When it Rains - Gordon Monahan

When it Rains

1st exhibition: New Music Concerts, Gallery One2One, Toronto, 2000.

This is an automated sound sculpture environment consisting of 32 midi-controlled water valves dripping onto 24 suspended objects (small metal and plastic objects). Each object has a contact pick-up attached to it so that when a drop of water lands on the object, the resonance of that object is amplified through a PA system (mixer/amplifier/loudspeakers).

Pre-programmed musical sequences ‘play’ the water valves. The sequences are musical compositions which consist of midi-notes played in rhythmic patterns, where each note triggers a 40-millisecond pulse that causes a corresponding valve to open just long enough to form a drop of water. This drop then falls approximately 1 to 2 meters and lands on the object that is suspended below it.

photos by Jamie Osborne