an entropy of one’s own (2024)
Category: multichannel sound installation, exhibition, residency
Artistic Collaborator: Vladimir Razhev
Presented at: Dystopia Sound Art Biennial (Sept 7 - Sept 29) 2024
Location: Berlin
Venue/Gallery: Errant Sound @ MissRead
The project takes place within the framework of Dystopia Sound Art Biennial (Sept 7 – 29)
and Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik 2024. A project by Errant Sound.
Supported by: Weltoffenes Berlin, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion
Link: https://errantsound.net/2024/09/an-entropy-of-ones-own/
As a concept, entropy harbours a constant presence and is full of complexity and interrelatedness. It is a reminder that nothing remains fixed. Everything is in a constant state of flux.
Is a memory something you have or something you have lost?
There’s a tension between holding onto unresolved parts of oneself and letting them disperse.
Between sound and its trace,
as water sways when carried in a half-filled pitcher,
the notes flow and bend,
and resolution is your own.
an entropy of one’s own is a sonic intervention exploring existential themes. It comes together as an installation comprising objects as both acoustic sound sources and sculptural forms. It proposes that while entropy represents unresolved change and complexity, through one’s own perception and presence, one can find a deeper understanding of the cycles of fluctuation. The work explores the tension between maintaining order and embracing the inevitable shift toward uncertainty, reflecting as a reminder that nothing remains fixed, and everything is in a continuous state of flux.
Exploring forms and materials undergoing continuous shifts, the work builds on sonic exchange between three vibrating copper plates with rice grains surrounded by clay pots turned into speakers. Through transducing them, one can listen and sense the passage towards entropy as sound energy that can support unresolved processes of internalisation through the properties of sound, materials, and resonance. There are layers of things that we experience between sound and its trace. The focus is on how timbre, pitch, and harmonic complexity shape the listening experience and continually influence musical structure. When you listen to a sound, like a musical note or noise, it has energy at different pitches or frequencies including its fundamental tone and overtones. Through sound, we consider how this distribution of energy relates to entropy, as it spreads across multiple microstates.
The configuration of sound objects in a multichannel setting creates depth, pathways, and hidden sonic elements that listeners can wander through. They are like resonant vessels of flux — a fountain that the listener needs to enter where resolution is elusive. This invites listeners to attune to their inner processes and resolve the auditory experience in a personal way.
Details and installation views
Eight channel sound installation with copper plates,
clay pots, rice grains, exciters, speaker drivers,
3D printed elements and a custom-made sound device
Video excerpt