Ware all unique like every falling raindrop is unique but such uniqueness is often underestimated and ignored. In this interactive installation, these uniqueness emerge with tangible shapes. By pouring water into a ceramic water harp, people find their uniqueness of their gestures through different sounds. The shape of water harp is formed based on the rain statics in Eindhoven, so one can see simultaneously the uniqueness of this world in different shapes and scale. In this project, the designer regards himself as "a translator" who creates tools to turn intangible values in ourselves into something tangible, because he believes that the key for improving a quality of life is not obtaining something new but knowing how to see what you already have.
The project "Underrepresented Uniqueness" was presented at MOONSHOTS: EXIT STRATEGY EXHIBITION (Jan. 28-30 2022, De Fabriek, Baarsstraat 38, 5615 RG Eindhoven).
Precipitation data in Eindhoven was used as parameters of 3D model of water harp. Inside 3D software (rhinoceros 3d, grasshopper), such parameters controlled both texture pattern and depth. Once the 3D model got generated, it's printed by 3D printer. Then, with that 3D printed model a plaster mould was created and a ceramic version of the water harp appears via slip casting technique. By using organic material, ceramic for translating rain static data, every single water harp is different even though based on the exact same data. This means that every water harp sound is unique and different from each other.
In some Japanese traditional gardens, you hear high pitch but beautiful sounds from the ground. These sounds come from resonance of a water drop hit a water surface inside a vessel under the ground. This is called Suikinkutsu (水琴窟), water harp. This water harp is a part of water drain system in the garden and it's hidden under the ground, but in this project the designer focused on its structure and the process of how sounds are generated and created the sound installation.
One of the beautiful aspects of Suikinkutsu is its uniqueness of sounds. Every time a water drops hits the water surface inside the vessel, its droplet size and the volume of its empty space are different because it's a part of water drain system and the situation differs day by day. Thus, every single sound cannot be the same. Like a water drop falling differently each time, different people pour water differently because they have their own unique gestures. In order to enhance such uniqueness, this installation invites people to pour water into the water harp with one of the three distinctive shaped pouring cups, which gently force people to hold and pour water differenty.
