In Thin Air is a series of works on background noise, about the fluid and gradual articulation between figure (sign, message) and ground (white noise, unperceived stimulus).


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In Thin Air (Santa Caterina)
sound installation, 2009

“A now-famous anecdote tells of Cage visiting NASA’s soundproof room at Harvard University. Expecting absolute silence, he instead heard two sounds: one high and one low. The first, he was told, was his nervous system, the second his circulatory system. Even silence could not be silent.”





The organ of the small church of Santa Caterina, in Banna, was used as a machine instead of an instrument for sacred music. Since the organ was electrically driven, I used masking tape to block its lowest and highest keys so that they would constantly produce sound.

The result was a continuous background sound inside the church, at first hardly ascribable to the organ. The sound was composed of a low rumble and a high-pitched hiss, representing the two acoustic limits of the organ—the closest to the limits of human hearing.


Exhibited at Fondazione Spinola Banna per l'Arte, Banna, Italy (2009).












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In Thin Air (Duo)
two-channel sound installation, 2011

Installation view, Galleria A+A, Venezia

The installation comprises the recording of the lowest-pitched sound emitted by the lowest-pitched wind instruments of the classical orchestra: the contrabassoon and the contrabass tuba. Such sounds represent the limits of the orchestra, the closest to the lower limit of human hearing.

The installation comprises two sound sources reproducing low-pitched, dull, and continuous sounds, not immediately noticeable. They resemble background noises produced in everyday life environments: engines, fridges, heating, and ventilation systems.

The sound's volume presents variable intensity in a sinusoidal trend, ranging from hardly perceivable to very loud. This range (from maximum to minimum to maximum again) takes 12 minutes to be completed and repeats itself in a loop. The perception of the space differs depending on the moment of the sound range when the visitor enters the space.

The work is both readable and non-readable, depending on the moment it is experienced. The distinction is gradual: the sound continuously covers the intensity range and oscillates between its two statuses: figure and ground.

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In Thin Air (Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation)
sound installation, 2011





The sound installation is composed of background noises recorded in the empty exhibition space of the Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation (“Resistance and Deportation History Centre”) in Lyon, housed in the very building previously used as the headquarters of the Gestapo Nazi police during the German occupation.

The sounds are reproduced with variable intensity in a sinusoidal trend, ranging from hardly perceivable to very loud. This range (from maximum to minimum to maximum again) takes 12 minutes to be completed and repeats itself in a loop. In this way, the perception of the space is different, depending on the point of the sound range when the viewer enters the exhibition space.

The installation was presented in Lyon at Les Subsistances, as part of the Résonance program of the 2011 Lyon Biennial.