steve roden
finding words in notes (music for 6 hands), 2006
solo exhibition: studio la citta, verona, italy, april 2006

"finding words in notes" came out of the idea of the connection and separation of the notes on the lines and spaces of the musical staff. the small sculpture uses the notes on the spaces - f,a,c,e - to determine its structure, while the larger sculpture uses the notes on the lines - e,g,b,d,f. their colored stems are based on research on synesthesia and the various color to musical note equivalents i could find. the quilt uses a translation system informed by the combination of line and space notes for its visual structure. the sound composition works within this idea of the separation yet connectedness of the lines and spaces in that the speaker near the small sculpture plays a composition made from the sounds of the space notes on a piano; while the speaker near the larger sculpture plays a composition made from the sounds of the line notes. these compositions are of different lengths, and interact with each other as a slowly shifting third composition made up of the two. i was interested in the idea of combined parts fitting at times comfortably and at times uncomfortably together - the lines and spaces (and hence every note combination between them), as well as the collision of sculptural objects, hand crafts, and sound...

the quilt is 30" x 60" and was made by susan roden (my mom). sculptures are wood with polyurethane and acrylic paint. sound composition was created from field recordings of my cousin's piano.

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