Concept

White Man’s Magic has to a large extent turned out how we planned it; a sculpture, a fountain and a musical instrument.

WMM consists of two specially designed stainless-steel pans, each of which has five distinct tones. WMM thus has a total of 10 different tones, all of them lying in the bass register.

The two steel pans are mounted against each other to form a ring.

Ten valve shafts each contain their own computer-controlled water valve. Inside the conduit system underneath St. Olav’s Hospital, the HMM has a machine room containing the computer, a pump and a water-reservoir.

WMM plays music by “shooting” water against the tonal fields, producing rhythmic and melodic patterns. Hence WMM is actually an acoustic instrument, where the water is the performer. The action of the water against the finely tuned steel produces a unique, intriguing sound, definitely best experienced “live”. The middle register is dominated by the percussive sound of water against steel, overtones in the pans and splashes on the ground, but the primary notes ring from the bass register like a constant undercurrent. The clarity of the tones produced then depends on the length and pressure of the jet of water.

With this richly layered sound, simple, minimalist compositions are played regularly on WMM. The short musical pieces are organised into different repertoires; rhythmic, humorous sequences during the daytime, and serene, lyrical melodies in the evening. Within this framework, the computer chooses at random which sequence to play when.

Like most fountains, WMM will hibernate during the winter.

The sculpture has built-in lighting and will be softly illuminated during winter and when it is sufficiently dark in the evenings the rest of the year.

Our aim with WMM has been to develop an expression which is at once playful, ambient and humorous.

We have drawn inspiration from the ingenuity of the people on the Caribbean island of Trinidad who turned an old oil barrel into a new musical instrument, and from the possibilities that arise from controlling physical events digitally.

WMM was supposed to be a bit like a playfully chaotic chime of bells. The pitched tones would ring together with the unorganised splishes and splashes of the water, and the way these sounds would be put together would depend on wind and weather.

Could the steel pans be so sensitive that they resound merely from the touch of rain?

The form of the sculpture has several allusions; a retired satellite on a stick? A shaman’s rattle? A gigantic tool? And it surprises you when it starts playing;

; the somewhat rigid shape will waver under the cascades of running and splashing water, and WMM becomes at once an unpredictable, ‘living organism’.

Musically speaking, the idea was to produce lyrical, atmospheric music, far from the standard calypso-style commonly associated with steel pans; music which could evoke not only beautiful moods, but cheerful ones as well. Perhaps WMM could help people at the hospital…if not to fully recover, then at least to pick them up and make them a little happier, a little better.

The development of WMM has been a bit like modern medicine; a physical foundation, some technology, lots of unknown factors and a healthy dose of optimistic prognoses.

What it became

What we intended