Seism, 2024
100W x 100L x 1D ft.
water, stainless steel, custom electromagnets
Over the past six months, I have made repeated trips to Death Valley to witness a rare phenomenon that occurs once every hundred years: a body of water, a symbol of life in one of the most desolate places on Earth. This ephemeral lake, known as Lake Manly, is the latest incarnation of an ancient lake that peaked during the Ice Age, when it was some 700 feet deep. During my visits, the water never exceeded a depth of one or two feet, creating a liquid mirror that stretched for miles. As summer approaches, Lake Manly is rapidly evaporating, leaving behind the skeletal remains of an expansive salt flat. May this work serve as a eulogy for one of the most remarkable natural marvels I have ever experienced.
3 Hertz Tone, emanating 100ft in every direction
9 Hertz tone, second order harmonic
On a windless evening in late February, we installed our latest sound sculpture just beneath the surface of the lake. I imparted a series of sine-wave tones through the water, searching for the lake’s resonant frequencies. Tuning to the landscape is my favorite aspect of this practice. You know the vibrations are in harmony when a tone reverberates the most widely while requiring the least energy. This video documents a short 3 Hz burst, which generated waves that emanated more than 100 feet in every direction. What the camera couldn’t record were the stars rippling in the water’s reflection late into the night.
The infrasonic tones resonating through Lake Manly give voice to this ephemeral lake, echoing the seismic waves that have shaped California. “Seism” provides an opportunity to experience our animate Earth as a living being, transforming water into a resonant body caught between the immense forces beneath our feet and the atmosphere above our heads.