Resonant Bodies

Sound artist and composer Caroline Devine creates unique site-specific installations that provide playful and unexpected encounters with sound and music.

Commissioned by VARI (V&A Research Institute), ‘Resonant Bodies’, brings a new dimension to a display of musical instruments in the V&A’s South Asia Gallery. Inspired by the sounds of the exhibited instruments, Devine’s composition uses resonators that cause the surface of the glass case to vibrate.

The composition includes a unique recording of the bin-sitar on display in the gallery, played by Ustad Bahauddin Dagar in 2015 and other recordings from the Musical Wonders of India project, folk music and field recordings from the Asian Music Circuit and British Library and other Indian field recordings from Rolf Killius.

Devine will join a talk by former VARI Visiting Professor, Eric de Visscher, on ‘Ways of Hearing: Sonic Places and Objects’ on 18 September (11.00-12.00, Hochhauser Auditorium, V&A). Previously Director of the Musée de la Musique, Paris, de Visscher will talk about his research into sound in the museum, while Devine will discuss ‘Resonant Bodies’. Book your free place here: https://bit.ly/2oIkArs

Created in partnership with Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust and generously funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.