What could be the material imagination of air? Sound is one of the principle ways in which air, which cannot be seen, may be imagined. For air is the carrier of sound and, as such, almost always implicated in the thought of sound, especially the organised sounds we call music. It is sound in air, the sounded and sounding air, that our hearing has evolved to detect and that provides a reference for much of our thinking about music. In this sense, all musical compositions are airs, and all musical instruments wind instruments. Thinking of the sounding air, the air in its sonorous aspect, reveals a dimension or accent of the air (Steve Connor 2007 ‘Sound and the Pathos of the Air’).

‘AIR’FINITE’ is a performative sound sculpture realised in collaboration with Emanuele Porcinai.
Premiered as an 8 channel sound installation at Frei-Raum.Berlin in December 2024.
It transforms air into a tangible and dynamic medium through an ensemble of weather balloons, each equipped with reeds and played via a custom-built electro-mechanical system.
The balloons, normally used as scientific tools, are repurposed as musical instruments and sculptural objects symbolizing both the beauty and fragility of air. In constant act of morphing and reshaping , through deflation of the balloons and the corresponding sonic transformation we witness air becoming both audible and visually graspable.
This piece explores the finiteness of air—the very substance we breathe – and engages with the idea of air as a hyperobject—a concept from speculative realism that refers to systems so vast and complex that they transcend our usual modes of understanding. ‘Air’Finite’ may encourage us to reflect on concepts of environmental fragility, air pollution, and the increasingly precarious relationship between humans and the natural world.

NEXT :
‘Air’FINITE’ will be shown as part of group exhibition ‘8ight’ in Kunsterhaus Bethanien, Kreuzberg Berlin 31.01-05.02.2025

The project is currently under further research and development, to be staged as an experimental opera piece in May 2025.
More details soon.