“Ground Me” Sonic Art MA installation

Just attended the first of the MA students installations. Javier Jaimovich’s “Ground Me” takes place in the Sonic Lab. As you enter you are confronted with a series of metal pipes and chairs hanging from the ceiling. When you touch one of the pipes at the same time as either the labs metal grid floor, or one of the hanging chairs, you effectively ‘ground’ the signal, and a loud electric shock sound is played. This proves to be remarkably effective, and the first few times you make contact, it feels like you’re actually receiving a small electric shock, even though the voltage used is so low there’s no chance of being able to feel this (except perhaps by grounding with your tongue, which was observed a few times). Other interesting ways of playing the installation involved holding hands between people to provide a longer chain to reach the tubes suspended higher up.