Beam

An interactive multichannel sound installation, part of Dialogic Assemblages, a collateral exhibition for the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014.

Beam is a sonic investigation of the ‘hidden’ maritime world that delivers our everyday life - the clothes we wear, the fuel in our cars and the food we eat. Despite the fact that 90% of everything travels by sea we know or see very little of the world that surrounds it. For this installation we have conducted intensive research and sonic fieldwork in Kochi centred around its harbour and the five lighthouses on the Kerala coast that communicate with all sea going traffic coming in or out of Kochi harbour. We have recorded places where cargo is packed, loaded, unloaded and inspected and all aspects of the fishing industry from small scale fishing with the famous chinese fishing nets to the industrial scale capture, sale and packing of fish. We have listened to the sea in many of its moods and talked to past generations of people who arrived in Kochi by sea from other parts of India and the world and who have made their living shipping spices from India. We have climbed lighthouses and pondered their poetic and arcane relationship with the sea and all who sail upon it and we have listened to the radio communications between ships and land.

The resulting installation in interactive - our recordings are controlled in real time by the AIS (Automatic Identification Signal) data that is transmitted from the ships which are now in and around Kochi harbor.

Beam was made in collaboration with students from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India.

• http://www.artrygroup.org
• http://srishti.ac.in
• https://kochimuzirisbiennale.org/the-koc...
• https://soundmattersframework.wordpress....
• http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25663