Tipping Point : 2014

The sound is much like a glass harmonica playing gentle glissandi… What was intended as sonic art is actually a beautiful new instrument. The Wire

Tipping Point invites us to reflect upon our relationship with water by attuning our senses to focus on a shifting water level. At its core, the work centres on a delicate balancing act, where movement, sound, and light respond in to the rise and fall of water held within a series of glass vessels. Comprising of hand blown glass vessels, water, responsive lighting, and live audio feedback, the installation operates through a bespoke mechanical and software system. Microphones “listen” to the acoustic properties of each vessel, translating resonance into tonal feedback. The vessels are arranged in interconnected pairs: as one slowly fills, the other empties. This exchange changes the volume of water in each glass, which causes the feedback to re-tune to a new pitch. Sound and light become measures of balance or imbalance.

When all twelve vessels resonate together, they form a layered, choral field of sound, an emergent harmony shaped by constant fluctuation. In quieter moments, a single pair produces a fragile duet, tracing plaintive ascending and descending scales that echo the movement of the water itself. The title refers to the fragile thresholds that define ecological, social, and personal systems. Here, the “tipping point” becomes both a literal and poetic condition: a moment of balance poised on the edge of transformation, where even the smallest shift in water level can recalibrate the entire environment.

Tipping Point forms both a sculptural sound installation and the basis of a live performance in which Kathy Hinde ‘plays’ the installation as if it were a large sculptural instrument. She adjusts the positions of the mechanical arms to change the water levels, and selects which glass vessels are resonating. She works with a range of guitar pedals to re-pitch the sounds, accentuate different frequencies, and add reverb to augment the soundscape to create an immersive composition.

Tipping Point is a collaboration with John Rowden at the Scientific Glass Workshop in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol with software designed by Matthew Olden. Tipping Point received an honorary mention for the Prix Ars Electronica Digital Musics and Sound Art Category 2015.

…there is much to be gained from allowing your attention to slip away and be carried off into abstract reflections, held aloft by the delicate, measured interplay of glass, water and electronics… Total Theatre on Tipping Point at Sonica, Glasgow 2015

A Cryptic commission for Sonica 2014 in association with Cove Park, created on a residency at the School of Physics at the University of Bristol. This blog documents the creative process and development of Tipping Point.

Video of Tipping Point installation at Woodend Barn, Aberdeenshire when exhibited at sound festival in November 2014