This past Saturday, I went to an exhibit in the Hayes Valley Market called “The Most Powerful Sound”. The description of the event said that the pieces were inspired by “scientific sonic phenomena such as infrasound and sonoluminescence”. The gallery consisted of a motley collection of art, sound, and technology. A lot of the artwork I saw were post-modernistic, and some very abstract.
Some of the interesting pieces were books (which were almost zine-like in nature) that were accompanied by sounds. You’re instructed to listen to a specific audio segment while digesting the printed material. Other pieces were videos accompanied by (usually eerie) sounds, live sound work by two people who were blowing a hairdryer into a microphone and using potential differences in antennas to produce truly bizarre sounds, a room with barious bottles to bang on, and a puzzling golden foam ball hanging from the ceiling.
All in all, it was an interesting evening. The fence along the market was set up to be an impromptu art gallery where any artist could put their piece up for sale. A young girl had put one of her pieces up (probably with an encouraging word from the mother) and actually got it sold. When she found out, she wasn’t very happy, saying that she wanted it back.