When I first entered the room, it was silent. I wandered the room, confused, but listening regardless.
Then, sound started playing, and only ever briefly stopped for the next 20 minutes I spent there.
As I wandered the room, the sound remained the same. I could not place where the sound was coming from.
I examined the equipment circling the room and could make little sense of it.
I was confused. I waited.
After several minutes it began to make sense.
I stayed and let the sounds speak to me.
I did not want to leave.
Had I not a ferry to catch, I likely would have stayed an hour.
I felt innocence of ignorance.
I began to imagine a magical forest, in some other world.
A world where time and direction are not so pertinent.
The sound enveloped me in childish wonder.
It is challenging to describe precisely what it was I was hearing, because my ignorance itself was the most compelling part.
Try as I did, in 20 minutes, I could not make sense of the mechanics.
I heard pitches. Musical pitches.
Occuring at seemingly random intervals for seemingly random periods of time; sometimes overlapping, sometimes silent.
The timbre occaisionally suggested a struck instrument.
More often, it sounded like a pure harmonic.
The timbre was as difficult to place as an echo, a singing bowl, striking glass cups of water, or blowing into a glass bottle.
It sounded like acoustically, organically produced electronic pitches, if there was such a thing.
Ultimately, it sounded otherworldly, which is likely what inspired my otherworldly daydreaming.
Visually, as well, I struggled to compartmentalise what I saw.
The lights framed in the centre of the piece added to my otherworldly thoughts.
I thought about the title, insect light.
No insect I knew would have such an appearance.
So, an otherworldly creature.
The lights did remind me of eyes, in their mysterious, repetitive arrangement.
I imagined similar glowing lights in the mystical forest. Watching.
The visual aspect was not nearly as important as the sound to me-- I would not have had my experience without the sound.
Without the viuals, certain aspects of my imagiation of the piece would be different, however, not the most crucial points.
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arbitrary photo of the sound installation
arbitrary audio recording of the sound installation