View this post on Instagram
In nature, clams serve an essential function despite their plain appearance. While feeding, they filter pollutants through their bodies, improving water clarity by reducing sediment loads, turbidity, and excess nutrients. Clams, an interdisciplinary project by artist Marco Barotti, focuses on this indispensable role through a unique multisensory experience.
Originally created in 2019, Clams is a collection of kinetic sound sculptures resembling their eponymous creature. Each sculpture is constructed from recycled plastic, contains a speaker, and is placed upon a body of water. What distinguishes these clams from static sculptures is their capacity to transform data into sound and movement.
Nearby industry-standard sensors translate detected water quality into a dynamic soundscape full of microtonal shifts. As the water quality fluctuates, the sounds the clams produce do as well. The music emitted by the clams is generated through real-time water readings and also result in subtle, life-like opening and closing gestures from the sculptures.
This variability directly corresponds to the surrounding environment, and recalls the clam’s natural ability to purify pollutants in its ecosystem. It also creates an intimate link between the sculptures and the water upon which they float.
“Clams invites the audience to draw connections between media art, data sonification, and environmental sustainability,” Barotti writes about the project.
In addition to Clams, Barotti has created other kinetic artworks. Moss (2021), for example, analyzes air quality data from cities and reinterprets it into breathing patterns and evolving soundscapes. Fungi (2024), on the other hand, explores underground networks of fungi and accompanies the installation with a polyphonic soundscape.
Barotti describes his work as “tech ecosystem[s]” that “play with resemblances to animals and plants.” Whether depicting clams or moss, coral or fungi, it’s clear that Barotti’s work beautifully unites art, science, and technology.
To learn more about the artist, visit Marco Barotti’s website and follow him on Instagram.
Clams by Marco Barotti unites art, science, and technology by reinterpreting the clam’s natural function as a water purifier.
The kinetic sculptures convert real-time water quality data into sound and movement, creating dynamic and haunting soundscapes.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Clams invites audiences to draw connections between environmental sustainability, media art, and data sonification.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Marco Barotti: Website | Instagram
Related Articles:
Loon Sculpture Brings an Uplifting Message About Nature and Purpose to the Twin Cities
Artist Captures the Ripples of Change With Stainless Steel “Splash” Sculpture
