2022 Changwon
Sculpture Biennale

Sounding Waters: Tama River, Tokyo” is an expansive multi-channel sound composition composed of underwater recordings captured from beneath each bridge along the Tama River which runs through the Western region of Tokyo. 

The river waters, tidal flats, and flood plains of this tributary provide an important land-water interface that supports a diverse range of industry, wildlife, transportation, and human activity made audible through the installation. The recordings were captured in the year following the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. 

Twelve overhead speakers are suspended at coordinates in space which correspond to respective geographic locations of the recordings, rendering a composite "sound path," referring to the meandering river waters. The composition is treated in a way that sweeps gradually between the highest and lowest audible frequencies captured - sonically referencing ideas of ebb and flow; evaporation and condensation. 

“Sounding Waters” is part of a body of work titled “Point-Line-Intersection” that examines our complex interrelationships with the Earth’s hydrosphere, and the paradoxical tension between water as life, vitality and industry, as well as a source of immense and unpredictable destructive power.