ACCORDS NO. 2 (2016)

October AIA Architect Walk event, October Santa Barbara 1st Thursday event. Studio F, SBCAST (Santa Barbara, CA).

Description:

Accords is an installation-composition project exploring both 1. the cross-modal construct of flavor through the five traditional senses and 2. the idea of music as a modulated and structured temporal experience, not necessarily limited to sound.

This second piece in the series is a highly participatory, cross-sensory musical experience, which is comprised of several creative steps. First, visitors compose their own drinkable floral “chords,” choosing from an array of floral waters and syrups to mix into a glass of sparkling mineral water. When the olfactive, gustative, and tactile qualities of their drinks are balanced to satisfaction, visitors can then take their glasses over to a digital composing station to tune sonic, resonant, and vibrating elements in the space either in harmony or in contrast with their drinks, thus creating musical multi-or cross-sensory polychords. While waiting their turns at the composing station, visitors can stand on vibrating platforms around the room to vicariously experience the mechanical wave profiles of other participants’ drinks. To close, visitors clean their own glasses with a ceremonious libation of lavender soap.

In particular, this work hopes to shed light on a potential cognitive link between sound (with perhaps the other mechanical wave sense of vibratory touch) and the chemical senses (as suggested by several psychological studies). At the very least, it hopes to encourage some synaesthetic (th/dr/)inking!

With visual ink drop projections by Mare Hirsch.