Monica Herrera‘s interactive sound installation, Strings turned the Cleve Carney Gallery into a temporary, walk-in instrument. Strings from various found instruments will be suspended from the ceilings, walls, and floor of the gallery making a visual and aural composition. The installation enveloped the space in sound-producing sculptures, allowing audience members to create music as they walk through and explore the space.
Participants entering the installation became both producers and listeners as they walked through, plucked, played, and listened in the space. Participants entering the installation became both producers and listeners as they walked through, plucked, played, and listened in the space. By enlarging (and exposing) the typically enclosed and inaccessible interior of an instrument to human-scale, the artwork places the public inside the instrument where the sound is being produced. Strings also embraced creative participation and encourages the audience-turned-performers to play the strings together to make melodies. Herrera has arranged and tuned the strings in such a manner that harmonies can be produced more easily when played simultaneously.
