ROBERT JACOBSEN

Robert Jacobsen’s work is a liaison between kinetics and sound. He combines all kinds of materials, including accidental finds or objets trouvés. Some of the installations created with these materials hang suspended in space. The piece shown here, “Drum – Cymbal – Mobile,” consists of a bass drum with a transparent blue resonating chamber on one end and a cymbal attached to the other. Both instruments merge together in an accurately counterbalanced object to form a sound sculpture. A fan winds the mobile for two minutes, then stops, and the mobile turns in the opposite direction. The transparent blue of the drum circles through the room in the process and seems to chase after the cymbal. The percussion is controlled through an accurately timed relay system that in turn actives the motors. With a few precisely placed beats on the drum and cymbal that keep modulating slightly in the rhythm, Jacobsen succeeds in filling the space with a sound that comes across as minimalistic. A different sculpture, “The Timpani-Player,” plays a composition by a virtual musician whose playing on the skin of the timpani is projected. Two felt drumsticks softly accompany the music.

artist’s biography