by Amee Thompson, Outpost Staff
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In this package: Environmentalists and ranchers talk
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Zentz, an artist and rancher, uses wind and other natural elements in his sculptures to create sound. One of Zentz's sculptures is on display now in the Church Fine Arts building at the University of Nevada, Reno. The sculpture detects the velocity, direction and strength of the wind through sensors. These sensors then send impulses to the sculpture which plays a drum and rings bells and chimes.
"I am fully compelled by the environment," Zentz said. "I find the beauty, subtilty and richness of it absorbing."
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Zentz opened this exhibit at the North American Interdiciplinary Conference on the Environment at UNR in late Feburary.
Zentz does not only use wind and drums. He also uses automobile and pedestrian traffic and elevators to play stings, washboards and pipes. He has a group of sculptures entitled "Flow" that follow a commercial airliner from Seattle to Washington, D.C. His sculptures on the ground make sounds out of their environment that can be recorded and played to the passengers on the airplane so they can hear what is happening below them.
In Seattle the "Wave/Traffic Translator" uses wave action and freeway traffic at the intersection of Interstate 90 and Lake Washington to play eight organ-like pipes arranged in a row. In Montana "Fence" uses the wind to have instruments that either pluck, strike or bow the wires of a fence. In Chicago the "Chicago Piece" translates the movements of elevators in three different high rise buildings into a washboard like sound. In Washington, D.C. "Crank" beats a series of drums to the sound of pedestrian traffic around a city block.
"Nature defines who we are," Zentz said. "Over the past 25 years I have been trying to answer questions that I had and hopefully get a better apprehension of what nature is."
Zentz is currently working on producing a web site with a program that will enable people to download the sounds of his different sculptures. His piece will be displayed at UNR until March 12. Zentz opened this exhibit at the North American Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment.
copyright 03/05/98 Nevada Outpost