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Charli Clark / Can Uzer SWARM (2014) “The human presence is unavoidable, not only in the natural world, but on the very occasion of beauty. There is little or nothing on this planet that has not been influenced by human action.”
For honey bees, swarming is natural: when a hive becomes too full and a second queen emerges, part of the colony leave the hive to set up a new one. In the intermediate stage, after leaving the hive and still looking for a new one, the honey bees will rest on a branch, fence post or other such structure. We propose an interactive installation of speaker cones. Between 15-20 ranging from 5-15cm in diameter. They will be arranged in a swarm-like position, ideally clustered into a corner to mimic the action of bees whilst swarming in the wild.
The sound playing through the speaker cones will be processed on-the-fly by the input coming from multiple distance sensors. When a person enters the area of interaction the low level static sound of real swarming bees that is playing through the speakers will start to be altered by the movement. As the person moves closer the sound becomes amalgamated with electronic recordings manipulated to sound like bees. The closer an individual gets, the more imposing and dominating the sound of the ‘fake’ bees becomes. We want to highlight the effect humans have on the world around them. It seems that our curiosity may be our downfall. Our desire to create, to observe, to get close to, to meddle and play in and with the landscape, means that there is little untouched ‘nature’ left. This destruction that we leave behind, with our irresponsible movement through our world, can be observed with this work, that the viewer can’t help but destroy as they come closer to view it.  Charli Clark Since graduating from a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from University College Falmouth, UK in 2010, Charli has been focused on increasing understanding and reverence for the natural world in an interdisciplinary manner. She has been artist in residence at the Muse Gallery, London, and Green and Away Environmental Conference Centre, Worcester, and has participated in a number of exhibitions, performances and public inventions in London and Bristol. Previous commissions include “The Bristol Mermaid” 2012 for Bristol Council’s Green Week and “The God’s Bridge Project” with ArtWorks Teesdale as one of ten artists chosen to respond to the landscape; this work is now on display in Bowes Museum in the North of England. At present Charli is studying a Masters in Environmental Art at Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Helsinki and lives in Espoo, Finland. http://www.charliclark.co.uk Can Uzer Can is a Turkish sound designer based in Helsinki, Finland with a background in music. He obtained his Audio Engineering Diploma from SAE Institute Istanbul, where he then started teaching. He has been working freelance for film, game and music projects as a sound engineer/designer and as a musician. He is currently studying a Masters in Sound in New Media at Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, and focusing his studies on applied sound for interactive media. He has recently been involved in designing two sound installations including ‘Kajo’ that achieved 3rd place in Habitare Design Competition, Helsinki, 2013.  |
