Vibrant Matter

Sound installation / room-sized musical instrument

Vibrant Matter (2021) is a sound installation created by Passepartout Duo and curated by Lea Emilie Hansen and Astrid Birkø at the Aarhus Artspace's exhibition in the KH7 Small Space.

The work follows the duo’s current practice of designing unique musical instruments that combine handmade analog synthesizer circuits and textile fibers (jute, linen, wool). At the core of the project is an invitation to revisit discounted ways of making experience of the world through concepts borrowed by the theories of Jane Bennett, and in line with an ongoing interest of ‘decentring the human’ in the music process, something that was possibly hastened by the current pandemic. This world also shows a fascination with a long standing literary tradition of surrealistic “imaginary beings”.

The installation itself can be thought of as a room-sized musical instrument, and includes textile organisms that either hang overhead or emerge from the ground. Within each organism is the capacity to "speak" if interacted with: coils of wire form woven speakers which can be activated through magnetism. To interact, a magnet or a microphone can be used to activate each element of the work in order to hear each element’s own distinct pitch.

As part of the exhibition, Aarhus Artspace invited photographer Kasper Heden Andersen to shoot the event, and poet Jonas Rud Bentzen to create a written work. All photos credits by Andersen.