Cloud Art Museum Community Public Project
Immortal Vibration—Home, Sweet Home Creation Time: 2021 Size: 170x200x200cm Material: Stainless Steel
Song Jianshu: The value community formed by art and community
By Zinn
The familiar daily actions of shaking and tapping have become the trigger for art and human interaction, allowing the ethereal and crisp sound to reverberate above the community. Song Jianju's public installation "The Immortal Resonance - Lovely Home" is a mechanical music device that simulates a music box. It is placed in the center of the community square, with a concentric circle pattern on the ground, creating a sound wave effect that provides just the right suggestion for this sound-centered work.
Unexpectedly, Song Jianju's initial inspiration came from a creative experience in a mountain-surrounded rural area, where an elderly person was using a spinning wheel to fetch water, and the slow and long time revolved around the axis of the spinning wheel. So the artist used a music box driven by the same axis to let people get a piece of music through familiar actions.
After arriving at the bright and spacious community of Muyun Creek Valley, the artist had new thinking and concept upgrades. This community located on the edge of the city has genes that are half high-speed from first-tier cities and half filled with humanized rhythms and life breaths. Here, people no longer need to exchange ancient labor for material needs, but the artist still keenly perceives the inner needs of the people living here for a poetic life and a spiritual home.
The transformation from material to spiritual needs essentially has "home" as its core. Therefore, Song Jianju transformed the initial version of the device from emphasizing structure and tool-like feelings to a more smooth and soft, curved shape closer to a musical instrument, dissolving the cold and industrial atmosphere of the stainless steel material. The audience can play the melody by driving the handle or freely play the soundboard by tapping it. The deliberately exposed internal structure allows the audience to see it completely and clearly, establishing a deeper connection with the work from the moment of shaking.
Two completely different regional landscapes have given the artist different possibilities for experimentation and practice, triggering new possibilities and continuous changes in art. Song Jianju has excavated the local spiritual needs and created two textures of a work from the current cultural context and the special historical significance of the era. At the same time, art has brought long-term spiritual immersion and nourishment to the community, forming a value community between art and the community, and an organic symbiotic relationship with mutual feedback.
Song Jianshu talked about the process of creating this public artwork during the factory production and debugging phase: Initially, the workers were very confused about the purpose of this complex device when they first saw the drawings. Was it really worth going through such complex processing and manufacturing techniques just to make a sound? However, as the device was carefully considered and the sound gradually formed a melody, the master workers became increasingly involved in the optimization and adjustment of the artwork, going so far as to order or purchase special components from tens of kilometers away, and even personally modifying the precise transmission components to eliminate noise and achieve a better feel and experience. Thus, the production process at the factory became a collaborative experimental creation process between the artist and the workers, and the public nature of the artwork was not limited to the display level, as from the beginning, the artist stepped out of the personal studio to create sculpture in a public process through dialogue with different individuals and groups. The artist explored collaborative work methods and paths, and provided new models and experiences for the practice of public art creation.
Technically, the artist considered the high requirements for stability, durability, and ease of maintenance as a public artwork placed outdoors. At the same time, the device required materials that could be processed using CNC mechanical equipment, and because the sound needed to be loud and lasting, stainless steel became the primary choice of material for the artwork.
After solving the issues related to structure and form, there was still a challenge on the functional and usability level - controlling the operating speed of the device. The driving principle of the entire device is similar to that of a bicycle pedal mechanism. Without any control, when the handle is turned once, the drum also rotates once. This makes it very easy for the user (especially children) to cause injury to themselves or the device due to the loss of speed when turning the handle with excessive force. Therefore, a reduction gearbox must be used to control the speed of the drum, similar to a bicycle's gearshift, which can adjust the gear ratio to achieve the goal of reducing speed, increasing torque, and reducing force. However, it is not easy to find a machine with a suitable size and packaging that does not affect the artwork's shape. The technical staff of the Hebei Quezhi machinery team achieved this goal through modifications to a planetary gearbox. A speed ratio of 1:36 means that the handle must be turned 36 times for the drum to rotate once. This effectively controls the risk of accidents, while the cleverly designed packaging structure effectively prevents the machine from running in reverse, further improving safety.
In terms of music selection, the artist chose a melody that is familiar to the Chinese people: the theme song from the popular 1990s Chinese TV series "I Love My Family". The melody, originally named "Home, Sweet Home," is a well-known Scottish tune in the English-speaking world. It was introduced to China during the Republican era, with Chinese lyrics added and a Chinese name given, "可爱的家" (Lovely Home). The rhythm of the melody is light and soothing, with a quality that is similar to church hymns in terms of comforting the soul. As a community public art project that centers around the theme of "home," the ethereal quality of the melody is also well-suited to the sounds produced by the metal percussion.
Moreover, as a century-old classic that has stood the test of time, and with the entire installation made of highly durable and weather-resistant stainless steel, the artist immediately thought of a name for this artwork, "The Immortal Resonance." In the end, it was named "The Immortal Resonance – Home, Sweet Home," as a tribute to this classic melody. At the same time, music is the most accessible medium that strikes at the heart, and the artist also hopes that this tune will continue to resonate with the public.
Regarding his understanding of the community and public art, the artist Song Jianshu said, "The community is a narrow social sphere that embodies the myriad aspects of society. The uniqueness of the Muyun Creek Valley community lies in its location as a buffer zone between two cities. Compared to the situation of limited resources and fierce competition for land in the city center of Shenzhen, this community has more space for investment in spiritual development. This is also true on a global scale, like the metropolitan areas of New York, Manhattan, Chelsea, and Beijing, where many art museum clusters are located in suburban areas because these places are more conducive to artists, without the pressure of being too goal-oriented. There is more time for art and the overall community atmosphere to slowly grow, ferment, and produce more long-term effects."
