The Making Of…

Submerged Turntable

This is a sound generating sculpture I’m currently working on in my studio. It will be shown in SF next month. I’m creating a soundscape to play during the opening.

Please enjoy the video, also I usually like to tell people that this machine actually works as shown in the video–there is no editing-trickery going on.

Below is a bit of writing describing my motivations behind this piece.

Submerged Turntable

There will be a time when all tracings of human culture will dissolve back into the soil under the slow crush of the unfolding universe. The pool, black and depthless, represents loss, represents mystery and represents the collective subconscious of the human race. By placing these records underneath the dark and obscure surface of the pool, I am enacting a small moment of remorse towards this loss. In the end however this is an optimistic sculpture, for just after that moment of submergence; tone, melody and ultimately song is pulled back out of the pool, past the veil of the subconscious, out from under the crush of time, and back into a living and breathing realm. When I perform with this sculpture, I am honoring and celebrating all the musicians, all the artists that have helped to build our human culture.

Video by Brian Lilla