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Music

Hear the Wind Play This Experimental Sound Art

Artist João Costa 16-bottle sound piece performs the music of the wind.
Still of João Costa's and the wind was like the regret for what is no more, Images via and courtesy of artist.

Sixteen bottles, each with its own air blower, stand arranged in a circle playing music. For his piece, and the wind was like the regret for what is no more, artist João Costa brings the wind indoors, translating its wild energy into simple sounds. “The work explores the interaction of two invisible factors, sound and wind,” explains Costa in the video’s description“It deals with the dialectics of scattered and shapeless coefficients that cannot be seen, but have an intrinsic need of existence, of being, and nothing more. To articulate these elements is to deal with the unknown, the unpredictable.”

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Outside his window, a weathervane measures the direction the wind blows, sending data to the motors which each puff a corresponding blast of air across the bottles' openings. Costa was always intrigued by the shapelessness of sound, its invisibility, and its presence. One day, he began blowing across the top of a bottle, and wondered: "If people aren't the start of that sound, what could be?" So, he decided to channel the wind, an entity that had similar characteristics to sound. The result is "diaphonous" as Costa puts it, and a beautiful fusion between nature and sound art.

Watch Costa's and the wind was like the regret for what is no more, and check out some behind-the-scenes images below:

and the wind was like the regret for what is no more from João Costa on Vimeo.

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