"I Do" Wedding band in gold and palladium, 2008
"Sneeze Brooch" in silver, 2007Every time we have a conversation through skype or a mobile phone, our voice travels through many digital and analogue forms. Sound get processed through countless media and comes out 'natural' at the other end, but what about all the steps in between?
Sakurako Shimizu is a traditionally trained jeweler who holds an interest in new media arts. These divided worlds collide in her "Waveform Jewelry". She mines the data of digital audio recording for the strange shapes that appear on her brooches and necklaces. To most of us looking at the jagged pieces of precious metal, we see what appears to be an abstract slash mark. A sound engineer would recognize that these 'abstract' shapes are part of a data language - they represent snippets of recorded sound.
About how she came to this fascinating idea, Shimizu says, "In Summer 2007 I was invited to participate in a group exhibition at Dorsky Curatorial in Long Island City. I decided to create a new body of work for the show. Then I wanted to try to make jewelry using the shape of sound waveform. I used a free sound editing software “Audacity” to visualize the sound.
For this exhibition, I made three brooches made with the sound of human expressions such as yawn, sneeze, and somebody said “wow”. A necklace “giggle” was made with a sound of a girl laughing. I also made a pair of earrings with a voice said “right ear” and “left ear”. A bell sound of a Church in Europe from digital sound archive was used to make a silver cuff bracelet “Bell”. A DVD player and a monitor was installed in the exhibition for the audience to enjoy both the object and the actual video of a sound wave played back.
In 2008, I extended the project to custom made wedding bands with waveform of a couple’s own voices. “I Do” project offered a unique opportunity to own a timeless representation of your partner’s voice. (Usually a couple wear a ring made with each other’s voice.)"
Sakurako Shimizu is a traditionally trained jeweler who holds an interest in new media arts. These divided worlds collide in her "Waveform Jewelry". She mines the data of digital audio recording for the strange shapes that appear on her brooches and necklaces. To most of us looking at the jagged pieces of precious metal, we see what appears to be an abstract slash mark. A sound engineer would recognize that these 'abstract' shapes are part of a data language - they represent snippets of recorded sound.
About how she came to this fascinating idea, Shimizu says, "In Summer 2007 I was invited to participate in a group exhibition at Dorsky Curatorial in Long Island City. I decided to create a new body of work for the show. Then I wanted to try to make jewelry using the shape of sound waveform. I used a free sound editing software “Audacity” to visualize the sound.
For this exhibition, I made three brooches made with the sound of human expressions such as yawn, sneeze, and somebody said “wow”. A necklace “giggle” was made with a sound of a girl laughing. I also made a pair of earrings with a voice said “right ear” and “left ear”. A bell sound of a Church in Europe from digital sound archive was used to make a silver cuff bracelet “Bell”. A DVD player and a monitor was installed in the exhibition for the audience to enjoy both the object and the actual video of a sound wave played back.
In 2008, I extended the project to custom made wedding bands with waveform of a couple’s own voices. “I Do” project offered a unique opportunity to own a timeless representation of your partner’s voice. (Usually a couple wear a ring made with each other’s voice.)"
For more, visit http://sakurakoshimizu.blogspot.com/
or email info@sakurakoshimizu.com
so awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat piece of artwork. Creating something unique is a great think. Its look classic.
ReplyDelete