Synergy is an interactive sound sculpture that explores communication in an interconnected but independent system.
Synergy is my first electronic art piece. I made it for a class taught by Canadian electronic art pioneer Norm White. The circuit is simple — a handful of 555 timers (legacy chips with an outsized history). The sounds are square waves, typical of 555s. Despite this, people find a way to make music with Synergy.
Central switches of Synergy circuit (detail / video frame grab).
Synergy sound platform (detail / video frame grab).
At the time of its making I was becoming aware of context. Shifting quickly away from narrative and optical work. Networks were becoming rapidly visible after a decade of being marginal and their users laughable. Detachment and narcissism were already becoming clear — two decades later they are everything.
I was interested in the way technology creates context. That interest remains a drive in my practice. In particular I was curious above the contradiction – how is it that isolation is the effect of continuously mediated connection? As such I built the work with cooperation in mind. Physical, verbal and non-verbal cues would be fundamental to how the work is experienced.
The work is a simple physical network. Three participants manipulate a central platform by way of its supporting legs. The central platform supports three identical but independent circuits. These generate tones based on the activation of mercury switches and pots (variable resistors), the latter acting as indicators of tilt. It is a purposeful mix of digital and analog. Tones are heard through speakers that suspended from the frame, where they act as counter weights for the pots.
The legs are arranged at 120 degrees to one another and connect to the platform with ball joints. Participants are connected but independent. They can only directly influence one of the sounding circuits. As such, participant tend to initially explore their individual impact on the system. They try to hear their own tones, understand the sounds they are generating.
Eventually they come to understand the interdependence of the system. Their relationship to others surfaces and shapes their movements. A new layer of communication emerges, and the synergy of personal interaction and connection begins to define the experience.
Circuit Fabrication
The circuit board in this work was made using heat transfer film and a thermal transfer t-shirt press. The board was then chemically etched, drilled and assembled by hand.
The image below is the orginal transfer film -- photographed in 2022, it has somehow survived several moves and years of neglect floating about in an unopened box.
Original Synergy circuit mask.