Sabina Hyoju Ahn

“Sonomatter” is a sound installation and performance that transforms the bioelectrical signal from microorganisms to sound. The work starts with building a Winogradsky Column, making a small ecosystem with mud and water— generating the electric signal with a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), and measuring voltage from microorganisms that are formed in mud. As time proceeds, the microbes will create electricity and eventually die when they lack nutrients; the designed bioelectricity-controlled-oscillator circuit consumes the (bioelectrical) energy to control the sound of the oscillator. This process illustrates a circular relationship between life and death, as life and death share same material(mud). Interaction between organic matter and natural phenomena—such as soil, water, respiration and oxidation, symbiotic relationship in a microcosm—imply poetics in the microbial sphere. The project is thus not only a metaphorical exploration of the interaction between living matter and natural phenomena, but it also explores the domain of energy harvesting and generating clean energy. The audience is invited to experience the sound from real-time microbial data with handmade bioelectricity-controlled-oscillator circuits. https://sabi.hotglue.me/

This work takes a closer look at the relationship between machine and a natural element. The bioluminescent algae, "P.fusiformis" visualize frequencies higher than 28kHz that cannot be perceived by human auditory perception. When the frequency of inaudible sound penetrates through the bioluminescent algae, each cell visualizes the inaudible sound by glowing themselves. At the same time, the moment of shining also means the death of the cell. Because the ultrasonic waves travel through the plankton and work like a sonic gun, easily breaking the cells. https://vimeo.com/245046372

Breath is an interactive light and sound installation/performance, operated by human breath. As a wind instrument, this work has been developed to control sound and light with human breathing, made of DIY circuits and e-wastes. Breath uses amorphous energy from the human body and transforms it into different shapes: breathe to light and sound, vitalising an inorganic object. Human respiration is visualised by dimming bulbs, activates the machine and involves functioning. The piece has been made of electronic junks such as old telephone’s microphone and old PC’s metal frame to illustrate new life from the dead devices and to allude a transformable relationship between human/natural element and machine. http://sabinaworks.tumblr.com/post/141095428795/breath-2016

Breath is an interactive light and sound installation/performance, operated by human breath. As a wind instrument, this work has been developed to control sound and light with human breathing, made of DIY circuits and e-wastes. Breath uses amorphous energy from the human body and transforms it into different shapes: breathe to light and sound, vitalising an inorganic object. Human respiration is visualised by dimming bulbs, activates the machine and involves functioning. The piece has been made of electronic junks such as old telephone’s microphone and old PC’s metal frame to illustrate new life from the dead devices and to allude a transformable relationship between human/natural element and machine. http://sabinaworks.tumblr.com/post/141095428795/breath-2016

Breath is an interactive light and sound installation/performance, operated by human breath. As a wind instrument, this work has been developed to control sound and light with human breathing, made of DIY circuits and e-wastes. Breath uses amorphous energy from the human body and transforms it into different shapes: breathe to light and sound, vitalising an inorganic object. Human respiration is visualised by dimming bulbs, activates the machine and involves functioning. The piece has been made of electronic junks such as old telephone’s microphone and old PC’s metal frame to illustrate new life from the dead devices and to allude a transformable relationship between human/natural element and machine. http://sabinaworks.tumblr.com/post/141095428795/breath-2016

Sublunary Echo is an interactive installation that uses bioluminescent phytoplankton (P. fusiformis) as a material. This piece makes a feedback loop between natural elements, humans and machines, alluding to the symbiotic relationship and cycle with a different type of energy. Spectators are invited to a space that can interact with living light particles and explore the sound of microorganism. [MicroNarrative] The material I used is microbial bioluminescent plankton that can produce light only in their night cycle when they are agitated. The shining living water will visualize sound in the air; voice and light particles are sonified. When we are looking through a microscope, we can see a lot of intriguing shapes of life. We probably can imagine a story of the life. With using software and hardware, we can see a narrative of the very primitive natural elements. Also, water is the origin of all kinds of life that contains some spiritual or emotional inspiration to this work. But mostly, among those themes, this work is aiming to communicate with organic creature and to see how they can interact with us and how technology can analyze them. sublunaryecho.tumblr.com

Sonic laser has been developed to make a live sound animation with three colors of laser pointers (R, G , B). This work visualises different colors of laser pointer and triggers sound when the program detected each colors; sound and lght are interrelated together to be interacting with each other. Also, the light particle is converted into vector image so audience can watch animated moving colored particle depends on the laser pointer’s color. Devices such as webcamera and project makes feed back loop to make generative system automatically. In this work, flickering light (laser) makes some narrative by moving simple circles and lines with just simple devices and computer vision technology. http://soniclaserspace.tumblr.com/post/118402036447/sonic-laser

This is an interactive audiovisual piece that creates a super network system. Two different networks and elements make scale-free networks by adding their classes. The connections are created alongside the algorithm that calculates the nearest nodes and sound is generated by positions of nodes. This work is motivated by scale free network and small world network in social and biological levels such as microorganism or bloodvassels in living beings. This structure is expanding unlimitely from hub of the local clusters. https://vimeo.com/130054284

Fractal is a series of interactive animations, mainly for big scale of projection mapping on a facade. This work is based on the L-system algorithm from fractal and Chaos theory from nature. Based on the L-system fomular, I modified numbers and parmeters to visualise it - the moving image makes recursive patterns and keeps looping in realtime. Also, this program has some interactive functions related to sound and directions. https://vimeo.com/116720471#at=0