Photo Credits: Peabody Essex Museum: pem.org
This Saturday, I invited my friends to join me at the Peabody Essex Museum to experience an installation by modern French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. The exhibit, From Hear to Ear, fuses two spheres – both the auditory + visual by producing sound created by a flock of live birds that are introduced into an acoustic environment. That is, an acoustic environment that you get to walk around in as 70+ zebra finches fly around, perching onto amplified instruments. The result? A visual and sound experience.
Here’s a little more information in case you’re wondering just how exactly this works. As you enter an entirely white room, the door is closed and your experience begins. As you walk around the room, the finches explore the environment, landing on various string instruments, ultimately sculpting the space into an ambient and melodic soundscape. The space is constantly changing too as the birds move in relation to people’s movements, creating a truly unique and non-replicable experience with each visit. None to worry either, as the finches are under very good care with a veterinarian on staff observing/checking them daily.
From Hear to Ear is a profoundly impressionable exhibit that colors outside the standard lines of normalcy, challenging us to think about how we perceive, create, and interact with our environments. I highly recommend seeing Boursier-Mougenot’s innovatively designed installation while it’s still on display.
From Hear to Ear is on view at the Peabody Essex Museum from January 18 to April 13, 2014.