This Excited Surface

Abstract

This Excited Surface is a new artwork that interweaves desire with the mutable structure of the ionosphere. It is a sonic, site-specific work designed for camera obscuras. By inserting coloured gels into the lens of the obscura, the disc of the obscura became a deep yellow sun under the earth. The sound was created from the sun’s interaction with the ionopshere, one of the outer layers of the earth’s atmosphere - a short while after participants arrive in the space a narration about desire, touch and solar physics can be heard. There is also a haptic interface which uses live data from the surface of the disc of the camera obscura via movement and touch, this data is transformed into fragments of sound taken from the ionosphere combined with another human voice. The coalescing of site, narration and the sound world of This Excited Surface aims to site our bodies, our senses, both aural and haptic with that of human desires, within the phenomena of the ionosphere.