Felippe Moraes
Composição Aleatória (Random Composition), 2019
Brushed metal, wood, painted steel sheet and steel cable
165 × 395 × 96 cm (each)
About the work
The series Composição Aleatória (Random Composition, 2019) was first presented in 2019 in the solo exhibition Solfejo, held at Centro Cultural FIESP, São Paulo. The installation was conceived specifically for the exhibition space and proposes a collective sonic experience based on audience participation.
The work consists of a structure made up of eight suspended nets that function simultaneously as swings and musical instruments. Each net corresponds to a musical note of the diatonic scale. The seven traditional notes are accompanied by an additional C belonging to the upper octave, completing the set of eight tones.
The swings are connected to sound tubes and metal clappers that vibrate and resonate as they are set in motion. The structure turns the simple gesture of swinging into an act of musical production.
Composição Aleatória (2019) at the solo exhibition Solfejo (2019), Centro Cultural FIESP.
Participation and audience activation
In Composição Aleatória (2019), the audience does not occupy only the position of observer. Visitors become an active part of how the work functions. By sitting on the nets or setting them in motion, their bodies activate the sound devices that make up the installation.
Each movement produces different vibrations in the tubes and bells. The intensity of the gestures alters the frequency and duration of the sounds produced. The exhibition space then becomes filled with a musical composition in constant transformation.
The sonic experience depends on the presence and choices of visitors. One person might choose to swing intensely and generate a more pronounced note, while another might simply lean back and produce a discreet sound. Each action interferes with the overall configuration of the composition.
Music, chance and collective composition
The work investigates the relationship between music, chance and collective participation. The structure offers a limited set of musical notes, but the possible combinations between them are practically infinite.
As more people approach the installation, new sonic layers come to occupy the space. The notes may form gentle harmonies or dissonant encounters. At times, a kind of shared melody emerges among participants. At other times, the sounds scatter into unpredictable rhythms.
This dynamic turns the exhibition environment into a space of spontaneous musical experimentation. Each activation of the work generates a different composition that exists only for the duration of the interaction.
Body, space and sound
The structure of the installation brings together practices from sound art, sculpture and performance. Visitors come to perceive their own bodies as agents that produce sound.
The swings create a physical relationship between movement and vibration. The gesture of swinging directly alters the acoustic behavior of the tubes and bells. Sound becomes the result of a dialogue between body, gravity, matter and space.
In this sense, Composição Aleatória turns the exhibition space into a sensory field where sculpture and music meet. The work proposes a reflection on how collective experiences can generate complex structures from simple gestures.
Each visitor takes part in an ongoing process of sonic creation. The installation does not present a fixed composition. It exists as an open system that continuously reorganizes itself through human presence.
This process reinforces the work’s temporal dimension. Each moment lived within the installation is unique and cannot be repeated in the same way. The encounters between sounds depend on the coincidence of human presences, movements and distinct rhythms. In this way, the composition that emerges in the space is always transitory, built collectively and dissolved shortly after, remaining only in the memory of the participants who shared that sonic experience.
Selected Exhibitions
- 2019 – Solfejo – Centro Cultural FIESP (São Paulo, Brasil)
- 2019 – Árvore: A Tragédia da Paisagem – Praça Adolfo Bloch (São Paulo, Brasil)