The Harmonizer

by: Orion Fredericks

First computer generated model of the Harmonizer's final form.

Stage One:

Stainless Steel Structure, Water and Light Elements

22' x 7'

Complete 4/23/06

Special Thanks To:

Micheal Maes, Grant Irish, Ryon Gesink, Becky Tarbotton, Zach Wetzel, James Green, Kevin Guanna, Ralph, Gimpy, Coachella and Nimby

The renaissance crashed upon the minds and lives of millions of people as a culmination of hope and fear. Hope in the emergence of new ideas and fear about how these new ideas would change their lives forever. From the invention of the printing press to the demystification of the human body, techniques of expression and invention transformed the ordinary at an alarming rate to those rooted in the middle ages and preparing them for the future of the modern era.

For the first time colored light bathed the faces of those who sought connection with the spirit and had the chance to experience the beauty of stained glass.
Answers long unsolved were now being empirically studied recorded and printed.
The works of great minds were adding dimensional depth to all forms of visual, audible, and physical communication. This enabled the discovery of the “Golden Section’.

The "Golden Section" is associated with every part of life, from art to the biological, physiological, neurological, chemical and astral processes. These connections point out the obvious oneness between our own physiological natures, the world we live in and what we praise as beauty. In the second half of the 20th century the idea of the Universe in harmony was put into the forefront in the mathematical study of nature. Modern scientific discoveries concerning the Golden Section (quasi-crystals, resonance theory of the Solar system, the new geometric theory of phyllotaxis, structural harmony of systems, etc.) realized in wonders of the world such as the Cheops pyramid, provided proof of the most astonishing scientific hypothesis: that the golden section is the fundamental proportion of the Universe.

This was a time of bonding, for humanity to realize the potential of our hopes and the confidence to overcome our fears. I see the same cycle at our feet now.

With this in mind I propose to build a living monolith of harmony, called the Harmonizer, by bringing new visceral and dimensional depth to an instrument evolved from the 12th century that is a symbol of the “Golden Section” and an ode to our own renaissance and future. This transformation of the Hurdy Gurdy marks an important step towards my intention and facilitation of art providing a space for people to create new language for communication so that we evolve in harmony as a community around it.

I have been working for fourteen years to evolve myself and the materials I work with to bring a new dimension to the audiences’ experience of relearning language.
Whether it be a way of seeing or associating, I want to provide you with the opportunity of returning to a point in life where you do not remember the effects of our culture in the shaping of how we “normally see.” For me, this point is primordial and timeless – a place of metaphysical observance and clarity of our own cosmological birth.

Together with my experience of creating participatory spaces for people to interact with sound in new ways I will combine two foundations of knowledge:

·The proven acoustical dynamics of the Hurdy Gurdy
·The principle of the Fibinanci ratio and the golden mean

To achieve two main principles:

1. Transformation of any urban environment into a balanced harmonious place of healing and neurological evolvement.

2. An opportunity for any individual or living thing to evolve and find balance, providing them the support to act with universal, positive intent throughout the rest of their existence.

City centers and urban environments buzz and thrive with a wide band of frequency energy and noise that confuses and disrupts the nervous system. Automotive and municipal traffic, florescent lights, VHF and UHF radio frequencies, microwaves and high voltage lines are some of these disruptive, invisible culprits. There is a constant bombardment of these detrimental vibrations on the mental, psychic and emotional core of millions of people. The balance to this urban frequency is what the Harmonizer will bring.

Sensory Description

The Harmonizer utilizes frequencies and tones within the ratio of the golden mean to stimulate energy centers in the body as well as Theta brain waves. While the Alfa and Beta brainwave frequency is associated with waking consciousness the Theta wave is a place of deep sleep, meditation and clarity. These radiating tones and frequencies will relax, sooth and balance all within audible range of this monolith of harmony. Some of these frequencies and tones will also be visible as ripples in the water or fire that can flow over the resonating chamber of the Harmonizer collecting in a basin at its waist. Lights in the basin will illuminate the water and reflect off the mirror like stainless of the resonance chamber to project a wide spectrum of light. In a thirty-foot radius around the Harmonizer are six scroll chairs for participants to rest and absorb the soothing, primordial harmony.

The Harmonizer will cycle in seven days of its placement through a series of tones and neuro-feedback, balancing its environment. Each day the instrument will focus on a harmonic tone associated with an energy center or “chakra” in the body. On the first day at sunrise the first tone will be a chord of B, stimulating the base of the spine. The seventh day will be a chord of C corresponding to the crown “chakra”. These tones and harmonies will be the baseline of the environment. However the Harmonizer is also able to function autonomously without the need of an operator and react with notes, tones frequencies and harmonies to the stimulus of the environment the instrument is in. Utilizing sensors that translate other objects and participant’s proximity, light intensity, sound, and heat, the Harmonizer becomes a living instrument of the environment soothing all that encounters its presence.

The performance aspect of this piece is two fold. The Harmonizer can sing and resonate in accordance to its surrounding input of a participant’s (or anything else in the environment) light, sound, heat and proximity. Tuned to the chakra base tone of that day, the Harmonizer will interpret its exterior environment to change its frequency, rhythm and harmony, becoming a living, sculptural organism of the playa. When there is sensory chaos around the piece, it may choose to be taciturn, but when the environment chooses to heed the magnitude of substratal resonance emanating from the piece, it will cleanse the molecules of all beings.

The second performance personality of the Harmonizer will be from an analogue and digital, control station which enables an operator to play with the Harmonizer’s frequency, rhythm and harmony, sensory input sensitivity and an occasional cascade of methanol (fire) or water over the face of the resonating chamber. Regardless of its surroundings the Harmonizer’s voice and presence is a symbol of strength and clarity and positive vision paralleling our lives to the eternally expanding harmonies projected from this monolithic symbol of our bright future.

Physical Description

The Harmonizer will stand twenty feet tall with a six-foot wide base radiating a wide spectrum of light from its surface and resonance from its structure.

The structure has five distinct elements. Starting at ground level, the Harmonizer will sit on six I-beams that are ten feet long apiece bolted together at a central hub that will structurally tie into the base creating a stable footprint of twenty feet in diameter. Having a low, heavy and wide footprint will secure the Harmonizer in extreme weather conditions without the need for the added, public obstacle of exterior rigging. This I-beam structure will be recessed into the playa no more than six inches.

The base of the Harmonizer is a curved pyramid that stands five feet tall by six feet wide at the bottom. This structure houses the primary motor, gearing housings, mutes and rhythm mechanics, input sensory instruments, lighting, fuel systems, tuning systems, bearing components, and the base end of the string mechanisms.

The next element is the resonating chamber. This chamber sits on top of the base and is approximately twelve feet tall by three feet wide, made with sixteen-gage stainless steel skin and internal stainless steel ribs. The chamber contains a central shaft with a two-foot disk mounted horizontally to the center of the shaft. There are twelve primary strings tensioned from the top end of this chamber, over the spinning disk and anchored to the bottom tuning control located in the base. There are also twelve strings tensioned over the interior skin of the chamber, which act as sympathetically resonating tones when tuned in accordance with the primary strings. This enables a wide variety of range in resonance as well as the amplitude of the frequencies produced. In the center of each panel of the resonating chamber is a narrow, elliptical “f hole” which will correspond with the maximum frequency wavelength. Each string will have two actuated hammers and mutes to control levels of harmony and rhythm.

The fourth element is the water basin that sits five feet off the ground attached to the bottom of the resonating chamber. This basin collects water and methanol (a clean burning liquid fuel) and re-circulates it to the top of the resonating chamber where it falls down each face creating a skin of water or fire on the stainless exterior. When the molecular resonance of the structure is reached, the water and fire will dance and ripple as a visual example of the radiating sound waves. Combined with the mirror finish of the stainless and halogen lights inside the water basin aimed at the resonance chamber, the water will create intense, luminous spectrums of light radiating from the body of the piece.
The final element is three bronze scroll arms that extend from the top of the resonating chamber another three feet. These arms each cover the top mounting plate and access to the top bearing. These arms are an aesthetic homage to the brilliance of our human effort to touch the spirit with music from our own hearts.

The lighting of the Harmonizer installation will be two fold. A bank of three lights will sit in the basin and reflect off the mirror finish of the resonance chamber, spot lighting the piece directly. The second lighting source will be six perimeter lights that will hang and reflect off the back of the scroll chairs. This will give a sixty-foot diameter of light to caution vehicles and entice participants to rest and absorb the soothing, primordial harmony.

If you would like to fund this project or provide a performance space, please
contact me at ofredericks@hotmail.