Left: Within the concentric circles of a large white form are two audio speakers, one to the left side and one to the right. From them emits the sound of people casually talking -- "I don't know....", "Have you ever met...?" If we place our head within the space of the circles, we hear a distinctly and uncannily spatial version of the speech. It feels as if someone is to your left, another person to your right, another farther away and straight ahead,...

Mountain Sculpture #5

Paper. Model size 7" tall. Intended size of final sculpture 2.5 m tall

© 2020, Michael O'Rourke

Hover over the image below to play a turntable animation of the model.

Mountain Sculpture #5, with human figure to indicate scale and simulated background. Paper board, digital audio. Intended size 2.5m

Right: On the opposite side of the sculpture, a large cavern-like space of white paper also emits sound from hidden speakers. Here the sound is of a quiet forest. We hear wind through leaves, an occasional bird in the distnce, the rustle of leaves undefoot caused by some small creature. As with the sound on the opposite side, there are two stereo speakers, and if a viewer leans into the space he/she experiences a strikingly realistic sense of space created by the recorded audio.

The final sculpture will include several multimedia components.

The entire sculpture is exhibited outdoors against the backdrop of mountains. Because of its impermanent and fragile materials, it is gradually reclaimed by the winds and rains of the same environment that helped make it beautiful. The paper and board collapse and deteriorate, the multimedia components fail and cease to function. The artwork returns to the raw materials from which it was fabricated.