Devil's Rope: The Encounter, 2024 / Errant Sound
Kinetic-Interactive Sound Installation
Barbed wire, turnbuckle, speaker, amplifier, MAX, arduino, microphone stand
‘’It’s the best fence in the world. As light as air. Stronger than whisky. Cheaper than dust. All in steel and several miles long. The cattle haven’t been born that can get through it. Gentlemen, take up the challenge and bring your cows.’’
—John Warne Gates, barbed-wire merchant, Texas, 1870s
For over a century, iron barbed wire has been used almost everywhere: around fields and pastures in the country, in the city, on walls or fences of factories, around military barracks and even private residences. It has always been efficient enough to perform its designated tasks: to define space and to establish territorial boundaries. “Devil’s Rope: The Encounter” intend to provide an objective and balanced account of human mobility and reflects on global flows. Using barbed wire as a component, it monitors border resonances and aims to sonify the complexity of human mobility. As viewers approach the barbed wire, the sensor detects their presence and alters the frequency at which the wire vibrates. This dynamic effect serves as a metaphorical representation of the audience's proximity to the complexities and resonances of the borders.