Breathing Chaos is a new installation work by media artist Sachiko Kodama. A small, black mountain grows organically in the glow of many small candles. The heat of the candles let the mountain move as if it were breathing. The mountain is however, made up of competely inorganic matter; it is a fluid formed by ferro magnetic micro-powder dissolved in a solvent; and it is designed to transform, creating a very sensitive chaos.

This summer I saw Protrude, Flow at Ars Electronica Center / Linz (Austria) and was I was totally fascinated by it. A black magnetic fluid is transformed by the interaction with environmental sound. The sounds (created by voices of visitors, for example) are caught by a microphone, a computer converts the sound amplitude to electromagnetic voltage which determines the strength of the magnetic field. At the same time, the magnetic fluid changes its patterns sequentially. Each pattern appears synchronized to the environmental sound, the points of the shapes move correspondingly and the magnetic fluid pulsates according to the sound.

“Breathing Chaos” is exhibited at Telic, 975 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, through February 27, 2005.

Via Art Future.