We’re not big fans of contemporary art, but there was one contemporary exhibit at the Ringling Art Museum that we really enjoyed. It was by an artist named Zimoun.

You won’t be able to get the full experience from my blog because the exhibit was as much sound as it was visual, as evidenced by the title to the exhibit.

Zimoun has taken a bunch of little electric motors and attached wires to the armatures so that they spin at extremely high speeds, making noise by either hitting cardboard boxes, tapping the wall, or just spinning in air.

The exhibit above made a continual tap, tap, tapping sound that was so fast it sounded like a buzz.

The exhibit below was similar, but had a lower timbre, partly because there were ping pong balls attached to the wires, giving the boxes a bass drum sound.

The docent told us that Zimoun “tunes” each motor and box to give off a particular sound. And I can vouch for that because I tapped one of the boxes and it was like a drum – more bass towards the center and more treble at the edge.

Dale didn’t know what to make of it all at first, but after a while, it kind of grows on you.

This one made a sort of humming noise.

Pretty cool.