aqueous is a meditative space that encourages perception of small things.

On entering the installation, visitors are greeted by a very dark room. After adapting to the darkness, one begins to see lights near the floor and on the ceiling allowing tentative exploration of the space. Soft but resonant water sounds appear to to come from every part of the space, inviting further investigation of the sound and light sources. As the sound gains and loses musicality, perception catches glimpses of tonal, rhythmic and spatial patterns. Light emitting from the tubes carries with it echoes of the sonic events, creating a soft animated glow on the ceiling. The installation reveals itself slowly; the duration of visit greatly affects the experience.

Water droplets fall from the ceiling through the installation space into 25 water-filled tubes that are approximately tuned in an equal-temperament scale spanning two octaves. Each tube sits inside a water vessel to collect excess water and is lit from the bottom by an LED, creating a glow of light on the ceiling that shimmers and flickers when the water surface is distorted. The release of droplets is hidden above the ceiling, allowing the ceiling to act as a canvas.

The actuation of the droplets is controlled by a computer program, whose algorithm constructs note sequences that resemble noise at times and music at other times. The installation is imbued with musicality through the use of rhythmic and tonal structure. But because of the physics of the installation, the volume and timbre of each drop vary since the droplets do not always fall in the same exact location. Perturbations during droplet formation, atmospheric disturbances and water surface conditions inside the tube all affect the nature of the resultant sound. The chance occurrence in aqueous is a combination of computed randomness and nature.

The installation is centrally-controlled by a computer running a Processing applet. At the heart of the algorithm is a single variable that determines whether the installation will seem more noise-like or music-like. This noise coefficient is nominally in the noise range, but occasionally surges towards more coherence, allowing the visitors to catch glimpses of musicality. The program follows a basic twelve-tone scale system to construct the sequence of notes. Each note is usually determined independently, only taking into account the previous note played as the program chooses a random note from a set of permissible notes. There are also musical, rhythmical and spatial patterns built into the program that are occasionally activated to provide patterns that are unlikely or impossible for the algorithm to generate by itself.

Above each tube hidden in a false-ceiling is a one-gallon water reservoir (approx. 24 hours supply) connected to a solenoid valve. When a droplet is needed, the solenoid valves open long enough for a droplet to form.

A micro-controller circuit acts as a mediator between the computer and the water valves.