under [your] clear shadow

Generative 8-channel sound installation.
Dimensions: variable. Duration: undetermined.

under [your] clear shadow explores the evocative elements of language as a detonator of experiences. Through selected words, the piece invites the listener—whose condition is blindness or visual impairment—to encounter language as verbally and sensorially evocative. The notion of a sound work consisting of words, appealing to a non-cochlear sonic art practice, is at the centre of under [your] clear shadow.

The deconstruction of Octavio Paz’s poem Under your clear shadow (1935–1944) is the origin of this generative 8-channel sound piece. In under [your] clear shadow, nouns were selected and extracted from the original poem and later recorded and randomly reproduced in a different order. Every noun was numbered, and the total set of 294 substantives was reorganised into four channels: 74 nouns in each of the first two channels and 73 in each of the other two, forming a 4-channel sound piece mirrored on a second floor as a sonic reflection.

Documentation: Taller de Arquitectura/Mauricio Rocha. Artwork commissioned for the National Library–Ciudadela. Curator Manuel Rocha Iturbide. Mexico City.

Stereo sound sample.
Duration: 15:32 minutes.
URL: https://on.SoundCloud.com/Vg2ce8dzEDSKL3tc8