Rocking Pipe organ
zixi li
Central Saint Martins UAL
Using the church organ as a historical reference, Rocking Pipe Organ investigates how unity is produced through the coordination of bodies. Three interconnected bellow chairs require participants to work together in order to generate harmony, transforming sound into a visible expression of collective labour. Yet synchronisation is difficult to maintain. Misalignment, fatigue, and bodily difference continually interrupt the process, producing dissonance instead of harmony. By making effort audible and visible, the installation reveals the unstable conditions that sustain collective systems. Harmony emerges only temporarily, exposing unity not as a natural condition, but as a fragile and contingent achievement.