kouichi okamoto’s rain installation expresses gravity, magnetic forces, and sound

kouichi okamoto’s rain installation expresses gravity, magnetic forces, and sound
(above) the umbrellas and speakers are set in a grid way
all images courtesy of kiouei design

japanese designer kouichi okamoto, and founder of kiouei design, has created a sound installation that expresses non-visible features such as gravity, magnetic forces, and sound, as physical elements. to create the his ‘ra rain’ installation, okamoto first sampled the sound of rain that fell during the early spring of 2016 in japan, specifically, the raindrops hitting an umbrella.

video courtesy of kyouei design

in the installation, 15 umbrellas are placed in a grid-like arrangement, three by five. each umbrella is set on top of a speaker, allowing for the vibration generated by the previously recorded rain sound to travel through the object, and to be reproduced by it. for example, an umbrella cannot vibrate if the magnetic force of the speaker is small or if the rain hitting the umbrella is either too high or too low in pitch extent. for this reason, this is a device picking up a state in which the magnetic force of the speaker, weight of the umbrella, and pitch extent of the sound, are all in balanced state. this natural phenomena, such as the way rain travels through and object and is emitted as sound to the air is what the designer wanted to portray inside a close space.

each umbrella is placed on top of the speaker, allowing the sound to travel through it

the installation materializes elements like gravity, magnetic forces, and sound

project specifications:

year: 2016

materials: umbrella, speakers, sinker, wire, digital amplifier, mp3 player, electric cord, chromel plating