Kettle was a sound installation, interested in giving a dead and lifeless
object a sense of re-animated life, in order to explore notions of our
own ageing, mortality, death and the purpose of life. The kettle was
found broken, rusty and full of holes. It obviously did serve out its
useful function and had seen better days. It had been thrown away; somebody
had considered it dead and worthless. I imagined recorded sounds related
to the possible past life and surroundings of this kettle. These sounds
were of water being heated to boiling point, the water being poured into
and from the kettle, and a cup of tea or coffee being made. The sounds
were stored inside a hidden computer, which could replay these via a
hidden amplifier from a large speaker, which was fixed inside the kettle.
The kettle was then discreetly placed, for exhibition, in a hallway or
a corner and could by chance be noticed or not. At any given moment,
the kettle could be playing these sounds or be silent. When the sounds
were playing they created a ghostly atmosphere. The sounds were also
slowly disintegrating using a custom DSP algorithm, so that over the
period of a day these sounds would go from new, clear and fresh, to old,
broken and decayed.
Kettle was a sound installation, interested in giving a dead and lifeless
object a sense of re-animated life, in order to explore notions of our
own ageing, mortality, death and the purpose of life. The kettle was
found broken, rusty and full of holes. It obviously did serve out its
useful function and had seen better days. It had been thrown away; somebody
had considered it dead and worthless. I imagined recorded sounds related
to the possible past life and surroundings of this kettle. These sounds
were of water being heated to boiling point, the water being poured into
and from the kettle, and a cup of tea or coffee being made. The sounds
were stored inside a hidden computer, which could replay these via a
hidden amplifier from a large speaker, which was fixed inside the kettle.
The kettle was then discreetly placed, for exhibition, in a hallway or
a corner and could by chance be noticed or not. At any given moment,
the kettle could be playing these sounds or be silent. When the sounds
were playing they created a ghostly atmosphere. The sounds were also
slowly disintegrating using a custom DSP algorithm, so that over the
period of a day these sounds would go from new, clear and fresh, to old,
broken and decayed.