behaves as a many-bodied “strange attractor” whose chaotic motion emerges through mutual magnetic repulsion between vessels combined with the changing magnetic polarity of copper inductive coils. This work offers a calming natural meditative “Koi pond”-like behavior, as if the organism’s movement were an emergent murmuration of living agents.

Audible elements of this ambisonic composition can only be partially experienced through a stereo video recording. It is best to experience the true omni-directional sound of this piece in-person.