Glacial: Sound and Video Installation

Glacial is a 4 hour 55 minute 4k video, 11 channel audio, immersive sound and video installation in which the sounds of a glacier melting are modified using musical instruments as speakers accompanied by a detailed video portrait of the glacial environment. Using a violin, viola, cello, double bass, timpani, and cymbal fitted with sonic transducers, over the course of work, naturalistic field recordings are transformed into the resonant frequencies of the instruments which form the basis of a sound composition. The scale and materials of the instruments act as acoustic signal processors in the exhibition space. Smaller string instruments are mounted to the gallery walls while the larger instruments occupy the floor space. Central to the installation is the large-scale video projection of the Coleman Glacier at Qwú’mə Kwəlshéːn (Mount Baker, Washington), the site of the recordings. The video, generated from a massive composite photograph, leads the viewer through a tour of the glacier in slow motion from distant vistas to extreme details.