L’Allumette qui cache la forêt

Sound artist Yann Leguay develops devices in which sound production depends directly on the energy that drives them. With Can’t See the Wood for the Trees, he explores pre-electrical modes of energy generation — steam power, spring-driven motors, gravitational energy, flywheels, and the Peltier effect — to activate electronic circuits. Developed during a residency in Sankt Georgen in the Black Forest, a major centre of mechanical music in the nineteenth century, the project sets in motion autonomous, interdependent systems akin to an archaic modular synthesiser. Situated between sculpture and experimentation, it questions the notion of efficiency while making audible the gaps between technical systems and their environment.