Echoing Narcissus

David Rokeby

Echoing Narcissus ,
Co-workers & Funding
Documents
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Description
Echoing Narcissus is an interactive sound-sculpture in the form of a well, covered in copper sheet and printed circuit boards. It is a re-telling of Ovid's myth of Narcissus and Echo. All sounds made in the proximity of the sculpture are lowered in frequency and played through a speaker at the bottom of the well. A reflective sheet of plastic stretched over the speaker creates a distorting mirror representing water at the bottom of the well. The treated sound is picked up by the microphone providing a delayed feedback which causes all sounds to cascade toward the sub-audible range. creating a sort of acoustic gravity which draws the spectator toward the well to be confronted with his or her own image, distorted at the bottom of the well. This work is a sort of black hole of communication into which the observer loses himself or herself in the infinite restructurings of voice and image. (source: http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/echo.html)
Keywords
  • aesthetics
    • polysensory
  • genres
    • sound art
      • sound installations
  • subjects
    • Arts and Visual Culture
      • mirrors
    • Body and Psychology
      • bodies (animal components)
      • identity
      • self awareness
      • senses
    • Media and Communication
      • communication
    • Religion and Mythology
      • mythologies
Technology & Material
Bibliography