The original idea for this installation stemmed from my trying to think of a way in which I could present a collection of found sound in a visual form without using complex equipment.

Working in such close proximity to the sea and constantly looking at and hearing the sound of waves led me to devise the arrangement shown here.     Click on the images for more info.

The two ripple transducers mounted on the lid of the tank are made from waterproof loudspeaker drive units with extensions attached to the cones. These serve both to create ripples in the water surface and to radiate audible sound waves into the air.

The water ripples reflect light onto the adjacent screen creating the patterns shown.

A 30 minute looped soundtrack contains a mix of raw and processed sound all of which originated along the AOR trail. The sound source itself is predominantly that of the sea; but also includes wildlife, the voices of the artists and other strange noises!

The mix of sounds is divided into two channels, each creating their own waves which are seen to interact in the projected image. Because the transducers are close together we hear the sounds as emanating from a single source, but see the effect of the sound waves merging by the effect of the ripples in the tank.

sound samples

Here are some samples of the sounds which were used to generate the ripples. Each sample is a fragment of the original which has been remixed to make it slightly more listener-friendly! Full details of the sound sources can be found by clicking *here* .

The sound files are in 64k MP3 format, 30 seconds long and are each 234k in size (ok to download even if you don't have broadband).

• how bizarre is that view?

• frank & jack (aka turkey montage)

• an aeolian harpist's encounter with humanity

• duncan's adventure... [he was ok, so don't worry!]

• gluggy sea engulfs artist