As part of the summer exchange at Design Academy Eindhoven, I embarked on a project exploring glass as a medium. The project allowed us to work with glass in any means possible, at any scale, and to explore its materiality in relation to sound. I was drawn to the idea of glass as a resonator, and how it can amplify and shape sound in unique ways. This led to the creation of Echoes & Reverberations : a installation that uses glass as a resonator to explore the relationship between sound and materiality.
Through eight glass pieces: each hand blown with the assistance of glass blower Marc Barreda, sound was played through them through eight audio transducers, to activate the resonant properties of the glass through vibration and sound.
The sound played through the glass was a combination of field recordings, synthesized sounds, and live input from audio transducers attached to the glass. Each piece of glass had its own unique sound, depending on its shape, size, and thickness.
The eventual sound was recorded through tiny glass vessels, each lampworked at Design Academy Eindhoven.
The eventual sounds combined with the glass pieces gave a echoed, hollow, distorted sound, that was both familiar and otherworldly. The installation invited visitors to experience the relationship between sound and materiality in a new way, and to explore the unique properties of glass as a resonator.