Kathy Hinde: Women Make Music
Commissioned by Cryptic for its 20th anniversary, Tipping Point is a unique ensemble of sculptural musical instruments that form an audio-visual installation that becomes the basis for live performance. The instruments are created from glass vessels and work with changing water levels to effect feedback tones. Glass tubes of water oscillate in wave formations to generate sounds activated by water contacting sensor points, controlled rainfalls cause random puddles and a tilting water-drum behaves like a glacier creating bodies of water with shifting depths.
All the instruments are connected, each one developing a cause and effect relationship with the ensemble as a whole. The water in each instrument constantly moves and changes, resulting in a complex inter-dependent sound-scape.
The title of the piece, ‘Tipping Point’, relates to the idea that if one instrument moves too far beyond its balancing point, a chain reaction disturbs the balance of the overall ensemble. The fragile quality of the installation enhances the feeling that care needs to be taken to balance the flow of water through and within the glass instruments.