Specola

Sound installation with bed ornaments and various types of transducers

From the exhibition notes:

In Italian, specola means observatory, hill or peak. It is generally a lookout point. It derives its name from the latin spècere, verb for ‘to observe’, which also originates speculum, the mirror (specchio, in Italian) - literally the ‘instrument for observing’, as used in early telescopes, where a reflecting mirror rests on the inside of a tube.

The specola sound installation metaphorically interweaves the meanings of observations, reflection and mirror. As visitors listen to the work, specola also listen to them, using acoustic reflections to mirror their presence in the sounds produced. Sitting between the tubes, the visitor becomes the reflecting mirror, the ‘instrument of observation’ through which the installation is accessed.

Specola is a reconfiguration of some elements that were part of the site-specific sound intervention Observatorium. Specola was part of the exhibition Solids in Revolution at Neue Galerie Graz.