“Twenty-Seven Tones”, 2017

27 cast brass tuning forks of various pitches

Dimensions: variable

Throughout much of my recorded music and performances, generation loss or signal degradation is often a key element of how the sound evolves over time. It is an accumulation of events and experiences overlaid onto itself again and again. While some sounds persist others fade. Bringing those sonic ideas into the physical world, ”Twenty-Seven Tones” is an exploration of loss, heredity and generational trauma. Each of the 27 tuning forks that make up this work is a copy of a copy. The process of sand casting each fork in brass results in minor flaws and shifts in the geometry of the form. What is lost and what is passed down from generation to generation of these copies is highlighted and brought out through the act of polishing each one before it is to be duplicated again. Some subtle changes occur, pitting gets shallower or deeper or sometimes disappears all together.

With each generation the from remains the same but the shape is ever changing.

Made possible by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.