PETER FLEMMING
Instrumentation
2013
Biography
Peter Flemming is a Canadian folk machinery artist, intuitively doing electronic handcraft “by ear.” A recent work entitled Instrumentation is a situational kinetic sound installation that explores the idea of resonance through electromagnetically activated materials, mechanical performers and makeshift amplification devices. In 2012, variations of Instrumentation was shown in seven shows in five countries, notably at the 1st International Biennial of Digital Art (Montreal, Canada) the monumental Emergencies exhibition (Guimaraes, Portugal), and the highly regarded Meta.morf Biennale for Art in Technology (Trondheim, Norway). Past work has included lazy machines, solar-powered artwork and hypnotically repetitive automata. Long-listed for the Sobey Art Award (Quebec region) in 2013, he has exhibited extensively internationally and received numerous grants and residencies.
About the work
All things have a natural resonant frequency. Intriguingly, this suggests a baseline connection between just about everything, but let us remain at the level of the physical. Water in a wine glass vibrates intensely when a finger is drawn along the rim. Our bodies have resonant frequencies; so too does the stapler on my desk, the skyscrapers downtown, the bridge I cross when leaving Montreal, and the tectonic plates that support it all.
Inspired by this resonance, Instrumentation is a site-variable, kinetic sound installation. Upon entering the main installation space, one hears a shimmering polyphony of harmonics, sudden crescendos and arrhythmic beats. At odds with the elegance of these sounds are the unlikely resonators from which they emanate, cobbled together from scrap wood, clamps, buckets, drums, salvaged windows and hand-wound electromagnetic coils.
Further exploration reveals a secondary room containing the source of the performance: an array of small mechanical devices and seemingly haphazard circuitry. A large wooden table serves as a stage for these non-human performers: a lever pulls a string fixed to an electrode plunger in a jar of electrified saltwater; a light dimmer's dial turns slowly under the control of a small motor; vibrating electromagnetic fields sound piano wires and create percussive pulses in drums and metal cans; yogurt lids pinned to sticks sway to and fro over light sensors. These elements combine to spontaneously compose Instrumentation's hypnotic chorus.
A primary goal I have as an artist is to build systems that I do not fully understand, with behaviours I cannot fully predict. In Instrumentation cycles overlap, synchronize and step out of phase, collectively generating an endlessly fluctuating soundtrack. The repetitive actions of each performer are a manifestation of the clock, the fundamental digital device. I chose to work directly with the clock as a building block, slowly constructing complexity in layers. This contrasts with an approach of first building an entire computer around the clock signal, then working back through complicated software processes in order to artificially reintroduce elements of surprise or chaotic behaviours. With Instrumentation the algorithmic behaviour is found in physical objects and not abstract code. Along these lines, I consider Instrumentation more of a framework or schematic than a fully individualized or closed work. Structured but not scripted, the work contains a high level of improvisation, and so varies significantly from implementation to implementation.
