Inspired by the musical heritage of the city and its recent climatic history, the installation CHIME is designed to specifically live and interact with the New Orleans population. It develops one of the oldest instruments, the wind chime. The original wind chimes were man-made instruments that nature would play. The contemporary CHIME posits a different structure in that man composes nature to play the device.

CHIME is an inhabitable instrument comprised of glass pendants that float above the participant’s head like a grand chandelier. The visitor organizes the flow of energy by arranging the direction, speed, and oscillation of peripheral fans. The composition of the air stream and therefore the chime of the hanging pendants must be created by those interacting with the instrument.

CHIME interacts with various dichotomies, including that of nature and humanity. For example, air currents on a global scale are both productive and destructive. Mankind behaves similarly. While the installation creates resonance and vibration to stimulate our aural and tactile senses, the participant must also alter and/or destroy the initial arrangement of the instrument in order to create a musical composition. Relevant to the post-Katrina population, the project concerns the conflict of man versus nature and the question whether man is independent from nature or not. If the two entities are distinct, does either one control the other? What should be cherished and protected and what can be left vulnerable?