Syllabic Explosions

    Photography is art created by machine. I want to celebrate and explore this aspect of art making unique to the photographic world. In this series I have created my own machines to generate art pieces, constructing a latex-covered speaker system with a sound activated strobe trigger attached. When sound is played through the speakers, material flies up forming intricate forms lasting only thousandths of a second. The sounds that activate the machine are famous historical sound bites from events that are etched into America’s cultural memory. I have an immediate understanding and emotional reaction to these events based solely on the myth of their importance. The emotive quality from the speaker’s voice in the sound bite is the most immediate avenue for empathy within me, and I believe most worthwhile to investigate. The material reacts to the sounds in the same way my mind does, instantaneously and without consideration of why the response is warranted. Building these items from scratch gives me the same tangible satisfaction a painter or material craftsman enjoys in creating their work, which I feel is a critical aspect of art making that is largely lost in the contemporary digital photographic process.