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Gabey Tjon a Tham is an installation artist based in The Hague whose work investigates how complex systems, in both natural and digital realms, are increasingly interconnected. Her audiovisual installations bridge virtual and analogue realities, merging insights from natural sciences and computer science. By uncovering links between the natural and artificial, her work questions the essence of nature in an anthropocentric world where it’s understood and shaped by human perception. Her work, ‘Red Horizon’, is currently at Nxt Museum. We sat down in an interview with Gabey about her creative practice and her vision for ‘Red Horizon’.

‘Red Horizon’ at Nxt Museum

Nxt: What is ‘Red Horizon’?

GABEY: ‘Red Horizon’ is a kinetic light and sound installation. It consists of 15 double pendulums that create a swarm of light, movement and sound. And they create choreographies that can be interpreted as mechanical, as well as natural. The viewer, after watching the installation for a while, might perceive these after-images. The light draws images in the viewer’s retina, leaving behind traces of pink, purple, green… Each person sees something different, but that’s how I experience it. 

Nxt: In ‘Red Horizon’, we hear a rustling and the humming of the mechanical arms. Can you describe what these sounds mean to you and why you made this decision?  

GABEY: The audio that you hear in ‘Red Horizon’, comes from the sound produced by the movement of the mechanical arms themselves. Still, each arm also has a small speaker incorporated into it. So there is not only a light in each arm, but also a very small speaker. The sounds that you hear from these speakers are ‘noise’ kind of sounds. They can be interpreted as natural, but also as mechanical. And what I like about this sound is that the viewers can question themselves: “What am I hearing? Am I hearing rain? Or a mechanical creature? And where is this place where I am right now?”

Nxt: How did you create these sounds to make them sound equally natural and mechanical?

GABEY: The sounds are recordings that I made from physical objects. Like, for example, from the rain, but also from the paper that I’m touching. I also chose these kinds of sounds because they are higher in frequency. When you rotate these kinds of sounds, they also reflect better in the space than when you would choose lower bass sounds. 

Mechanical Natures

Nxt: Red Horizon explores collective swarm behaviour. What type of natural behaviours did you study for this?

GABEY: My goal for this work was not necessarily to mimic nature, but this work was also initially inspired by ideas from cybernetics – a science that studies the control and communication systems in machines and living beings. I was particularly interested in the feedback systems aspect. I wanted to find ways to make this visible both physically and digitally. 

What you see in ‘Red Horizon’ is like the first arm of the pendulum. It’s controlled by a motor. And the second arm that hangs on this first arm behaves unpredictably. So it also feeds back into the system of the first arm. The feedback system, then, functions both physically and digitally.

Nxt: What can technology add to our understanding of natural behaviours and patterns? 

GABEY: I’m interested in what technology can teach us about ourselves as human beings and our relationship with our surroundings and the world we live in. And I’m interested in exploring the nature of technology and what this nature can be. In the time that we live in, definitions of what nature can be are very blurred, because we live in a world where the artificial and the natural are in constant feedback with each other.

And I’m interested in this question: how natural is nature actually?

Nxt: So, how natural is nature? 

GABEY: Our image of nature is very much shaped by our culture. When we look at brands, most of the time we see a logo of an animal or a tree. We also have a very romanticised idea of what nature is, and what we get to see less from nature is this more wild, chaotic, and brutal aspect of it. So nature is not only harmonic.

Digital Ecosystems

Your work at Nxt is currently in the same room as Lumus Instruments’ POLYNODE. Are the two in dialogue, and what do they say to each other?

GABEY: ‘Red Horizon’ is sharing the space together with Lumus Instruments’ work called ‘POLYNODE XI’. These two works alternate in the experience, rather than being on simultaneously. But there are two moments in this experience where they do overlap. For example, when ‘POLYNODE XI’  is ending its sequence, ‘Red Horizon’ slowly wakes up. When ‘Red Horizon’ is fading out, it kind of fades out in a wave, and ‘POLYNODE XI’ fades in.

 ‘Red Horizon’ emphasises the verticality of the space, allowing it to show its true height. ‘POLYNODE XI’ emphasises the horizontal aspect of this exhibition space. I think in this way, they nicely complement each other and also make space to coexist with one another.

Do you feel like having the two in the same space also adds to this vision of technology as a chaotic nature? Of having two things rather than one, making it more of an ecosystem?

GABEY: Yeah, I think I see having the two installations in one space. They are also forced to live and coexist together, even though they are different in nature.

So, I think that has been a very nice exploration as well. It helps highlight their contrasts while also finding the things that they have in common.

What do you want people to feel when they see your work?

GABEY: I want the audience to feel how they would feel in a physical, virtual reality when they experience ‘Red Horizon’.

 

Gabey is one of the two speakers at Nxt Museum’s Artist Talk on July 10.

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