Pipes have their ways is an installation and sound machine which brings the public in a playful, civic ritual centered around the creation of soundscapes which relate to the architecture environment. By mixing ancient pipe organ making technics and the use of modern DIY methods, this work honors the history of techniques as much as our intelligence in freely recomposing from it.
The installation is an infrastructure for air and sound. Parts such as bellows, wood structures and sounding instruments made of PVC pipes are connected through hoses and pipes which allow the air to travel through the interrelated elements. Between them are interactive objects which function like “gates” to let the air flow or not into the sound instruments. Working like drawers, those objects inspire a playful way of making sound with air as they can be easily manipulated by a simple push or pull gesture.
Due to his long experience of opera singing, the role of the body in Emile Demerliac’s design practice is central. Alike his body, Pipes have their ways turns the air into sound. The installation is made of common construction materials such as PVC pipes, hoses, venting hoods and venting fans. Emile Demerliac suggests, we can consider those materials are like the insides of the buildings we live, like their guts. The mechanical and industrial aspect of this work is turned alive thanks to the air, the pneuma in ancient Greek, which means both air, breath and spirit.
