Carena is a soundscape interactive sound installation. The hull (carena in Italian), in the nautical field is the part of a boat that remains in the water, below the waterline. In contact with water, it amplifies the lapping and every slight sound or creak coming from the boat itself and from the surrounding environment. Expectation, surprise, inertia, stillness, immobility are all aspects on which the concept of Carena is based.
Carena is an autonomous sound installation, but it also bears witness to and contains a prior study of the soundscape chosen as its object of exploration. This soundscape is conveyed, transmitted, and ultimately restituted through the installation itself. Expectation, surprise, inertia, stillness and immobility are among the key elements underlying the conception of Carena. The work explores these conditions as perceptual and compositional states, shaping an experience in which listening unfolds through suspension and subtle shifts in attention.
The installation consists of an external ring of loudspeakers, while each panel of the boat’s hull becomes a sound source through the use of exciters. This creates a form of sound projection that closely recalls the acoustic perception experienced inside a sailing boat, where sound is transmitted and resonated through the structure of the hull itself. The rudder is the only interactive element of the installation. The collective experience of the work can therefore be altered by the individual choice of the person who takes their place “at the helm”, introducing a simple but consequential form of agency into the shared listening experience.
Developed with the contribution of the residency program PiGro by Tempo Reale