Review: Floating Field 2
Where does the body end? Where does our surrounding
world begin? René Lundgaard visited the Gallery
Spanien19c to experience Tine Bechs installation
"Floating Field 2". The installation generated a series
of thoughts that Lundgaard explains in this
review.
By René Lundgaard, Master Interactive Design
and Aesthetic Interaction.
Exhibition "Floating Field 2" shown at Gallery
Spanien19c from 26. March to 17. April 2005
www.spanien19c.dk
Between body, mind and world
Where does the body end and where does our surrounding
world begin? These were the two questions that
resounded inside my head after seeing Tine Bechs
interactive sound installation ’Floating Field
2’ at Gallery Spanien 19C.
’Floating Field 2’ consists of approx 20
moving balloons. As a participant, you are not a
spectator in this interactive work; you activate the
field by making the balloons move. The smallest
movement triggers a sound from the individual
‘balloon flowers’ while they dance in the
wind trails of your body. The more the balloons move
the more sound you create. However when you stand
still, the sounds disappear one by one. A relationship
arises between silence and sound, and it is you who
decides which phase the installation is in. It is you
that gives the work a pulse; it is you who creates the
way in which it exists.
The execution – the method behind the balloon
flowers is primitive. One balloon, one sensor, and one
small speaker. However the importance of the work is
not in the making but in how these everyday objects
represent amazing visual and audio combinations.
Inherent in the installation is an invitation to play
and this is strengthened by the balloons connotation of
childhood. I certainly wanted to play. First I had to
touch all the balloon flowers, sense their softness and
experience how easily they were affected as they hung
there swaying. Later I understood it was enough to just
walk by them in order to make them react.
It is the weightlessness of the sculptural construction
that makes the work sensitive to the slightest
influence. This sensitivity is important as it
highlights that the body is capable of affecting the
world, without being in direct contact with it. The
installation signifies the bodys indefinable
boundaries; there is a life between body and world that
is not immediately intelligible. In other words Tine
Bech unites body and world in a formless intersection
on the edge form. It is in this meeting that we are
reminded that we ‘exist’ in the world and
that we leave behind traces that impinge on our
surrounding world. For example the smells we give off
which other people intentionally and unintentionally
walk through.
This thinking is strengthened by the choice of tactile
material, which brings out sensuality. Our sensuality
indicates our physical existence and the presence of
this entwines body and mind in a matrix where the two
penetrate each other continually. It is not only about
matter (body) being in the world, sensuality is also
spiritual (mind). There is something poetic in the way
the body affects the balloon flowers in ‘Floating
Field 2’ synchronously with creating with sound
compositions. It emphasizes that the body is not the
only organism that can be categorized as sensing.
Spirituality is equally important when we interact with
the world The installation therefore seems to comment
on the western tradition of dualistic thinking that
separates body and mind. In a way the installation
almost has Buddhist elements in the way it attempts to
go beyond the classic dualistic dichotomy: Body and
Mind are interdependent. Hans Christian Andersen wrote
about this 200 years ago and Tine Bech now re-ignites
the debate – in case anyone should have forgotten
the old poet.
Danish Version