harmonium

harmonium is a 4 movement video/audio work exploring the nature of sound as vibration. Consisting of a wide range of video and audio material from the analog and digital realms, harmonium presents a cohesive language of sound and image impossible to articulate verbally, but derived deeply from the natural world. As with all Sinha’s work, it is a meditation, demanding a calm and mindful focus to fully participate.

harmonium also has a life as a live cinema performance. Utilizing the vocabulary of club based DJ/VJ performance, the audio and video of the work is deconstructed and improvised with, creating an experience lying parallel to but outside of club culture. The live cinema experience of harmonium, which also incorporates material played live on the instrument of the same name, draws on the same vocabulary and material as the screening version, but is a dynamic response to the moment and the space. Each experience of the live cinema project is unique to the performance, with no 2 performances the same.
A rough documentation of one such performance is here:
vimeo.com/16843950

harmonium was created with the support of a Quebecor/Banff New Media Institute Fellowship Award, during a residency at the Banff New Media Institute, August/September 2008. Thanks to Susan Kennard, Steve Wollard, Lindsay McDonald, Geoff Shoesmith, and Jutta Brendemuehl.

Art Gallery of Ontario, Walker Court, Toronto, 2011 (live cinema version)
Latin Canadian Cultural Festival, Toronto, 2010 (live cinema version)
SoundImageSound VII, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA, 2010 (single channel version)
PlazaPlus Internationaal Kunstfestival, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 2010 (single channel version)
Dishoom Festival of South Asian Art, Toronto, 2009 (live cinema version)
Indian Electronica Festival, Toronto, 2009 (live cinema version)
Soundplay Festival of Sound and Video Art, Toronto, 2009 (single channel version)
ExIS Festival of Video Art, Seoul, Korea, 2009/2010 (live cinema version, invitation extended, unable to attend)