All We Leave Behind
Nathan McNinch – 2008
Nathan McNinch writes: “All we leave behind was originally conceived of as the sequel to a project I have been working on since 2004, even in a crowd, i was always alone. This was originally intended to be single project which examined both the physical and mental or perhaps philosophical nature of human need for interaction and companionship, manifested in a series of recordings documenting the physical properties of the human voice–verbal communication being the most common form of communication–and recordings made in communal spaces. While developing even in a crowd… I dropped the physical aspect of my explorations. All we leave behind in many ways picks up where I left off in my exploration into the physical need for interaction.”
Technical:
The installation is composed of a large number of small glass bottles filled with tonic water (which produces a slight blue glow when exposed to ultra violet light) A UV (ultra violet) LED (light emitting diode) is attached to the underside of the cap, slightly submerged in the tonic water. The LEDs are connected to a simple circuit by a length of scattered wires. The simple circuit turns the LEDs on and off based on the input volume of the audio signal, similar to the circuit commonly found in stereo systems/mixing boards which feature a gain display. The audio controlling the LEDs can be heard in the space through several small speakers connected directly to portable cd players. The audio piece is specifically created for this circuit to give the lights a somewhat random looking flickering quality that is more organic. The LEDs are also placed randomly instead of in order (based on the outputs of the circuit, so the number of lit bottles do not increase sequentially as the volume increases).
Number of cells (Verona Nectar bottles) and audio channels variable, determined by size of space work is to be shown in.
About the Artists
Nathan McNinch
Nathan McNinch is not just a one-trick pony. Composer and musician, but also designer, student, and creator of the petite sono] label and the online arts journal/gallery ‘n’fold’, he’s concerned with contemporary creation and participates actively on the scene.