Mocean Series

Overview

Mocean is a sculptural sound environment in the form of a forest of organ pipes. Inspired by long ocean crossings, it uses water as a musical interface, transforming wave patterns into sound through an array of 150-year-old organ pipes. As it is when at sea, the wave patterns and their rhythm give life to this work. Through the use of technology, wave shape and period transform into air pulses, shaping the tone, pitch, and rhythm of large arrays of resonant wooden organ pipes.

Waves are the ocean’s metronome, transmitting energy created by the friction between wind and surface water across the ocean. Just as a musician must be familiar with rhythms and patterns to play music, a sailor must learn ocean rhythms and patterns to safely steer a boat across the ocean. Reading wave patterns is paramount for the safety of a sailor’s vessel; however, at night it is hard to do. Breathing in-and-out and following the rhythm and shape of the waves allows a sailor to “sync-in” with her surroundings, detecting changes in the ocean’s rhythm--and therefore in the weather patterns to come. This experience translates into a form of music composition, where the period of the wave functions as the metronome, while the wave amplitude and shape filters the notes.

To translate this into a sculptural and sonic environment, I teamed-up with musician and historic pipe organ conservationist Jared Lamenzo, and with digital artist Liubo Borissov. Together, we envision a space where people touch and play with water, hacking into old and new technologies to work out how to translate water ripples into sound created by large modules of organ pipes. This experience is enhanced by the spatial arrangement of the pipes, tailored to the surrounding space. The acoustic sound of the pipes is enhanced by the physical dimensions of the tank, giving the sensation of moving the sound around by moving water in a particular direction, or creating other rhythmic disturbances in the water that affect the onset of pipe speech.

Our original task was to merge a natural element, such as water, with digital technology to establish a new, satisfying sensory relationship between natural media and sound. Over the years "Mocean" has evolved into a site-specific installation that facilitates expressive engagements with physics, water dynamics and space.

We continue to expand the project based on locations and resources Mocean is at its 5th iteration,with the intent one day to create a larger installation/musical instrument in which participants can actually walk and dance in the water. The use of more pipes would also increase the range of volume and expand the compositional possibilities. With each version, we continue to gauge participant response, and test the scalability and responsiveness of the hardware and software we developed.

**In collaboration with Jared Lamenzo and Liubo Borissov

Audio interview by Jenni Avins form "Misty Mocean at the DUMBO Arts Fair"

The idea behind the Mocean