Fanjie Mike Jin—Looking Outwards—04

This sound installation is titled “Chijikinkutsu”. It is created by a Japanese artist, Nelo Akamatsu. The name of the title is a sound installation ornament fro traditional Japanese gardens in the 16th century. In “Chijikinkutsu”, sewing needles are floating on water in glass tumblers so they are affected by the magnetism field and would turn like a compass. When electricity is applied to the coil, the needle would hit the glass and create a very delicate sound. This a very minimal approach but with this few elements, the sound it generates are rather complex and colorful. I particularly appreciate this project in that it uses the magnetism as the input parameter and as the magnetism field would be different in different parts of the world, the resultant sound installation would be different.