17 Degrees

A wineglass is filled with water, which is left to evaporate for 50 days at an average room temperature of 17 degrees Celsius. Every 24 hours, a performer dips their index finger into the water contained within the glass and runs it around the rim, causing the glass to ring. The sound thus created is recorded onto a computer. As the water disappears – almost imperceptibly – day by day, the differences in tone enable us to hear it vanishing: every day, the glass sounds a fraction higher and clearer. In microtonal steps, the water in the glass begins to pervade everyday life and existential structures.

At the end of the 50 days, extracts chosen from the recorded material extracted in this way are assembled on the computer into a polyphonic composition. There is a formal structure to the process, which means that the recordings are not kept in chronological order. Each sound appears in its actual, raw form. They are not processed and no additional effects are used.