Logan Phillips’ art show, “Sound: A living matter”
By Brittany Butler
Senior Features Writer
Logan Phillips’ senior art show, “Sound: A living matter” is not a collection of paintings, pottery or photographs. Located in the Old Grille Gallery, the show transfers the viewer into an entirely different world.
“I’m not entirely sure how the public has reacted,” said Phillips.
“It seems split between people that find fear or discomfort from the sound and others who seem rather interested.”
“Sound: a living matter” consists of sounds composed by Phillips and the images they produce.
The vibrations from a speaker box create an image in plates of water of water placed directly above the box.
A camera placed above the plates sends the image to a projector, creating an ever-moving white image on a black background. The composition of the image changes with the pitch, rhythm and dynamic of Philips’ composition.
His sounds consist of high-pitched tones overlapping with deep, sonorous bass tones. When there is more variation in sound, there is more variation in the image. Phillips wants his audience to notice this variation in sound and its effect. “The patterns are there, but not seen until viewed correctly,” he said. “I am simply presenting these patterns in a specified way. Creating my own music was a way to convey emotion in a purposeful way.”
By composing the music himself, Phillips had the freedom to express his interpretation of feeling, which he accomplished with “raw moment-to-moment reactionary sound.”
To some viewers, the extremely loud sound may have been off-putting when they first entered the Old Grille Gallery. The shrieks and the moans of the instruments may even be described as creepy. Yet moments later it’s suddenly clear that Phillips is illustrating a beauty that people don’t see every day. Sound, something we hear can literally be viewed with our eyes. “It is about escaping into the present, and having the guts to leave your limitations behind,” said Phillips.