Sara Salamon
sound installation
elliptic acoustic mirror (MDF board, concrete), speaker, light
2020
collaborators: Hrvoje Spudić (acoustic mirror geometry) and Nikola Brlek / Superhands (acoustic mirror production)
Sound Mirror for Debris is a series of sound installations, the first of which was shown in Rijeka in 2021, which address the problems of a city in the whirlwind of history following the conversations with the grandmother. A new sound composition mapping the echoes of empty spaces in the city was created for the 2023 Music Biennale Zagreb. The absence of human activity creates new contingencies, i.e., unforeseeable events, and the author discovers their sound manifestations.
The work uses elements of acoustic resonance and echo as a reflection of sound that appears to the listener with a delay. In the gallery, the recordings are distant and focused 2 m away from the sound source, using an elliptical sound mirror. The listening point is roughly marked by the light in the gallery space, and the audience is free to seek a position where the sound is whispered into their ear.
The elliptic object is modelled on parabolic mirrors which were used for eavesdropping, before the invention of the radar, by reflecting and focusing sound waves.
The work was comissioned for the exhibition 7 Faces of the City as part of programme Times of Power of Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture.
Exhibitions:
- 11/04 — 22/04/2023 — Music Biennale Zagreb, at KIC Upper Floor Gallery
- 12/02 — 26/2/2021 — 7 Faces of the City / curated group exhibition, Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture – Times of Power, Gallery Kortil, Rijeka