aqueous by Zai

Aqueous is a meditative space that encourages perception of small things.

On entering the installation, one initially sees faint lights but as the eyes adjust to the darkness, glows of light on the ceiling and watery sounds gradually become noticable. The installation presents itself differently depending on amount of the time spent in it as well as number of people present.

Water droplets fall from the ceiling through the installation space into 25 water-filled tubes that are approximately tuned in an equal-temperament scale spanning two octaves. Each tube sits inside a water vessel to collect excess water and is lit from the bottom by an LED, creating a glow of light in the ceiling that shimmers and flickers when the water surface is distorted. The release of droplets is hidden above the ceiling, allowing the ceiling to act as a canvas.

The actuation of the droplets is controlled by a computer program, whose algorithm constructs note sequences that resemble noise at times and music at other times. The installation is imbued with musicality through the use of rhythmic and tonal structure. But because of the physics of the installation, the volume and timbre of each drop vary since the droplets do not always fall in the same exact location. Perturbations during droplet formation, atmospheric disturbances and water surface conditions inside the tube all affect the nature of the resultant sound. The chance occurrence in aqueous is a combination of computed randomness and nature.