• 2019
• Wood, ceramic, metal, balloon, microphones, cables, electronic components, sound system
• Dimensions variable
• Sada, la Conserverie, Marrakech, 2019

Elpmas Series is an ongoing research on sound and materiality through different mediums.

The work’s approach is a combination of local craftwork with pottery, music, instruments and performance. Experimental instruments and their making become the starting point for creating encounters with a variety of audiences while engaging geographically with the reality and musicality of different places.

I started this project during my residency in Marrakech in January/February 2019, where I worked with a local ceramist exploring the notion of amplification and resonance. The goal was to question the way sound could resonate and be perceived through out / in / from ceramic pieces.

I developped a few instruments which could be plugged to each other and affect each other through several acoustic phenomena such as reverberation, resonnance, feedback effect.

The entire installation has been conceived in a way that would allow sound to emerge without constant human intervention. The piece can therefore, live and evolve by itself.

However, the activation by a person during a performance for instance, would highlight other  process of the work, and would question another aspect of it, such as improvisation/composition in front of an audience.

Each instrument is named after onomatopoeias, imitating the sound it produces. The two tables on which the installation is presented are not just pedestals, but instruments themselves. One is amplified by microphone directly placed under the table. The other is hosting Dhabdhiba is a three strings electric guitar. The audio signal is picked up by a microphone and i­s giving it back via the speaker underneath, producing a constant drone. The second instrument Zalzala is an optical tremolo which uses ceramic discs in rotation on a motorized axis. A light censor on the core of the instruments is controling the sound. Several discs with different patterns are presented and can be « played » by it. The third instrument Wašwaša is a DIY « turntable » which reads ceramic vibrations of discs with a contact microphone. It explores the materiality of the ceramic by scrubbing the surface of the disc. The Fourth instrument Tamtama is a liquid container, in which an hydrophone is amplifying the fluctuations of water.

The whole installation shows one of many ways to connect the instruments together. Each set up, aims to explore different articulations/frictions between these instruments.