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whisper of nature
2018
interactive sound installation
Humans originate from nature and, with our intelligence, have created remarkable inventions that can alter the natural landscape. Humanity has evidently become great creators, seemingly independent from nature. We have drawn a clear boundary between "nature" and the "human society," making them binary opposing concepts. People living in urban areas appear to exist not in nature but in the world we have created.Xiangyu embedded a set of speakers in a collection of artificial artifacts placed on a table. When the audience picks up these objects and holds them to their ears to listen, they play a set of narrative sounds. These sounds revolve around how these artificial artifacts transitioned from nature into our society.
For example, when picking up a book, it's like holding a seashell to your ear. Then the book is recounting its own story. They can hear the sounds of the book sprouting, the sound of gentle rain, until it evolves into the rustling sound produced when the wind rustles leaves in a serene forest. This continues until one day it produces the chopping sound of a tree being felled, pulled by a noisy truck to a paper mill, and the paper is used to print a book... finally, they can hear someone open this book and flip through its pages.
Xiangyu, in this manner, reminds the audience that everything we create originates from nature. We are merely transporting nature to our surroundings.
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