The perception of sound changes with attention. In a forest, everything becomes loud and quiet at the same time. The space I work with during the residency at Extrapool is full of sound: the sound of the street, the sound of the resident, the sound of other peoples work, hence I thought about proving the audience a seemingly contradictory option: a set of earplugs when I perform this improvisational musical piece: a string attached on the winding stairs of the Extrapool, played by a violin bow.  

Do you want to wear the earplug when I perform? If so, why? What do you expect? When you say no or take it off after a while, is there a reason again? Why do you hear? What do you hear? 

I closed my eyes during the whole performance, with my earplugs as well on. Was it because I expect to experience something else? The vibration of the stairs perhaps? Or something more subtle and obscure?

Stairs and String

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Documentation: 8 minutes cut. Footage by Hongyue Wang, Jerrold Saija

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Full video with matching sound (about 1 and a half hours)

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4 videos of experiments i did during the residency of Destillaat #23