A stone is a stone is a stone explores the broad spectrum of sonic and visual manifestations of magnetism in the natural mineral magnetite (Fe3O4). Magnetite is a strongly ferromagnetic rock and, as one of the most common natural magnets in applied technology, is omnipresent in our daily lives. Inquiries into magnetism date back centuries and span both the history of science and spiritual movements. At the heart of all these questions lies a paradox that seems unsolvable: magnetism causes movement without touch, becomes visible in its effect but remains elusive itself.
The starting point of a stone is a stone is a stone is magnetite as a carrier of information in audio tape. Sound on tape is physical material; we can hold it and distort it – sound is subject to the laws of physics and capable of decay. Working with tape reveals something about the nature of our world: capriciousness, vulnerability and aesthetics. At the same time, it raises a new question: how can something that is intangible be capable of holding information?
A stone is a stone is a stone explores magnetite as a medium, object and symbol and seeks out the connections between art, science and applied technology. The project moves along geologists, historical experiments, a magnetite quarry and artistic working methods, centered around the key question: how can we be complicit to magnetite?
Within the scope of of the research project, two distinct elements have emerged: the development of magnetic tape paint that can hold and playback sound, and the building process of a sonic brush, that enables playback of tape paint signals in a non-linear field.
Firstly, there must needs flow out from this stone
a multitude of atoms, like a stream
that strikes and cleaves asunder all the air
that lies beneath the iron and the stone.
Now when this space is emptied, and a large
tract in the middle is left void, at once
the atoms of the iron gliding forward
fall in a mass into the vacuum.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura