Microphonie

“Sound is volume. It occupies space in a fleeting, unstable way.”

Giuseppe Penone, Breathing the Shadow

Sounds occupy the space of which they are a part; they propagate through the matter of which they are made. This thought inspired the idea of revealing the delicate internal mechanisms that receive sounds and are filled with them.

These sculptures are a pair of inner ears reproduced at actual size (detail on the following page). Each organ consists of three small bones that transmit vibrations, and the cochlea (spiral-shaped), which transforms the vibrations into nerve impulses. The two organs are positioned at the same height and the same distance apart as if someone were standing there. The work offers a vision that strips away the entire human physical form, retaining only these suspended fragments, which embody a moment of subtle listening, of heightened perception.

These objects are discreet; one might walk right past them without necessarily noticing them. This discretion lies at the heart of what the work symbolizes: a narrowing of attention toward the richness of the small, hidden details of the sound environment. The title refers both to this change of scale and to microphone technology, which functions similarly to the inner ear: in both cases, a vibration in the air is converted into electrical information.