Traversed Mercator

Encapsulated within a Cartesian prism of Cherry, a single length of carved Sapele details the elevation profile of 72 linear miles linking my family farm near Latham, OH and former residence in Cincinnati, OH. The profile is also translated into a series of principle notes and overtones by assigning sea level to middle C upon a grand staff.

Traversed Mercator is both a delineation and compression of the geographical, chronological, and biographical distance between present and past, youth and adulthood. In a reversal of the Petrosyllabic Resonator’s conversion of sound into landscape, Mercator scores two octaves of southern Ohio’s Appalachian relief in the key of C. The resulting tonal topography is represented by aluminum chimes, each cut to voice an elevation along the transverse in equidistant intervals.

Dimensions: 32” x 32” x 14”

Materials: spoken recollections on vinyl record, maple, mahogany, walnut, aluminum rods and feet, neodymium magnets (8 rings, 16 bars embedded in chamfered bezel), sand, 250W amp,
4 tactile transducers

Special thanks to Lee Hite for lending his technical expertise.