Alpha Sound is the third project in a series of three works that began with Chasing the Disappeared, Mother Tongue and now the final part is Alpha Sound.
In the third project Alpha Sound I have made a new alphabet based on the Australian native orchid forms that I have been using in my work. The new symbolic alphabet will run along the length of one wall. On the opposite wall I will visually represent the sound wave that is made by speaking each letter. At each letter there will be motion detector that will trigger as the viewer walks past and you will hear the corresponding letter. If there are several people in the room each person will trigger a different letter simultaneously.
The beginnings – drawing up my alphabet using the petal of a spider orchid. To get an idea of scale I laid the drawings out on the floor of the ADFA Building in Mildura (the week before installing Mother Tongue).
I initially thought that the drawing would be 76h x 56w cm but when I thought about the sensors and that each one would be triggered by a person walking past them. I realised that each drawing would need to correspond to the human scale – each drawing then became 120h x 80w cm. Stocking up on pastels to make this work!!
Working out the blue background with the William Morris pattern in the background. In the foreground the colours for the letters. Most of the letters are in an orange/yellow with j, k, w, x and y in an orange/red.
Work in progress in the studio
Work in progress, with the orange/red K – top left and the orange/red J – middle front.
Half way through the drawings and now that I have an understanding of the scale and colour, I meet with Rob Klarich, and we start discussing the sound component. I know how I want the sound to work and we can now begin this research. And at the same time I begin the second half of the drawings which are the sound waves.