interactive installation, bamboo wood, grains, 300x20x6cm

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The project focuses on the history, sonic qualities and possible roles of a rainstick – an idiophone instrument, which stories of origin remain a subject of debate. There are several theories suggesting that it was used and crafted simultaneously by indiginous peoples of South and Central America, along with Southeast Asia, Australia and Western Africa. Its possibly communal nature seems parallel to the lack of ownership of the phenomenon it sonically describes. The rainstick could serve as an anti-monument of rain, coming to life in hands of a player. Organic, biodegradable and shared by a community.

The aim of the project was to build two rainsticks enlarged in a scale of 3:1, which then allow to create a situation of a continuous acoustic rain sound. The experience itself carries the potential for evoking the feeling of oneness with Earth, deepening the connection with the other-than-human.