(soil synthesizer)
Soil, wood, electrical wiring, transformer, custom circuits, speakers
120″ × 140″ × 96″ (variable)

Video courtesy of EMSARTS (2023)

I and World Practice transforms soil into a living instrument. Electrical probes read the changing conductivity of earth—altered by moisture, minerals, and human touch—and convert those fluctuations into sound. Each interaction generates distinct sonic events that shift in real time, creating a system where my body becomes part of the circuitry, binding organic matter and electronic signal into a shared interface.

In parallel, a drawing machine operates in the background. While the soil responds to touch and change, the machine traces a continuous orbit on the wall, marking repetition and return. Together, these systems unfold as a field of attunement rather than control—where material, signal, and perception remain in constant negotiation.

Circle (drawing machine)
Aluminum frame, graphite, electric motor, custom light-trigger circuit, contact microphone, speaker, electrical wiring, programmed control system (G-code)
95 × 106 in

A graphite drawing machine traces a continuous orbit on the wall. Its motion is guided by G-code: a sequence of coordinates and curves that describe the circle as calculated positions rather than a symbolic form. This coded geometry is rendered as a lived, material event—each pass depositing graphite, erosion, and shadow.

Each time the graphite contacts the conductive strip above, a circuit is completed, illuminating a light bulb and transforming the mark into both trace and conductor. A contact microphone mounted on the motor amplifies the mechanical tones of the process, revealing subtle gradients of motion—from slow pulses to rapid, shimmering timbres. The machine translates numerical instruction into physical gesture, where signal, material, and sound briefly align.

The circle references the Zen ensō: a gesture of wholeness that holds both imperfection and continuity. Through repetition and slight drift, the machine performs a balance between precision and surrender. What emerges is not a static image, but a temporal choreography—an unfolding relation between code, electricity, graphite, and time.

G-code sequence driving the drawing machine

Infinite circle; conceptual grounding for the circle-drawing machine

Reality is an infinite flow—like the ocean, its waves suggest eternity—where everything is interconnected.

The infinitesimal sits inside this flow as the unseen foundation of reality: immediate yet elusive. We sense it by existing within it, but when we try to grasps it, it disappears. It is real yet we can only describe as an “ideal.”

Something like circle is infinite by definition—if it’s not infinite then it is not a circle. Colors and shapes—are fleeting approximations of an infinite flow.

Red is a color, but non-red is also colors. Color red must be a place, “within” a place of non-red. Being and non-being of red must be a single action rather than a thing. In order for conceptual knowledge to ground itself through itself, there must be a place.

Which means our thought distinct colors and shapes like circle. They are invisible, an ideal things only. What is real is the continuous idea.