Dorsey Dunn | Resonances
April 4-June 20, 2008
Resonances is based upon a simple presupposition – that a space occupied for a finite period of time retains the presence of that occupation
well after the space itself has been ‘emptied’. This presence is a collective and individual memory; it is an energy held in the atmosphere and the
material of the place. Having charged the space briefly, the slow ebb of this energy is discernable, but – as a subtle and extended process – not precisely quantifiable. Resonances seeks to bring the afterlife of an event into the realm of the perceptible.
The installation begins with a live sound performance in the exhibition space. Immediately following the opening night’s performance, Resonances creates an extended ‘dying-away’ of the event itself over the course of several weeks in the space. Using various models of decaying energy, sounds subside in unstable patterns, the crumbling material of a moment in time. This disappearance is not perfectly linear; it moves from generally synchronized to radically disconnected. ‘Moments’ of audio appear and sound in an ever-decreasing mass of energy, the individual elements segmenting into smaller and smaller pieces. Events recur with new linkages. Frequencies shift into different alignments. In this respect, Resonances is a mirror of the physical qualities of waves in a particular space: over time, initial impulses scatter, reflect, and subside in a complex cloud.
