The Sound of the Unsoundable Sound

A Poetic Injustice

This is a hyper-anachronistic allegorical metaphysical time piece.

Its origins reside in the stage direction from Anton Chekov’s play The Cherry Orchard. An unusual stage direction that invites us to

consider a string breaking with the resultant sound being one that “dies away sadly.” After that sound is heard, nothing else is.

How, in fact, would one make the sound of a sad string breaking? If it were to break, might it mean the end of everything – literally

everything?

Is there a sound that connects us in a visceral or a primordial way to our base instincts for survival? What would alert us? What would

get our attention? I suggest the rattle of a rattlesnake may connect in this very way. It may surprise us to realize we have been awakened

from our complacency.

Perhaps a vision of the broken Garden can be seen if we focus our attention inside the Time Projection Chamber [to view the] and

Corrupted Data Disc turning the tables in a Counter Revolutionary way. This just may carry this Blue More E Fish in Sea through to a better day.

What if I told you that all of the elements incorporated in this machine were recycled scrap, re-purposed items, and represented other

things entirely? If you conclude that these things were not randomly associated, you would be correct. It is all intentional. You might say

everything, even the Thimble may Thimble-lies other things, he said with a lisp.

The collection of material for this piece extends over a period of about 20 years. The special coalescence that has occurred took place

about 90 days ago as of this writing. Up unto that point, the work was in a state of not having form or content.

An inventory of materials and related ephemera:

• Rattlesnake rattle found in a violin body given to me by a friend 15 years ago.
• Violin scroll and finger board from the violin mentioned above.
• Vibrating cell phone motor from American Science & Surplus (AS&S) purchased in 1997.
• Glass tubing from AS&S purchased approximately eight years ago.
• Stainless steel machined part at the base of the rattle assembly from Argonne National Laboratory, originally part of an electron microscope.
• Infrared sensor. A robot part purchased three years ago.
• Electronics donated by a friend to help the cell phone motor work.
• Glass table top donated by a friend.
• Miscellaneous stainless steel surplus from previous projects.
• ½” water jet cut letters from ‘Read Them Like A Book’ sculpture residing at St. Charles Public Library.
• Double-bass string from my son Alex’ acoustical upright double-bass.
• Corrupted Data Disc from a U.S. Government computer.
• Broken ½” thick glass cylinder from AS&S originally part of a piece made for the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva.
• ½ of hard-headed old goat skull
• The word ‘Extinction’ scattered through the ‘machine’, as defined by Webster’s Third International Dictionary.
• Slide rule from a friend who’s father used it in his work as an architect.
• Ratchet from my father’s tool box.
• Blue More E Fish in Sea from his mother Earth.
• Magnifying lens from AS&S
• X-ray fragment from my mother-in-law’s medical records.
• Surgical towel, a softer side of a clinical apparatus.
• Ashes in a vial, remains of friend or a ‘small measure of a man’.
• Broken lantern slide of the ‘Garden’ from the Theosophical Society in America.
• A rose petal.
• A coin with a famous explorer in profile depicted. A Conquistador. This never works out.
• A felt heart stuffed in the Thimble-lies.
• 2 mm glass beads. See again Webster’s Third International Dictionary.
• Solar cell from brother’s outdoor display that was replaced by something more grand and illuminating.
• Two (2) watch glasses comprising the ‘Garden Orb’. Watch OUT!
• Down tubes for going down.