Faculty of Art

Sculpture/Installation

Jason Mendiola

Monotony, they are Moments of Elation

Monotony, they are Moments of Elation explores the interplay of motion, sound, and space through a modular installation of two autonomously moving fabric walls. Suspended from metal frames and controlled by microcontrollers, motors, and limit switches, each structure moves at randomized speeds, generating low-frequency drones through microphones, speakers and feedback loops. The work was inspired by a dream where walls moved past me in slow repetition, as well as by the quiet, often unnoticed sounds structures make when they move, bend or resettles in space.This project was developed during an exchange semester at HfG Karlsruhe and is informed by three key courses: Sound (Art and Technology) and Introduction to Sound Technology with Lorenz Schwarz, and Modular Room Installations with Doris Dziersk. Reich’s Pendulum Music and its exploration of feedback as compositional form played a crucial role in shaping my understanding of sound as material. Equally influential was the hands-on study of Wolfsburg walls, where shadow, light, and structure choreographed spatial experience.With a background in architectural technology and a current major in Sculpture and Installation at OCAD University, I approach sculpture as an adaptive, responsive system. I am particularly drawn to aural architecture—the way sound informs spatial perception—and how malfunction, irregularity, and lightness can create emotional charge.In this work, I sought to create not just a visual experience, but an acoustic atmosphere. The mechanical repetition becomes a sonic rhythm; the moving walls breathe into the space. The viewer’s attention shifts from the object to their place within the architecture it creates. This installation is a sketch toward a larger vision: a spatial composition where structure and sound become sites of listening, rhythm, and reflective presence.