​In Concert With Glass

'The Sorrows Release Installation', a glass and sound collaboration, offered a broad audience an immersive, sensory experience of community sorrows. Through engineering and the use of new technologies, the installation performed and inhabited its space, reacted to live audience events, and offered ever-changing, personal art experiences to spur dialogue about isolation, connection, and human emotion in this wired and Wi-Fi age. The installation expressed the release of community sorrows as the simile 'sorrows are like secrets...they are whispered'. It was comprised of 500+ glass pieces developed from Lisa's unique modified pâte de vérre technique and coupled with dynamic audio created from her whispered voice. Inherent to the work were two approaches to the simile/concept that merged and supported one another to fulfill one vision: Lisa 'painted' the space with glass (using the floors, walls, and air space), while David 'sculpted' the space with sound. Tying the two together was sound and electrical engineering made possible by a team of engineers keen to bring their expertise to the arts. A wide array of camouflaged micro-speakers created a soundscape that changed with live audience events. The first edition of the project was installed and exhibited May-June, 2015 in Evolution House lobby at Edinburgh College of Art. The Sorrows work is a Glass Whispers Project, which was supported by the Ingenious Grant, awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2015.